J to L - Glossary of Terms

Joker. Some casinos, as a bonus to the players, have one or more jokers inserted into the deck, to be used by the players as any value card, as an instant 21, etc.

JP. 1. The acronym for John Patrick, author. 2. The acronym for Jerry Patterson, author.

Kelly betting. Betting a proportion of your bankroll equal to advantage divided by the variance of the possible outcomes. This style of betting is intended to minimize the risk faced by a bettor and most betting schemes recommended by serious advantage play experts are a modification of this style of betting.

Knock-Out Count. An unbalanced level one counting system which counts the 2 through 7 cards as plus one and the tens, face cards and aces as minus one. It was developed by Olaf Vancurra and Ken Fuchs and is featured in their book, Knock-Out Blackjack.

KO. See Knock-Out Count.

Labouchere. A betting progression, also known as the cancellation system. A bettor chooses a series of two or more numbers which add up to the profit he intends to make. He then bets the total of the two outside numbers in the series and cancels those numbers if he wins. He continues betting the two outside uncancelled numbers until he has completed the series. If he loses a bet, he adds the amount of his loss to his series as a single number. He must therefore cancel out two numbers for each number added. This system is a good way to lose money fast.

Las Vegas Strip. The portion of Las Vegas Boulevard which extends roughly from Sunset Road to Sahara Boulevard. It includes many of the best-known casinos in Las Vegas, such as Mirage, Caesars Palace, MGM Grand, New York New York, Circus Circus and Bellagio, to name a few.

Late surrender. A blackjack rule in which allows the player to forfeit half of his bet after seeing the dealer's upcard, unless the dealer has a blackjack, in which case, the player loses his entire bet.

Level. A reference to the number of values assigned to cards in a card counting system. A level one system, such as Hi-Lo, assigns one value, plus or minus one, to the cards. A level two system would assign two values, such as plus and minus one and two.

LOL. The acronym for "laughing out loud".

Low Stakes. There is no exact definition, but it is commonly accepted that playing using a normal maximum bet of at least $100 but less than $300 is playing for low stakes. See also: Stakes.

LS. The acronym for late surrender.

LT. The acronym for Lake Tahoe.

LV. The acronym for Las Vegas, the city.

LVA. The acronym for Las Vegas Advisor, Anthony Curtis's newsletter.