Natural

About Natural

Overview

A natural is a term in several gambling games; in each case it refers to one or two specific good outcomes, usually for the player, and often involves achieving a particular score in the shortest and fastest manner possible. Examples In blackjack, the best possible hand for the player is to reach a score of 21 with exactly two cards, which necessarily involves an Ace and a ten-valued card (a 10, jack, queen, or king). This hand, which usually defeats any other hand of 21 and carries a higher payout of winnings, is referred to as a "blackjack", or a "natural". Traditionally, a natural in blackjack pays 3:2. In recent years, however, some casinos have used the payout ratio of 6:5 for a greater house edge. In craps, a natural is a roll of two dice with a score of 7 or 11 on the come out roll. This will lead to a win for the players who wagered money on the Pass or Come bet, but a loss for players betting Don't Pass, or Don't Come. In baccarat, a natural is a two-card hand totaling 8 or 9, for either the player or the banker. Natural 9 beats natural 8.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“We are really no longer ourselves a piece of nature at the moment when we notice, when we recognize, that we are a piece of nature.”
— Theodor Adorno, Probleme der Moralphilosophie (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1996), p. 154; as quoted in Andrew Bowie, Adorno and the Ends of Philosophy (Cambridge: Polity, 2013), p. 94
“To think with fear of the end of one's life is pretty general with human beings.  It is one of the means nature uses to conserve the life of the species.  Approached rationally that fear is the most unjustified of all fears, for there is no risk of any accidents to one who is dead or not yet born.  In short, the fear is stupid but it cannot be helped.”
— Albert Einstein, Letter to Eileen Danniheisser (1953), quoted in Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel by Banesh Hoffman (1973), p. 261.  The exact date, or the name of his correspondent, is not given in the snippet of the book available online, but the quote appears after the letter to the Queen of Belgium from 12 January 1953, and is prefaced by "Nine months later, in words that recall the beliefs of an early atomic speculator, the Roman poet Lucretius, Einstein had written to an inquirer", followed by the quote.  The name "Eileen Danniheisser" is given in Time: Volume 144, where it is mentioned in the snippets here and here that she had written Einstein "about her obsessive thoughts of death as a child".
“A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of certain durability. "One generation passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever."”
— Abraham Lincoln, Message to Congress (1 December 1862)
“A man's natural rights are his own, against the whole world; and any infringement of them is equally a crime, whether committed by one man, or by millions; whether committed by one man, calling himself a robber, (or by any other name indicating his true character,) or by millions, calling themselves a government.”
— Lysander Spooner, No Treason No. I (1867), page 7
“Out of the book of Nature's learned breast.”
— Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, Divine Weekes and Workes, Second Week (1584), Fourth Day, Book II, line 566.
“God is infinite; and the laws of nature, like nature itself, are finite. These methods of working, therefore, — which correspond to the physical element in us, — do not exhaust His agency. There is a boundless residue of disengaged energy beyond.”
— James Martineau, p. 431.

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.