| The history of blackjack is not precisely known. But the first noted recording of this game was as “vingut-et-un” which means “twenty-and-one”. This was in the 17th century. Blackjack is a popular traditional game in Russia and is called “21” or “Ochko” which means “the hole”. It is a popular folk game in Russia. Other noted names of Blackjack are “pontoons” in Australia and “California Aces”. The name blackjack originated from the French game that paid 10 to 1 if the player got a jack of spades and ace of spades, both were black cards and therefore the name “Blackjack” |
| In around 1950’s books were published with mathematical calculation of winning the game even with the house. It took quite some money and effort for the search for blackjack holy grail. In 1956, Roger Baldwin and associates published “Basic Strategy” for blackjack in Journal of American Statistical Association. This inspired the scientific community and Prof. Edward Thorp reworked the strategies and gave birth to modern card counting techniques and published in ”Beat the Dealer” in 1962. This made the game all more famous and casinos made a bundle from the game’s newly gained popularity. But, the casinos were upset with the people being able to beat the house. They tried to change the rules of the blackjack to complicate the win but people protested by not playing the new rule version. The casinos were forced to revert back. But, the casinos did become successful in bringing changes like multiple decks, shuffling machines and frequent and early shuffling plus other changes. Today this blackjack is played round the globe. |
| The game starts with the player making a bet. Each of the players gets two cards and the dealer also gets two. In online casinos, sometimes the dealer gets only one card and thus giving the paler better odds. |
| The dealer’s one card is facing up and the other is facing down. The card which the dealer deals is the card that is facing up. All face cards count 10 and an ace counts as 1 or 11 as decided by the player. |
| Blackjack is achieved when the player’s first two cards are an ace and a face card. If the dealer also has a natural blackjack, then the situation becomes a push. Under this condition, the player receives his initial bet and a new game begins. A player gets 3 to 2 if he wins a blackjack. A player also wins if he has 21. |
| Two terms used in the game are ‘hit’ and ‘stand’. ‘Hit’ means to draw another card and ‘stand’ means that the player does not want to take additional cards. If the player draws a card and goes above 21(hits and busts), the he immediately turns his cards over and his wager is lost. The player can opt to double his bet on his first two cards and draws an additional card. But when he doubles down, he increases the risk as he automatically is doubling his initial bet. |
| Another option is to split cards. If the first two cards are pair, then the player may opt to split it into two separate hands and bet the same amount on each and play then separately. |
| The player has the option of taking insurance if the dealer’s first card is an ace. Here the player can bet on an amount that does not exceed one half of his bet. If the dealer has a natural blackjack, the player wins 2 to 1 and gets his money back. Any other card, then the dealer wins. |
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