The Origin Of Blackjack
The game of Blackjack was introduced to the United States in the
19th century but the origin of the game is still much in
dispute. Blackjack can be traced back to several European card
games including the French 'Vingt-Un' (21), 'Trente et
Quarente', and 'Chemin de Fer' (Railroad), as well as the
Spanish 'One and Thirty', Italian 'Baccara' and 'Seven and a
half' which all have similarities to modern Blackjack.
When gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1934, Blackjack
screamed into popularity and was most commonly played with one
or two decks of cards. Roger Baldwin published a paper in 1956
which explained hot to reduce the house advantage based on
probability and statistics which was quite confusing for those
who were not mathematicians.
In 1962, Dr. Edward O. Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to refine
the mathematical strategy in Baldwin's paper and also developed
the first card counting techniques. Dr. Thorp wrote a book
called "Beat the Dealer" which outlined card counting techniques
and the strategies for reducing the house advantage.
This spawned a huge increase in Blackjack players at the US
casinos who were trying to implement Dr. Thorp's strategies,
much to the consternation of the casinos. The system was
difficult to understand and hard to implement and thusly
increased the profits for the casinos as more and more people
took to playing Blackjack.
Blackjack is the most popular table card game in the United
States today which was transformed from the one table game that
used to be stuck in the corner of most casinos. The term
Blackjack comes from the 'natural hand winner' of the earlier
versions of the game when a player was dealt the Jack and Ace of
Spades in his initial two card hand. The player was declared an
automatic winner and was paid a bonus. In today's version of
Blackjack, any ace combined with any ten point value card-10,
jack, queen and king, counts as a natural Blackjack, except
after a split.
Blackjack is a widely popular game around the world and has only
seen an increase in players as the years progress. What once was
a game that was not popular and seemingly too difficult to play
with 'strategies' and 'counting cards' it is now the most
popular card game to play at a casino in most of the world.