Blackjack History

What the Dictionary says: Blackjack - "A card game in which the object is to accumulate cards with a higher count than that of the dealer but not exceeding 21.

They say Blackjack originated in France around the 1700's and was originally called (vingt-et-un) or twenty one. The name blackjack as we know and love today did not arise until the card game twenty one came to America, where upon arrival it was a bit of a flop!. Due to blackjacks lack of popularity the casinos and card rooms of the time decided to offer incentives to encourage people to play. Some casinos gave odds of up to 10-1 if the player was dealt the Ace of spades and any black jack in their hand (either jack of clubs of jack of spades) Hence the term blackjack was created and the name has stuck ever since.

Blackjack is the worlds most popular card game and is also known as pontoon" or "California Aces". Many people throughout history have had a fascination with blackjack due to its simplicity of play and the way luck plays such a big part in its outcome. In the 1950's scientists and mathematicians started a never ending quest to beat the statistical mystery that surrounds blackjack. By breaking it down into its elements and formulating theories based on the outcome. The First ever breakthrough was by a man called Roger Baldwin who published a paper in the Journal of the American Statistical Association entitled "The Optimum Strategy in Blackjack" but had its flaw in the fact that the optimum strategy required a computer to calculate and implement its theory.

Thorpe Strategy

However In 1962 Professor Edward O. Thorp refined this strategy and developed the first card counting techniques that we all know and love today commonly known as blackjack basic strategy. He first published his results in a book that became so popular that in 1963 it was on the New York Times best-seller list for over a week aptly named "Beat the Dealer" - A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One ! which is still considered to be one of the holy grails of blackjack and is still available at amazon.com for less than 10 bucks.

Blackjack exploded with mass appeal after this where people who had previously given no thought to the game suddenly took an interest. The "famous" book about blackjack basic strategy and the new era of card counting scared the casinos rigid. The casinos collectively decided and changed the blackjack table rules to cope with the new surge of gamblers trying out new techniques. New rules were introduced such as Table limits and Preferential Shuffling, where the dealer re-shuffled the cards when the cards favored the players. Players were disgusted at this and boycotted the casinos in droves. The casinos quickly relented and reinstated the original blackjack rules, although some of the subtler changes remained such as Multiple decks being used per game.