Take a closer look at the game of blackjack as well as its history over the years. It’s all here, from the game’s early pioneers to the strategic intricacies.
The earliest version of Blackjack, Trente-un, was a Spanish game with the following elements deck of cards, player vs. dealer, and winner determined by numerical value of cards (31). Rinconete and Cortadillo, one of Miguel de Cervantes’ twelve Exemplary Novels, was published in 1613 and is best known for Don Quixote. Trente-un, a gambling game, is mentioned in written works dating back to 1440. (though there are several unrelated games by this name).
During the 17th century in England, a form of this game was known as Bone Ace. An ace can count as one or eleven in Cervantes’ novel and in Charles Cotton’s description of Bone Ace in The Complete Gamester (1674). Quinze (15), a French forerunner to Blackjack, first appeared in the 16th century and remained popular in French casinos until the 19th century. Sette e Mezzo (7 & 1/2), an Italian card game, was first played in the 17th century. A 40-card deck was used in Sette Mezzo (removing eights, nines, and tens). The remaining cards were numbered according to their numerical worth, with face cards accounting for one-half of the total.
In 1780, the Spa Casino in Belgium hosted a game called Trente-et-quarante (30 & 40). Unlike most of these previous games, Trente-et-Quante was house banked, which meant the casino played against the players, taking or paying off bets. This was also the first version of the game to include an insurance bet.
In the middle of the 18th century, the French game Vingt-un (or Vingt-et-un ’21’) combined the rules of contemporary Blackjack. Madame Du Barry and Napoleon Bonaparte were among the supporters of the game in France during the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Casinos in nineteenth-century America later adopted two regulations that made the game more favourable to players: allowing players to view one of the dealer’s cards and requiring the dealer to hit hands of 16 or less and stand on hands of 17 or more. Due to a promotion (briefly tried and later abandoned) that offered a bonus if the player hit 21 with the ace of spades and a black jack in the early twentieth century, the game became known as Blackjack (jack of clubs or spades).
Blackjack became the most popular table game in casinos as a result of popular academic research by Dr. Thorp and subsequent players and analysts. Although the invention of fundamental strategy benefits casinos, they have traditionally opposed the practise. Despite the fact that counting cards is not a form of cheating, casinos in most countries have the authority to refuse service to anyone for any reason. Individual casinos may additionally change the following Blackjack regulations (which may vary from table to table): number of decks, deck penetration, house hitting vs. standing on soft 17, limits on splitting and doubling, and whether or not surrender is offered.
The Big Player (1977) by Ken Uston and Bringing Down the House (2002) by Ben Mezrich chronicled the riches made (and sometimes lost) by teams of Blackjack card counters. Mezrich’s novel was adapted into the popular film 21.