BLACKJACK

Some players call the game blackjack and some call it twenty-one. No matter what you call it, the object of the game is to beat the Dealer.

If your cards total higher than the dealer's cards without going over 21 you win. If your hand goes over 21 you ‘Bust.’ If you bust you automatically lose. If the dealer busts and you do not, you win. The player must act first. If the player busts, he loses regardless if the dealer busts or not.

The suits of the cards have no affect on the game. Cards 2 - 10 are counted at face. All picture (King, Queen, Jack) cards have a value of ten. An ace can count as either one or eleven.

Blackjack is dealt on a special table that is shaped as a semi-circle. There is a betting circle or square for each player. When you sit down you must buy chips from the dealer or bring them from another table. The player puts his/her bet in the betting circle. After all bets are made the play begins.

THE HISTORY OF BLACKJACK

All card games have a unique history that rolls down the centuries, but unfortunately historians and researchers can not always discover the full trace of a game, such is the case with blackjack, which eludes scholars till today.

It is commonly agreed that the first roots of blackjack appeared during the 17th century in France, where a game called Vingt-et-Un was played in French casinos. The name Vingt-et-Un means "21" in French. 

After the French Revolution the game migrated to North America. There it gained much popularity since no laws prohibited card games during that time. In the beginning of the 19th century however, the U.S. government banned and outlawed gambling activities. It believed that gambling corrupted society and encouraged organized crime.

And so, with numerous laws against it and Federal Marshals on its tail, blackjack went underground. It became even more popular as government restrictions tightened around it during the 20's.  Eventually though, Nevada decided to legalize gambling in 1931 and Las Vegas was born. The game attracted more and more interest as the years passed, until science had decided to investigate it as well.

In 1953 the first attempt to study blackjack was made by Roger Baldwin and his associates, a great turn in the history of blackjack. They used statistical theory and calculating methods in order to reduce blackjack's house edge. In 1956 they published their findings in the American Statistical Association under the title ‘Optimum Strategy in Blackjack’, the first ever blackjack strategy guide.

The next step in the road to understand blackjack via math and science was made by Professor Edward O. Thorp. He polished their findings and used new calculating systems and machines. In 1962 Thorp published his book, ‘Beat the Dealer’ in which there was written down the first actual system, the blackjack card counting system.

‘Beat the Dealer’ became a huge success. In 1963 it took the first place of the New York Times' seller list of books. Not only did Thorp's work have an impact on blackjack players and blackjack's history, but it also hit the casinos with terror. Casinos across the US devised plans to reduce the damage. Soon after ‘Beat the Dealer’ was written and published they modified the blackjack rules.

Thorp's Ten-Count was hard to learn by average blackjack players. The book was not easy reading. It succeeded though, in raising blackjack's popularity into to the sky. Masses of blackjack players were enraged upon the casinos' new 'bogus' blackjack variations, so the casinos, after realizing that ‘Beat the Dealer’ was no threat to them, reinstated the 'traditional' blackjack. During the 60's, 70's and 80's blackjack was the rising star of card games among the casinos.

Julian Braun, an IBM employee, used his computers skills and studied blackjack with a simulator. His work was put in the second edition of ‘Beat the Dealer’.

The hero of blackjack, Ken Uston, had also a great part in blackjack's history as he inspired millions of people in his books ‘Million Dollar Blackjack’, ‘Ken Uston on Blackjack’ and ‘The Big Player’. Ken Uston and his colleagues used computers that were inserted into their shoes. By using them they made thousands of dollars every month while playing blackjack at Nevada's casinos.

Ken Uston wasn't the last to use such methods. In the 1990's another group of players hit the casino halls using ‘card counting’ techniques, ‘The MIT Blackjack Team’. The members of this team made millions of dollars until 1997 when they were banned from the casinos, detected by the Griffin Investigation, a private detectives company that identified card counters and secured casinos around the world from players that cheat.

Today blackjack is a classic game played all over the world, showing no signs of letting up in its popularity.