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History of Blackjack
The dispute as to the origins of Blackjack is claimed by the French, Spanish and Italians, however there are mentions of Blackjack gambling all the way back to 250 B.C with the likes of Homer writing about the game of Blackjack around 700 B.C. One of the greatest claims to Blackjack fame dates back to 12 B.C when the Roman Emperor Augustus's stepson Drusus did play a lot of Blackjack and while leading Roman troops into Germany and became distracted by Blackjack along with the other men and therefore ended up losing a major battle. This type of Blackjack is far from the Blackjack that is played in Casinos today.
The Spanish claim that Blackjack was an adaptation of there game One-and-Thirty (Trente-et-Quarante) which was first recoded in the book 'The Comical History of Rinconete and Cortadillo'. One-and-Thirty holds similarities to Blackjack with each player placing a bet before being dealt three cards rather than the traditional two that we know in Blackjack today with the aim of the game to total 31 rather than 21.
The Italians on the other hand claim that Blackjack is merely a slightly modified version of their game Seven-and-a-Half. The deck of cards in this game consists of only 40 cards with the tens, nines and eights being removed from the deck, the face cards counted as the half's with the King of Diamonds being the Wild Card and counting as any number value that the player wanted and the other cards would simply keep their original numerical value. The aim of the game of course was to make seven and a half and if the player went over this they would go bust, as in Blackjack after twenty one.
The claim by the French comes from a number of their games, the first became popular in the 1800's, the French game Quinze. The aim of this game was to finish with the total (of course) fifteen. In fact it was the game of Quinze that helped on of the famous casinos in England (Cockfords) became increasing popular between 1827 to 1844 with all manner of royalty and nobility gracing the Quinze tables. The next French game to have association to Blackjack was Trente-et-Quarante also known as Rouge-et-Noir and was played using six decks of cards which were dealt by a croupier, one red and one black, the player would bet on either row and if the row totalled over thirty the hand was closed. If the hand was close to 31 the player would win even money, if both hands totalled 31 then the house would pocket half the player's winnings. Despite this idea there is a much clearer connection from this game to Roulette than Blackjack.
The third and final game is Vingt-Un (21) which seems to have the most direct links to Blackjack although it is played in a slightly different way. In Vingt-Un the idea of the game is to total 21 with the cards being dealt in rounds which was then followed by betting for each round with only the dealer being able to double up and if the dealer got 21 he would be paid triple by the other players.
It was in fact Vingt-Un that travelled from the shores of France to America in the late 1800's with the first official records noting the game in 1875. When the game first reached America it was far from popular so the gambling halls offered big bonus payouts in order to attract more attention to the tables. One of the bonus payouts was held at 10-1 if the player found an Ace of Spades or either of the Black Jacks in there hands as well, this became known as the Blackjack hand and the name has stuck ever since despite the bonus payout being phased out.
It was in 1919 that then green felt Blackjack tables that we know today were being produced with Blackjack in 1931 becoming the third most popular gambling game played in Nevada casinos after Craps and Roulette. The tables would soon turn and by 1948 it was second only to Craps until 1958 when the introduction of proven basic Blackjack strategies appeared and Blackjack began to gain momentum for the number one spot.
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