Blackjack History
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The History of Blackjack
Like its counterparts in the casinos, blackjack is a game that is derived from different games throughout gambling history. Also, like most other casino games, it is unclear where exactly the game came from. To make more sense of this, we need to start at the very beginning, to the beginning of playing card history. | |||||||||
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Ancient Blackjack History
In ancient China, the earliest form of playing cards was actually paper notes of money, which were shuffled around with bets placed on different combinations that would come out of the shuffle. In time, this money shuffling led to the first paper playing cards. It is believed that the Muslims came up with the first versions, which were ornately decorated with Islamic art.From the Muslims, playing cards were introduced in Spain as well as Italy. Here is where they began to take more of the modern resemblance that the cards have today. The Spanish and Italians added male royalty to the playing cards, and took away the intricate Islamic art. The queen was added over a century later, when the French decided to put the Queen on one of the royalty cards!
The Origin of Blackjack Cards
In 1440, the first official deck of cards was printed by a German man named Johann Gutenberg. Little did he know that his small donation to the world would have such a huge impact on future generations. These days it is almost impossible to find a person in Western countries who has never played with a deck of cards, let alone owned one!From the first printing, card games began to flourish! There are a few card games from which it is believed that Blackjack was derived. As it can never be known for certain if the Blackjack came out of one of these games or all of these games, we will discuss a few different card games that are believed to be connected to the modern blackjack game.
From Vingt-et-Un to Blackjack
The game which seems to resemble blackjack most closely is the French game of Vingt-et-Un. This game was very popular during the 18th century, and was a favorite pastime of Napoleon! Vingt-et-Un was very similar to blackjack, but some major differences can be seen between the two games. One of these is in the way the players bet on their hand. In Vingt-et-Un, the players only bet after the hand has been dealt, unlike in modern blackjack. A second difference is that the dealer was the only person who could double in Vingt-et-Un, whereas today, the players can also double. Vingt-et-Un was so popular, that it was even mentioned in Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre with the lines "Yes; these four evenings have enabled them to ascertain that they both like Vingt-un better than Commerce; but with respect to any other leading characteristic, I do not imagine that much has been unfolded."A second game that has some similarities to blackjack was an Italian card game called Seven and a Half. As the name states, the obvious objective of the game was to reach the point value of seven and a half, without going over. This game was played with the seven and above, minus the number ten playing cards. All of the number cards were worth one point, and the face cards were valued at one half of a point. This game gave birth to the blackjack tem to "bust". If the cards went over, they busted!
Although there are a few other games that blackjack may have been derived from, such as Baccarat and the Spanish card game One and Thirty, it seems that the game has the most similarities to Vingt-et-Un and Seven and a Half.
Blackjack in the U.S.
Blackjack was brought over to the United States in the early 19th century. The game did not gain much popularity for years. Although blackjack was played in gambling halls in the early 20th century, it had still not become very popular. In order to get people to play blackjack, the gambling halls would offer bonuses if the player received a certain hand of cards. This is actually where the game received the name "Blackjack". If one received the Jack and Ace of Spades, he received a bonus; the name Blackjack came from this bonus, even thought the bonus no longer exists!From the early 20th century, blackjack has quickly gained in popularity. When the first blackjack strategy came out in the late 1950's, it was no question that the game was on the way to the casino games hall of fame! Many people over the decades have been able to cash in on the different blackjack strategies available.
Internet Blackjack
Now, with internet casinos, blackjack is one of the most popular games out there. It is amazing that it took less than a century to bring blackjack from nothing, to number one! We can only wonder where the game will be at the end of the 21st century! Try playing Blackjack now for fun or real money at First Web Internet Casino.
