 No one is really sure of where the game of Blackjack came from, but it is believed to have evolved from the game chemin de fer (baccarat). One thing that we do know for sure though is that the modern version of Blackjack originated in France in the 1700’s, where it was known as “vingt-et-un” or “twenty-one”. It has been played in North America since the 1800’s, but did not gain popularity over Poker and Craps in the “wild west” until they offered a 10 to 1 payout on a hand that consisted of an ace of spades and a jack of spades. This is where Blackjack got its name, and while this rule has become obsolete, the name stuck and remains to this day.
Sometime during the 1950’s, a team of mathematicians, lead by R. Baldwin, published a paper which showed that the house advantage could be reduced by using a probability and statistics formula. A few years after that, Professor Thorpe expanded those findings and published a paper called “Beat the Dealer” in 1962. Blackjack players began using this system and much to the distress of the casino owners, they were winning. Because of this, casino managers changed the rules to regain their house advantage. Unfortunately, this change also created such a disadvantage for the players that many just stopped playing altogether. The loss of revenue that the casinos incurred greatly outweighed whatever advantages that they created in the new rules, so they were forced to forgo those new rules and return to the original game.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s, an IBM employee named Julian Braun ran hours of simulated Blackjack games through their mainframe computers. He is credited for devising what is called “basic strategy”, which consists of a set of rules that most experts recommend for every Blackjack player and many online casinos. By following these “basic strategy” rules, the house edge is lowered to 1% or less in most casinos, depending on the house rules and the number of decks used in the game.
Blackjack hasn’t changed much since the 1960’s, with the widest variations revealed in the house rules that have been established in the different casinos throughout the world. When you apply the basic strategies of when to hit or stand, you can come very close to evening the odds that normally favor the house in almost every casino.
Bonuses and Promotions
|
Recent News
|
|
