About the Blackjack Game
Are you a regular visitor at casinos and gaming centres? Do you love playing table games? Then, you must have come across the blackjack game. Another name for the blackjack is ‘twenty one’ (21). It is called 21 because it is regarded as the US variant of the common banking game known as, ‘twenty one’. This game is officially considered one of the most popular table games you would find in any casino (both online and offline). It is easy to love blackjack considering the fact that it is a game that offers so much fun and one that is also easy to play. Fortunately, as well, it offers its players the best winning odds. Blackjack is simply a card game in which players compete against the dealer using counting cards. The aim here is that your card totals get a higher score than that of the dealer without going above 21 or you win by getting 21 points in the first two cards dealt you without a dealer blackjack. Another way of winning is by letting or making the dealer continue receiving extra cards until what they have in their hands go above 21 points.
Origin And History of the Blackjack
Blackjack is said to stem from ‘twenty one’, a game with a vague history of origin. Even though its origin is not clear, the twenty was said to have been introduced into the casinos operating in the United States of America. This game featured lots of deals and offers for its players. One of such was the ten-to-ten bonus, which further heightened the interest of players. The ten-to-ten bonus, which was given to players when their hands have the jack of spades (blackjack) or when their hands contain the ace of spades was later, scrapped out. But even after getting rid of the bonus offer, the name ‘blackjack’ is still stuck. Today, in the blackjack game, blackjack simply refers to the ten-card and any hand containing the ace irrespective of the suits or colours.It was in 1963 that the book, ‘Beat the Dealer’ written by Ed Thorp was published. This book contained the principles of how the Baldwin’s hand calculations were used to verify the strategies for playing and winning the blackjack game. This was after the first attempt to formulate a mathematical and scientific strategy for playing the blackjack in 1956.
Versions of the Blackjack
With the popularity of this game, it is not unexpected for it to have variations and versions. Just like other games played in the casino such as slot, rummy and the roulette, blackjack comes with various versions which are also readily available in the casinos. The major version of the blackjack, which has the standard rules, is called the classic blackjack. Most times when people simply refer to the ‘blackjack game’, they are referring to the ‘classic blackjack’. With more than 100 game rule variations, the classic blackjack has inspired so many blackjack variants such as the pontoon and the Spanish 21. Other popular versions of the blackjack include European blackjack, Vegas Strip, Atlantic City blackjack, Super Fun 21, Progressive blackjack and blackjack switch. While these variants have a lot in common with the classic blackjack, they also have features that make them unique and different from each other. Some differ slightly in the rules while some such as the pontoon blackjack differ in the terminologies used in the game. In all, the objective of the game is usually the same- for the player to have the total value of his hand higher than that of the dealers, closer to 21 but never exceeding 21.
Basic Rules of the Blackjack
No doubt, gaming has gained much popularity online these days. Table games such as the blackjack are not left out in this trend. You might be wondering if the same rules that apply to the game in the physical casinos are still applicable in the online casinos. Sure, the rules still apply irrespective of the fact that the game is played online. The settings are in fact much similar as well, except that in the case of the physical game, you are seeing everything such as the tables, players and dealers physically but in the online game, they are merely in the virtual format. But this hardly affects the flow of the game in any way.
Typically, before starting the blackjack game, players have to place their bets first after which the card dealer starts by dealing out two cards to each player. He gets two cards as well after everyone has gotten theirs however, for his own card, one will face upwards while the other faces downwards. All the cards here have the same value as their face value except the picture cards (the King, Queen and jack) and the ace cards. While the picture cards have the value of 10, the ace card has the value of either 11 or 1. Unlike the rummy game, suits don’t mean anything here and the total of any hand means the sum of the card values in that particular hand. Players move here includes- hit, stand, split, double and surrender. The dealer will have to wait for others to hit before he does and he has to stand on 17 through 21. A player wins when his hand total is higher than the dealer’s hand total or when they are below 21 while the dealer exceeds 21.