Blackjack is one of the most popular card games. It is therefore impossible to imagine many casinos without it and you will still find it when you are out for a night. It doesn’t matter where in the world you are, you always have the option to play in a casino.
Blackjack remains one of the casino’s favorite games. It has many different skills and strategies, so you can increase your chances.
Blackjack is much more popular than the slots these days. This is because it requires more than just spinning the reels and hoping for luck.
However, there are many more fun and funny facts about blackjack to be found. So read on and discover what makes the game so much fun.
The Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes was best known for the book Don Quixote (1605). After all, this novel set the standard for European literature. However, the author has written much more.
Author Don Quixote first described the game
One of his books, Rinconete y Cortadillo, also described a story about two gamblers in the city of Seville. The characters in the book discovered a number of card game cheats. Their favorite game was ventiuna, which means twenty-one in Spanish. This is a card game in which the values of the cards are the same as in the current blackjack. The aim of the game was to get as close to 21 as possible without going over it.
The story of the book takes place in 1569. This should show that the ancestor of blackjack was already invented sometime in the 16th century.
Regional variants even older
While the first story is set in the 16th century, regional variants can also be found from all over the world. For example, there was already a counterpart in France. This variant comes closest to the current blackjack. Only a number of escalating betting rounds were added, allowing the bet to be increased on a favorable starting hand.
In Italy there was just another game which amounted to ‘seven and a half’. This is a hybrid form of blackjack, using a deck of 40 cards. Sette e mezzo knew cards from ace to 7, keeping the numerical value. The picture cards again had half a point as value. Instead of achieving 21, in this case, 7.5 must be achieved again. Basically the same as how blackjack will be played at the moment.
The European immigrants who moved to America transferred the card game. Since then, many players have gotten to work and it has become a format for modern blackjack.
10 to 1 jackpots in the first games
You may wonder why the name blackjack was given to the game. For this you do not have to look further than the jack of spades and the jack of clubs. These two cards could easily promote the European card game. At that time, poker was still played in casinos, while salons and gambling halls, among others, had to focus on promoting blackjack. This had to be done as easily as possible.
From here the promotion originated. Every time a player looked down for the ace of spades, it was paired with a jack of spades or jack of clubs. If this pair was present, a 10 to 1 payout was made. Basically everything is said with this. It was a good way to make a profit and the rest is actually history. However, once everyone got used to the game, the developers stopped offering this high payout. In this case the 3 against 2 payout came, which was going to be more favorable in many ways.
The four soldiers produced the written strategy analysis
In 1953, four soldiers decided to play cards on the base during the downtime. In this case it was poker, but someone else asked for the game of blackjack. When this was requested, a reservation had to be drawn up. This resulted in the dealer present having to pass a hit on 16 and 17. This made the group of soldiers think.
Also known as Wilbert Cantey, Roger Baldwin, James McDermott and Herbert Maisel, the four players had more in common than they initially envisioned. It didn’t stop with blackjack. For example, they had all obtained university studies in mathematics. The curiosity and math skills led them to look for the most optimal blackjack strategy. The full analysis eventually took two years, after which the paper ‘The Optimum Strategy in Blackjack’ was published in 1956.
In the same year, the first basic strategy maps were also published in a 92-page book. This book was called “Playing Blackjack to Win: A New Strategy for the Game of 21”. From then on, the four riders were inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame.
Blackjack Hall of Fame
Yes, there is a real Blackjack Hall of Fame. This one has settled in Cooperstown. It is located in the Barona Casino in San Diego, California and was founded in 2002. In this year, the experts were called together to nominate the first people. This also included a number of celebrities, such as author Edward Thorp. Many major players were added at a later date.
To add extra power to the hall of fame, the blackjack ball is organized every year. It is a party where the nominations are passed on. The lists can be found everywhere.
One of the names on the hall of fame home to 15 million
Don Johnson, a New Jersey player, has lived out every player’s dream over a five-month period. To do this, he took an eight-figure budget to the casino and trusted that he was placing the correct bet. A favorable deal was made with the casinos in Atlantic City for this.
He bet $ 100,000 per hand and had losses of up to 20 percent. If he lost $ 500,000 in bets, he would only have to pay $ 400,000 to the casino. If a profit was made, he was allowed to keep the full amount. He just faced all the circumstances and it took a long time to achieve a result. He eventually won 6 million at Tropicana, 5 million at Borgata and 4 million at Caesars. All three casinos stopped the game and declined the offer.
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Conclusion
Although blackjack can be learned very quickly, it can provide years of enjoyment. You can also keep discovering new ways to play the game. There are many different variations of the house rules and the new bets ensure that no gambler can sit still. So you are constantly rediscovering.
So as you continue to learn the game, you can learn a lot. The fun facts about the game provide an extra layer of fun and you also know more about the history of blackjack.