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Blackjack History Beginnings
Standardized decks of 50 cards each first appeared with Johann Guttenberg in 1440. Within a short time his cards and the games played with them became popular with royalty and the wealthy. Many of the games revolved around reaching a specific card-count total.
In the 1490's Baccarat appeared in Italy with an aim to reach a total of 9. Another Italian game, seven and-a-half, which was played with the eights, nines, tens and face cards appeared. This was perhaps the first game where the player would automatically "bust" if his cards totaled over the required 7 1/2.
The Spanish game of One-and-Thirty was first recorded in a book published in 1570. In this game the highest hand is a total count of 31 and only 3-card flushes qualify in the counting.
In the early 1800's the French invented the game of Quinze with the desired total of 15. It was extremely popular with princes, dukes, and even prime ministers.
However, it was the French game of Vingt-et-Un (21) which sounds like the best origin of the original Blackjack. The object of the game was to get a "natural", a count card of 21. It was this game that finally made it across the Atlantic to the U.S. in the late 1800's. It began as a strictly private game but soon made its way into the gambling halls and casinos in 1910.
21 into Blackjack
So how did 21 become Blackjack? The game of 21 was not terribly popular in the casinos of the 1900's. The casinos tried a few bonus payouts to get players to the 21 tables. One of these involved a 10-to-1 payout if the player's hand consisted of an Ace of Spades and a black jack. This hand was dubbed a "blackjack" and the name stuck even though the bonus payouts were soon done away with.
By the year 1919, green felt Blackjack tables could be found in all the casinos, and by 1931 Blackjack was third in popularity after Roulette and Craps. By 1948 it was second only to Craps.
In the late 1950's numerical basic strategies started showing up around the Blackjack tables. With the help of these strategies, Blackjack quickly became the number one casino table game.
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