Online Blackjack
Blackjack should need no introduction. It is one of the oldest and most popular casino card games in the world and has been glamorised in countless Hollywood movies. The idea, if you’re one of the two people who don’t know, is to make Blackjack by getting an ace plus a ten, jack, queen or king, or to beat the dealer by scoring higher than him without exceeding 21.
Blackjack - About
Blackjack is the most popular casino card in the world. The reason behind Blackjack becoming the most popular game is two fold. Firstly the game is relatively easy to pick up and understand and the second is that with a little strategic thought you can actually alter the odds to tilt in your favour.
For example a blackjack player employing only the basic strategy can reduce the house edge to as little as 0.5%.
BlackJack is readily known as one of the "Beatable" casino games as a skilled player with a well-designed strategy can create a positive mathematical expectation.
Blackjack has also a lot of glamour and mystique surrounding it especially after the card counting scandles of the early nineties when the MIT Blackjack Team, a card counting team, made millions across the world. Card counting is where the player, or team of players, keep track of which cards have been played since the last shuffle.
BlackJack History
BlackJack is inherited from a game called Vingt-et-Un, Twenty-One, which appeared in French casinos approximately 300 years ago.
So why BlackJack, well when BalckJack was introduced to America it wasn’t very popular so a 10-1 bonus was introduced if the players hand was made up of the Ace of Spades and a black Jack. This hand became known as a “blackjack”, the game then inherited this title. And BlackJack was born. Although the 10-1 bonus was dropped relatively quickly.
Around 1919 green-felt was introduced to BlackJack tables and by 1931 BlackJack was the most popular card game in Nevada but only the third most popular Casino table game in Nevada after Roulette and Craps.
This all changed when in 1958 the first mathematical basic strategy appeared and BlackJack became the number card game and table game played in Nevada.
Blackjack Rules
In Blackjack each player, and the dealer, is dealt two cards to start with. The goal of Blackjack is beat the dealer by accumulating cards that add up nearer to 21 than the dealers’ cards, without exceeding 21.
In Blackjack cards are worth there face value with face cards, King, Queen, and Jack worth 10. An Ace can be high or low, 11 or 1.
If at the end of your play you and the dealer have the same hand value then the deal is a Push and your money is returned.
If your hand adds up to 22 or higher you are said to have Busted and you loose your bet irrespective of what the dealer dose next.
You are only ever playing with the dealer, you are not competing with or playing against any other player. Although, it is important to keep an eye on what cards have been dealt.
|
