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Blackjack Casino
Game
by Adel Awwad
The
game of Blackjack was introduced
to the United States in the 19th century but the origin of the game is
still much in dispute. Blackjack can be traced back to several European
card games including the French 'Vingt-Un' (21), 'Trente et Quarente',
and 'Chemin de Fer' (Railroad), as well as the Spanish 'One and
Thirty',
Italian 'Baccara' and 'Seven and a half' which all have similarities to
modern Blackjack.
When
gambling was legalized in Nevada
in 1934, Blackjack screamed into popularity and was most commonly
played
with one or two decks of cards. Roger Baldwin published a paper in 1956
which explained hot to reduce the house advantage based on probability
and statistics which was quite confusing for those who were not
mathematicians.
In
1962, Dr. Edward O. Thorp used
an IBM 704 computer to refine the mathematical strategy in Baldwin's
paper
and also developed the first card counting techniques. Dr. Thorp wrote
a book called "Beat the Dealer" which outlined card counting techniques
and the strategies for reducing the house advantage.
This
spawned a huge increase in Blackjack
players at the US casinos who were trying to implement Dr. Thorp's
strategies,
much to the consternation of the casinos. The system was difficult to
understand
and hard to implement and thusly increased the profits for the casinos
as more and more people took to playing Blackjack.
Blackjack
is the most popular table
card game in the United States today which was transformed from the one
table game that used to be stuck in the corner of most casinos. The
term
Blackjack comes from the 'natural hand winner' of the earlier versions
of the game when a player was dealt the Jack and Ace of Spades in his
initial
two card hand. The player was declared an automatic winner and was paid
a bonus. In today's version of Blackjack, any ace combined with any ten
point value card-10, jack, queen and king, counts as a natural
Blackjack,
except after a split.
Blackjack
is a widely popular game
around the world and has only seen an increase in players as the years
progress. What once was a game that was not popular and seemingly too
difficult
to play with 'strategies' and 'counting cards' it is now the most
popular
card game to play at a casino in most of the world.
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