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Blackjack History |
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The name Blackjack comes from one of the gaming systems, in which a player who held both J and A of spades was paid extra. Since the J (Jack) was an essential card for the game, and the spade's color is black, a combination of the two has names the Blackjack as known to us today.
It is commonly believed that the blackjack's origin was in French games, like "French Ferme" or "Chemin de Fer". Blackjack was first played in French casinos as "Vingt-et-un" (meaning "twenty one"), in the 18th century. The blackjack game got to America in the 1800's, and was played despite of the anti-gambling policy of the USA. In 1931, casino gambling was legalized in Nevada, and in 1978 it was legalized in Atlantic City, New Jersey. As years pass, more and more states have legalized casino gambling in one form or another. Basic blackjack strategy became known to the common players only in the 1960's, and up until then, casinos made a great profit from the blackjack tables. In 1956, blackjack players started to study both the cards shown and the table itself, from which they developed new blackjack strategies and, of course, card counting. It all began in 1956, when an article by Roger Baldwin was published in the Journal of The American Statistical Association. The article was called "The Optimum Strategy in Blackjack", and was the first to apply mathematic skills in the game of blackjack. Six years later, the basic strategies were developed and refined by Professor Edward O. Thorp, as well as the first card counting strategies. Thorp published a book entitled "Beat the Dealer", which instantly became a best-seller This book caused some of the casinos to change the blackjack rules, giving the house an extra advantage over the players. The new rules didn't last long, due to protests of people who refused to play blackjack at these casinos, protests which forced casinos to go back to the original rules. Over the years, many more blackjack books and gaming systems have been developed in order to win blackjack more easily. Some of the books, such as "Playing Blackjack as a Business" by Lawrence Revere and "Winning Blackjack" by Stanley Roberts, provided the readers information that could allow them to live off of their blackjack profits. At this point, blackjack got more and more popular and even began to compete with craps for the title of the most popular game in Nevada. More sophisticated game strategies were formed in the 1970's, once computers were developed enough to perform simulations of millions of blackjack hands for better statistics. Mathematicians, scientists, Professors, and many more intellectuals started to write books on blackjack strategies and statistics. The scientific, computerized way of playing blackjack frightened the casino owners, who worried about the harmful effect this could have on their profits. It was at that point that many casinos changed their games from single deck to what we call a "shoe" (2-8 decks). When it comes to blackjack, Ken Uston is considered a legend of the last few decades. In 1977, Uston took 5 computers, installed them in the shoes of his team members. The group won over $100K in almost no time, but one of the computers was found and taken from the player by the casino. The FBI experts concluded that the computer used public information on playing Blackjack and was not a blackjack cheating device. After his unbelievable win, Uston's name was added to the "black list" of at least 7 major Las Vegas casinos. Uston wasn't willing to accept the casinos' decision and sued them on the charge of violating his civil rights. In 1987, Uston was found dead in a rented apartment in Paris, with no determined cause of death. Uston's success opened a door to a new era of group blackjack gambling, which worried the casinos due to the enormous amounts of money which could be won by that sort of play. The method, as understood by the blackjack2002.com staff, is quite simple. A group of players enter the casino, each of the players go to a different table and start playing for small bets while counting the cards. One of the players is a "red" player, who wanders between the tables and bets from time to time. When one of the players spots a favorable deck, he signals the red player, who comes and places a bet of $500-1000 and wins easily. Many casinos which already started using 4-deck games to prevent cheating and card counting, started introducing 5, 6 and even 8-deck games. The plan was to make the game tougher to play for average players. Another difficulty which gave the house more advantage over the player was the fact that besides using multiple decks, the casinos started cutting off 1.5-2 decks on average. The shuffling started taking place after 50%-75% of the shoe had been dealt, instead of 100%. In the present, casinos experiment with cutting off cards and playing multiple deck games, all while monitoring their profits. Single-deck games can once again be found in some casinos who wish to attract more visitors, while other casinos prefer introducing more player-friendly blackjack rules, but still playing only multiple-deck games. Blackjack is still a tough game to play in most Nevada casinos, especially for newcomers. Although the casinos got harder to beat through the years, they are still beatable. Professional players can still win the game rather easily, and there are a few ways to do so. A winning strategy one should use in order to increase the winning chances is HI-OPT II, a powerful strategy which was published in 1976. Skilled players also manage ways to increase the bet range in multiple-deck games - it works, since the casino's main concern is for the single deck blackjack games, rather than for the multiple-deck games. A third option, in land-based casinos only, is to get a dealer to be more "friendly" by bribing him with large tips, although many will claim it just doesn't feel right. According to Stanley Roberts, the increased competition between casinos in Nevada and other US states is likely to increase the winning chances of gamblers at the blackjack tables. After all, the casinos still have to give the gamblers a chance of winning the games, and new blackjack strategies, more powerful ones, are bound to appear in time. The casinos, though, have no need to worry. There will always be the unskilled players who'll provide them with profits. So don't worry, there will always be a chance to make money from gambling, just as the casinos will always make money from the gamblers. It all depends on which part of the equation you're on. |
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