When thinking of casinos, gambling, or card games, BlackjackRat.com is often one of the first names to come to mind for many people. Yet this was not always the case. Many factors were involved in raising this game from relative obscurity to becoming almost a household term around the world.
It is unknown where this game actually originated, but the oldest known reference to it is found in the work of Miguel de Cervantes, a 17th century Spanish writer most famous for his literary classic Don Quixote. At that time the game was known only as Twenty One, and with very basic rules. Each card was worth its face value, with aces being worth either 1 or 11. The object was to get a value as close to 21 as possible without going over. At the time, the game was played with a Spanish deck whose cards numbered 2 through 12 and did not include the values 8, 9, or 10. All face cards except for aces were also excluded from this deck.
Later references to and evolutions of this game were later found in various European texts, mainly in France and Spain, but it still did not achieve wide popularity for quite some time. In fact, when it was first introduced to casinos in the United States, establishments had to offer bonuses to convince people to play it. The most common of these was the promise of a 10 to 1 payout to anyone who achieved a value of exactly 21 using the ace of spades (counted as 11 points) and a black jack (worth 10 points). Although the drastically increased payout soon was abolished as the game increased in popularity, the term “blackjack” remained and became the most popular name for the game to be called. Currently, to actually achieve a blackjack is to have exactly 21 points using any ace and any card with a value of 10, meaning a 10 card or face card of any color.
As it increased in popularity, Blackjack also developed many variants and names over the world. Pontoon is a variant played in Malaysia and Australia. It uses a deck with no face cards and has many variations in strategy and penalties. Spanish 21 is another popular version of Blackjack and is played with multiple decks. This version is known to be able to give skilled players a higher advantage because strategies such as counting cards are seen as little threat, allowing highly skilled players to implement more strategies with less chance of being found out. A third popular variation is common mainly in California is called Vegas-Style Blackjack. The most significant difference to this set of rules is that a bust, or going over the limit of 21, does not automatically result in a loss, provided the dealer also busts by a greater number.
Clearly Blackjack has greatly evolved throughout the times, greatly increasing its popularity by enabling it to appeal to many different people with many different preferences. New variants are constantly being invented, and rules changing from casino to casino, so it is unlikely this popularity will wane any time soon.