Blackjack
Blackjack is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as "twenty-one". This family of card games also includes the European games vingt-et-un and pontoon, and the Russian game. The game is a comparing card game where players compete against the dealer, rather than each other.
History
Blackjack's immediate precursor was the English version of twenty-one called vingt-un, a game of unknown provenance. The first written reference is found in a book by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. Cervantes was a gambler, and the protagonists of his "Rinconete y Cortadillo", from Novelas Ejemplares, are card cheats in Seville. They are proficient at cheating at veintiuno and state that the object of the game is to reach 21 points without going over and that the ace values 1 or 11. The game is played with the Spanish baraja deck."Rinconete y Cortadillo" was written between 1601 and 1602, implying that veintiuno was played in Castile since the beginning of the 17th century or earlier. Later references to this game are found in France and Spain.
The first record of the game in France occurs in 1888 and in Britain during the 1770s and 1780s, but the first rules appeared in Britain in 1800 under the name of vingt-un. Twenty-one, still known then as vingt-un, appeared in the United States in the early 1800s. The first American rules were an 1825 reprint of the 1800 English rules. English vingt-un later developed into an American variant in its own right which was renamed "blackjack" around 1899.
According to popular myth, when vingt-un was introduced into the United States, gambling houses offered bonus payouts to stimulate players' interests. One such bonus was a ten-to-one payout if the player's hand consisted of the ace of spades and a black jack. This hand was called a "blackjack", and the name stuck even after the ten-to-one bonus was withdrawn.
French card historian Thierry Depaulis debunks this story, showing that prospectors during the Klondike Gold Rush gave the name "blackjack" to the game of American vingt-un, the bonus being the usual ace and any 10-point card. Since blackjack also refers to the mineral zincblende, which was often associated with gold or silver deposits, he suggests that the mineral name was transferred by prospectors to the top bonus hand. He could not find any historical evidence for a special bonus for having the combination of an ace and a black jack.
In September 1956, Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Cantey, Herbert Maisel, and James McDermott published a paper titled "The Optimum Strategy in Blackjack" in the Journal of the American Statistical Association, the first mathematically sound optimal blackjack strategy. This paper became the foundation of future efforts to beat blackjack. Ed Thorp used Baldwin's hand calculations to verify the basic strategy and later published Beat the Dealer.
Rules of play at casinos
The object of the game is to win money by creating card totals higher than those of the dealer's hand but not exceeding 21, or by stopping at a total in the hope that the dealer will bust. Number cards count as their number, the jack, queen, and king count as 10, and aces count as either 1 or 11 depending on whether or not counting it as 11 would cause a bust. If a player exceeds 21 points, they bust and automatically lose. A total of 21 on the starting two cards is called a "blackjack" or "natural," and is the strongest hand.At a blackjack table, the dealer faces five to nine playing positions from behind a semicircular table. Between one and eight standard 52-card decks are shuffled together. To start each round, players place bets in the "betting box" at each position. In jurisdictions allowing back betting, up to three players can be at each position. The player whose bet is at the front of the betting box controls the position, and the dealer consults the controlling player for playing decisions; the other bettors "play behind". A player can usually bet in one or multiple boxes at a single table, but in many U.S. casinos, players are limited to playing one to three positions at a table.
The dealer deals from their left to their far right. Each box gets an initial hand of two cards. The dealer's hand gets its first card face-up. In "hole card" games, the dealer also gets a second card face-down, and if the first card is a 10-A, the dealer will peek at the hole card to see whether they have a blackjack. If they do, they reveal it immediately, the hand ends, and the dealer takes all wagers whose hands are not also a blackjack. Hole card games are sometimes played on tables with a small mirror or electronic sensor used to peek securely at the hole card. In European casinos, "no hole card" games are prevalent; the dealer's second card is not drawn until all the players have played their hands.
Dealers deal the cards from one or two handheld decks, from a dealer's shoe or from a shuffling machine. One card is dealt to each wagered-on position clockwise from the dealer's left, followed by one card to the dealer, followed by an additional card to each of the positions in play, followed by the dealer's hole card if applicable. The players' initial cards may be dealt face-up or face-down.
Once all the hands are dealt, play begins with the player to the left of the dealer and proceeds clockwise.
Player decisions
On the initial two cards, the player has up to five options: "hit", "stand", "double down", "split", or "surrender". Once a hand has more than two cards, hitting and standing are the only options available. Each option has a corresponding hand signal.- Hit: Take another card.
- Stand: Take no more cards; also known as "stand pat", "sit", "stick", or "stay".
- Double down: Increase the initial bet by 100% and take exactly one more card. The additional bet is placed next to the original bet. Some games permit the player to increase the bet by amounts smaller than 100%, which is known as "double for less". Non-controlling players may or may not double their wager, but they still only take one card.
- Split: Create two hands from a starting hand where both cards are the same value. Each new hand gets a second card resulting in two starting hands. This requires an additional bet on the second hand. The two hands are played out independently, and the wager on each hand is won or lost independently. In the case of cards worth 10 points, some casinos only allow splitting when the cards rank the same. For example, 10-10 could be split, but K-10 could not. Doubling and re-splitting after splitting may be restricted. A 10-valued card and an ace resulting from a split usually isn't considered a blackjack. Hitting split aces is often not allowed. Non-controlling players can opt to put up a second bet or not. If they do not, they only get paid or lose on one of the two post-split hands.
- Surrender: Forfeit half the bet and end the hand immediately. This option is only available at some tables in some casinos, and is not allowed after splitting.
Hand signals help the "eye in the sky" make a video recording of the table, which resolves disputes and identifies dealer mistakes. It is also used to protect the casino against dealers who steal chips or players who cheat. Recordings can also identify advantage players. When a player's hand signal disagrees with their words, the hand signal takes precedence.
After the players have finished playing, the dealer's hand is resolved by drawing cards until the hand achieves a total of 17 or higher. If the dealer has a total of 17 including an ace valued as 11, some games require the dealer to stand while other games require the dealer to hit. The dealer never doubles, splits, or surrenders. If the dealer busts, all players who haven't bust win. If the dealer does not bust, each remaining bet wins if its hand is higher than the dealer's and loses if it is lower. In the case of a tie, bets are returned without adjustment. A blackjack beats any hand that is not a blackjack, even one with a value of 21.
A player blackjack wins immediately unless the dealer also has one, in which case the hand is a push. If the dealer is dealt blackjack, all players who do not have a blackjack lose.
Wins are paid out at even money, except for player blackjacks, which are traditionally paid out at 3 to 2 odds. Some tables today pay blackjacks at less than 3:2.
Insurance
If the dealer shows an ace, an "insurance" bet is allowed. Insurance is a side bet that the dealer has a blackjack. The dealer asks for insurance bets before the first player plays. Insurance bets of up to half the player's current bet are placed on the "insurance bar" above the player's cards. If the dealer has a blackjack, insurance pays 2 to 1. In most casinos, the dealer looks at the down card and pays off or takes the insurance bet immediately. In other casinos, the payoff waits until the end of the play.In face-down games, if a player has more than one hand, they can look at all their hands before deciding. This is the only condition where a player can look at multiple hands.
Players with blackjack can also take insurance. When this happens, it is called 'even money,' as the player is giving up their 3:2 payout for a 1:1 payout when taking insurance with a blackjack, under the condition that they still get paid if the dealer also has a blackjack.
Insurance bets lose money in the long run. The dealer has a blackjack less than one-third of the time. In some games, players can also take insurance when a 10-valued card shows, but the dealer has an ace in the hole less than one-tenth of the time.
The insurance bet is susceptible to advantage play. It is advantageous to make an insurance bet whenever the hole card has more than a one in three chance of being a ten. Card counting techniques can identify such situations.