Blackjack - a Favorite of Casino Card Games

The Italians, French and Spanish all claim to have had a hand in the origins of blackjack. The Spanish played a game called "One and Thirty, where in players were dealt three cards each and three community cards were placed in the center of the table. The object was to reach a count of 31.


The Italians claim that blackjack is a variation of their game of Baccarat where the players much reach a total count of 9 points.


However, the closest to modern day blackjack is the French precursor Twenty-One, or "Vingt-et-Un".


Twenty One reached the U.S. sometime during the 1800's. It was not very popular to begin with when it appeared in gambling halls and casinos. In order to make the game more exciting, the casinos initiated some bonus payouts. One such bonus, a 10 to 1 payout, was offered if the player's hand consisted of an Ace of Spades and a black jack (spades or clubs). For obvious reasons this hand was called "blackjack", and the name stuck to the game.


In time blackjack's popularity grew, and it is now one of the most popular of casino card games as well as online gambling games.

Blackjack and Party Games

If you consider party games to be games suitable for entertainment in social gatherings, it would not be fair to include blackjack in that classification. Although blackjack is entertaining, it is definitely a gambling game and not one of those party games that people play just for fun.


Because it requires quite a bit of thought and concentration, it is probably better to put blackjack in a class with card games that are strategy games rather than with party games.

Blackjack Is Also a Popular Online Casino Game

Blackjack is one of those card games that can be played just as satisfactorily online as in a casino. The aim of blackjack is to beat the Dealer's hand. In other words, the player needs to reach a card count of 21, or as close to it as he can get, without going "bust". Going bust means that he has gone beyond the required 21. Since the player is betting against the dealer, an online game simply means that the computer is the dealer.


With today's computer technology, it is possible to play online blackjack in multiple hands games. There are even blackjack tournaments available to play online.


In the world of card games, blackjack has a special distinction. There are many books and articles, also online, about how to strategize in this game in order to maximize one's winnings. There have been blackjack teams in the past, such as the famous, or infamous, MIT Blackjack Team, and there is even a Blackjack Hall of Fame.


All of these things show the distinction of blackjack in card games and certainly put the game above any party games.