Blackjack (formerly black jack or vingt-un) 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 Ochko. 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 (Spanish for "twenty-one") 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.Andrews 1781, p. 19 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 (in the early 1800s, during the First World War, or in the 1930s, depending on the source), 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 (either the jack of clubs or the jack of spades). This hand was called a "blackjack", and the name stuck even after the ten-to-one bonus was withdrawn.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 (1896–99) 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 (in 1963) 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 ("face cards" or "pictures") 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,"https://www.caesars.com/destinations/how-to-play/blackjack 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 ("first base") to their far right ("third base"). 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 (the hole card), 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 (more common in single and double-deck games).
Once all the hands are dealt, play begins with the player to the left of the dealer and proceeds clockwise.
Table layout and dealing equipment Casino blackjack tables separate the player wagering positions from the dealer's working area. In New Jersey, an approved blackjack layout must contain designated wagering areas and display the applicable rules for blackjack payouts, dealer drawing procedures, and insurance payouts. Standard blackjack layouts may contain no more than seven wagering areas, while separate requirements apply to certain game variations.
The dealer's side of a regulated blackjack table may contain equipment such as a dealing shoe, discard rack, drop box, tip box, card reader, or approved shuffling machine. New Jersey regulations require a discard rack to be attached to the dealer's side of the table and specify that its capacity or markings correspond to the number of decks used in the game.
Requirements for dealing equipment vary by jurisdiction. Washington state requires house-banked card games to be dealt from a dealing shoe or an approved shuffling device, except that single-deck and double-deck games may be dealt by hand.
Some blackjack tables are fitted with an approved card reader that allows the dealer to determine whether the dealer's hole card completes a blackjack. Regulations may require the device to be inspected at the beginning of each gaming day to confirm that it has not been tampered with and is operating correctly.
Dealing shoes may also be subject to construction and placement requirements. New Jersey regulations specify features intended to permit inspection of the shoe, restrict access to cards below its base plate, and provide a marking for positioning the cutting card. The same regulations require dealing shoes and shuffling devices to be inspected before cards are placed in them at the beginning of the gaming day.
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. Signal: Scrape cards against the table (in handheld games); tap the table with a finger or wave a hand toward the body (in games dealt face-up). Stand: Take no more cards; also known as "stand pat", "sit", "stick", or "stay". Signal: Slide cards under chips face-down (in handheld games); wave hand horizontally (in games dealt face-up). 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. Signal: Place additional chips beside the original bet outside the betting box and point with one finger. 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. Signal: Place additional chips next to the original bet outside the betting box and point with two fingers spread into a V formation. 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. Signal: Using the index finger, draw a horizontal line behind the bet. Surrender can also be announced verbally.
In handheld games, a player must reveal their cards if they have a blackjack, bust, or wish to double down, split, or surrender.
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 (a "soft 17"), 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 ("push" or "standoff"), 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