If I were to ask you which casino game is the most popular in the world, what would you say? Most likely, the first game to pop into your mind would be Blackjack. You would be wrong, of course, Slots are the most played of all the casino games, but they’re just…Slots. Blackjack is familiar, it is exciting, it is a game you already know how to play. Blackjack is fun. And yes, Blackjack is one of the most popular games on earth. People play it even outside casinos, just for fun.
Blackjack has been around since at least the 1500s. The first reference to the game was in Miguel de Cervantes’ book, Novelas Ejemplares, written in 1601. Some of the characters play a game called 21, and the rules are basically the same as Blackjack. If it was written about in the year 1601, it is safe to deduce that the game was known for a long time before it was ever immortalized on paper by the author of Don Quixote.
The way the game is played is quite easy to grasp by merely observing a game in progress for a few minutes. Players sit around a semi-circular table with up to nine seats. The game starts when the dealer deals out two cards, face down, to each player. The dealer will then deal himself two cards. One of which will be face down and the other face up. The face down card is called the “hole”, which is where expressions such as “ace in the hole” come from. Once the cards have been dealt and everyone has looked at what was dealt to them, the game proper starts. The point of the game is to get the highest total point value without going over 21.
The cards hold their natural value from 2 to 10. Aces are either a 1 or an 11 and face cards are worth 10. Once the total for the two dealt cards is counted by the player, the options are to: hit; stay; double down; split; or surrender. Hit means the player requests an additional card to be dealt. Stay is to tell the dealer not to deal any more cards. Double Down is a special bet allowed before hitting. Players can double their bets with the proviso that they take the next dealt card and stay. Split is when the player is dealt two of the same card. Before hitting, players can split the two cards into two separate hands, which each gets dealt a new initial card. Surrender is when the dealt cards are deemed to be not worth playing and the player takes a loss on half the initial bet.
Simplicity is the key to Blackjack’s enduring popularity. It is simple. And easy to learn game with only a few basic rules to follow—get close to 21. Even a child could learn to play Blackjack at the most basic level. It would seem that all you do is hit or don’t hit and you hope not to bust. It would appear that it’s all based on luck. It would appear so, but appearances can be deceiving. Blackjack is, in reality, a very complex game with a very steep learning curve in order to play it the right way.
Once you learn to play Blackjack properly, you will see the game in a whole new light. It is not just another casino game that lives and dies by the follies of luck. It is actually a game in which you, the player, can have a strong hand in controlling the way the game will go. There is only one other game at the casino that allows that kind of control over your fate—Poker. Have you ever played Poker at the casino? Have you ever sat there, looking around, trying to figure out who the fish is? The reason you can never figure out the fish at the table is because YOU are the fish. Poker is a dangerous no man’s land full of sharks that will take you for all you’re worth. Unless you’re a seasoned and grizzled Poker player with the wounds and the scars to show for it, you will not win at casino Poker. You might think the same thing about Blackjack but once again, you would be wrong. You can learn to play Blackjack well with a relatively short time expenditure on your part. It’s just not that easy is all. Continue reading “Play Blackjack”