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The History of Blackjack.
It is the Spanish, French and Italians that all claim the right to declare that they officially invented Blackjack, Blackjack has been mentioned as far back in history as 250 B.C, and was written about by Homer in 700 B.C but Blackjack has been noted as far back as 12 B.C in relation to the roman emperor Augustus's stepson. Augustus's stepson Drusus was addicted to the game of Blackjack and lost a battle over this game when he and the rest of the Roman Soldiers were to busy playing Blackjack to fight.
It is the French that have the greatest claims to inventing Blackjack and in fact the most plausible. There are the three French card games that Blackjack could have stemmed from, Quinze, Trente-et-Quarante also known as Rouge-et-noir and Vingt-un which actually means twenty-one, this is the game that has the most direct links. Vingt-un, like the Blackjack we know today has the aim of reaching 21 but there are still some differences with this game. The cards are dealt in rounds with a total of 4 rounds each round is followed by betting, the major difference between Vingt-un and Blackjack is that a dealer is the only player who can double up and if the dealer reaches 21 he must be paid triple by the other players at the table. The game Quinze and Trente-et-Quarante both have a total to achieve in Quinze it is 15 and the Trente-et -Quarante it is 31. Although both these games do resemble Blackjack it is more likely that Vingt-un is the strongest contender.
The Italian game that makes a claim to Blackjack is seen by the Italians as just a slightly modified version it is called Seven-and-a-Half, were the aim of the game is to achieve Seven-and-a-Half. The cards with the value of ten, nine, and eight are removed from the pack leaving the deck to stand at forty cards, all of the face cards count as a half value with exception to the King of Diamonds which can count as any value for the player, all other cards keep there same value. The aim of the game is to stay within the limit of the Seven-and-a-Half or to get exactly Seven-and-a-Half if the player goes over this amount they go bust.
The Spanish game One-and-Thirty which was first recorded around 1570 is there claim to inventing Blackjack, it does bare some similarities to Blackjack with each player placing a bet before being dealt (instead of the traditional two) three cards with the aim to make thirty one with the same rules being applied for going over the target as in other games.
When Blackjack reached the shores of America it did not fair to well with the locals and wasn't at all popular. The game started to be played on strictly private bases until the game finally began to emerge in the American gambling halls around early 1910, but was named twenty-one. The name Blackjack stuck to the game when one of the bonus payouts which was established to attract players to the games was at 10-1 and was honored if the player held a Ace of Spades plus either of the Blackjacks from the deck, this hand was called the Blackjack and has stuck ever since. Despite the low popularity of Blackjack in previous years this is no longer the case and the game has quickly flourished to become one of the most popular casino games.
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