The Early Beginnings of BlackJack

Now gaining popularity as its other casino game counterparts, the Blackjack is a byproduct of not just one man's creative mind. But, unlike other casino games, nowadays, Blackjack did not make it big when it was introduced before.

Blackjack was derived from the card games that had been played in France sometime in the 1700s. These French games included the "Chemin de Fer" and "French Ferme" or the "Iron Way" and "Firm French." Blackjack was played in various casinos in France in the early 18th century. It was also similar to another French card game "Vingt-et-Un" or the "Twenty-and-A."

The earliest players of Blackjack found it fascinating to combine the elements of chance, skill and card counting (keeping track of the cards which have been played since the last shuffle). But, when the game was brought to the United States, it failed to gain recognition from gamblers who frequented American casinos, back then. This led to casinos to desperately offer differing and challenging payouts to those who dare to try the new card game. Such bonus was known as the "10-to-1 payout" wherein the player aimed to get the ace of spades and Blackjack in one hand. The hand came to be known as the "Blackjack" and such name was often used, since then, although the bonus payout was no longer offered.

Fast-forward to 1956, an American named Roger Baldwin wrote "The Optimum Strategy in Blackjack." The paper attempted to combine mathematics and the card game together. Baldwin used probability, calculators and statistics and tried to study the house advantage to find a way to reduce it. Back then, the paper was not much of an achievement as Baldwin's theory needed the expertise of computers to polish the system.

Six years later, Professor Edward O. Thorp, who is now recognized as "The Einstein of Blackjack," tried to continue Baldwin's effort. Thorp refined Baldwin's strategy and devised the first card counting techniques. He published it in a book called "Beat the Dealer." Thorp's book affected the profits of casinos in the Blackjack game as they attempted to change the rules of the game. However, they decided to restore the game's original rules, as Thorp's "Ten Count" system was not very easy to understand by gamblers.

Julian Braum of IBM decided to use thousands of computer codes and came up with another strategy and numerous techniques in card counting. The book "Beat the Dealer" second edition used the results of Braum's study as well as " Playing Blackjack as a Business" by Lawrence Revere.