The History of Atlantic City BlackjackAtlantic City Blackjack is named after the famous New Jersey gambling venue — Atlantic City. The game is comparable to traditional blackjack, but there are noticeable differences. The most outstanding feature of Atlantic City Blackjack is that it is played with 8 regular decks of playing cards, which are shuffled before each game.
Although Atlantic City Blackjack is as American as, well, New Jersey, blackjack itself has its roots planted across the Atlantic Ocean, in France. The earliest version of blackjack — called vingt-et-un (French for twenty-one) — can be traced to 18th century France. It is believed to be derived from the French card games chemin de fer and French Ferme. During the next century, French colonists brought it across the ocean to the U.S. and the game started making regular appearances in North American casinos in the early twentieth century.
Gambling history is full of stories of games being changed when they reach the shores of America. Take roulette, for example, where the single-zero wheel was replaced with the American double-zero roulette wheel. Similarly, despite being very popular in Europe, blackjack was not a huge hit at first with the Americans. The rules had to be changed slightly to make the game lean a little more favorably in the direction of the player before it really took off. One such rule change was the addition of a 10:1 bonus if players drew the jack of clubs or spades together with the ace of spades as their first two cards. Thus history was made and the game became known forever after as “blackjack.”
Blackjack’s popularity really soared in the United States in the 1930s when gambling was legalized in the State of Nevada and Las Vegas became the gambling center of the country. Blackjack was featured in all the casinos and the game became gambling town’s biggest attraction.
Blackjack Popularity and “Beat the Dealer”
Blackjack — unlike the slot machines or roulette — is not merely a game of chance. It is a game that has fascinated mathematicians and statisticians for over 50 years. In the middle of the last century it became clear that the game offers the player very good odds and an early version of the basic blackjack strategy was introduced by a math expert by the name of Roger Baldwin. It wasn’t until 1963, however, when Edward Thorp published his book called “Beat the Dealer” that the whole idea of card counting caught on and the idea of a basic blackjack strategy was truly embraced.
|
|
|
Thorp’s book was a milestone in blackjack history. It brought many new players to the tables to try their card-counting skills, but the casinos fought to keep their edge by introducing multiple-deck games and card-shuffling machines, which made it harder for card counters to keep track of cards that had been dealt.
Blackjack StrategiesBut blackjack strategy was a work in progress and, with the advent of computers as a widespread tool, the basic blackjack strategy continued to be perfected. In other words, as computers developed so did blackjack strategy. Blackjack basic strategy is based on the mathematics of the game and it has been tested and refined through computer simulations. When it is followed correctly it reduces the house edge to the minimum, which is usually about one-half of a percent. This basic strategy helps the player make decisions about when to hit and when to stand based on the cards he and the dealer have been dealt.
Atlantic City Blackjack in the Online Casino
The invention of the online casino in the 1990s brought a new life to Atlantic City Blackjack. For the first time, players around the world could play Atlantic City Blackjack without having to travel to New Jersey. Millions of blackjack gamblers downloaded the online casino software to their home computers and discovered the joy of playing Atlantic City Blackjack. Atlantic City Blackjack is now one of the most popular online blackjack games in countries throughout the world.
The history of blackjack in general is the history of Atlantic City Blackjack, as well — one has led to the other. In recent years, many variants of classic blackjack have been introduced — Atlantic City Blackjack is one of the most popular. The little alterations that have been made to create Atlantic City Blackjack have made all the difference. And, as they would say back in France — back where it all began — “Viva la difference!”
|
