The Origins of Blackjack
Standardized decks of cards first appeared in the year 1440 when Guttenberg, the inventor of the printing press, printed a 50 card deck. The Guttenberg cards and the games played with them became extremely popular among royalty and aristocrats. Most of the games they played required reaching a specific card count total.Baccarat in Italy
In Italy the game of Baccarat was being played around the mid 1400's. Baccarat requires a total card count of nine. Then the Italians also had a game called Seven-and-a-Half. This game was played with only eights, nines, tens and the face cards. The face cards were counted as the "half" and the King of diamonds was wild. This was the first game in which the player would automatically go "bust" if his cards totaled over the required 7 and 1/2.Spanish One-and-Thirty
The Spanish had a game called One-and-Thirty and there is record of this game in a Spanish history book dated 1570. In this game the players ante and receive 3 cards each. Then three community cards are dealt to the table. Each player takes one of the community cards and replaces it with a card from his hand. Only 3-card flushes qualify in the card counting total and 31 is the highest hand.French Quinze
Then came the French in the 1800's with the game of Quinze. The required winning total in this game was, of course, 15. Quinze was especially popular with French royalty. They gathered in special salons to play Quinze, and, so they wouldn't be recognized, they often wore masks.French Vingt-et-Un
However, it was the French game of Vingt-et-Un (21) which sounds like the real precursor of Blackjack. Here the player had to reach a card count total of 21, and it was this game that eventually crossed over to America. It is first mentioned around 1905, and although it began as a private game, it finally showed up in casinos and gambling halls around 1910.How French Vingt-et-Un Became Blackjack
The game of Vingt-et-Un was not very popular in its beginnings in America. In order to entice players to the game, the casinos tried paying out various bonuses. One of these bonuses was paid when the player's hand consisted of the Ace of Spades and a black Jack – either the Jack of Spades or of Clubs. Such a hand was named "Black Jack", and so the game was called Blackjack, much easier to pronounce than Vingt-et-Un.Soon special green felt tables were being made for the game of Blackjack, and by the late 1950's Blackjack was the number one table game in most casinos.
Today we have many variations of the original Blackjack in addition to being able to play the game with all its variations online. We even have "live dealer" Blackjack games online. It has come a long way since the 1910 French game of Vingt-et-Un.
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