One of the most popular card games now is online blackjack. Similar to the majority of games, blackjack was not invented at a particular time by one person. The game that was alike modern blackjack existed in France in the 18 century. That game was called Vingt-et-un, meaning “21″ in French. Then the game came to North America when French colonists went there and soon it spread around the continent. The casino game had been developing for a long, and continues to develop today.
When in 1931 Nevada made gambling legal the game was still known as “21″. To draw more players to the game, casinos started to pay 10-to-1 on the player’s bet if his hand was the Ace of Spades and black jacks (the Jack of Spades or the Jack of Clubs). Although it was long ago and casinos stopped offering these additional payouts, the game kept the name “blackjack” and became one of the favorite games around the world.
The rules of the modern blackjack are simple, and this is one of the main reasons for its great popularity. The aim is to receive a hand that will have a card value as close to 21 as possible and not more. A hand which has more than 21 is a bust. There may be several players at a blackjack table but they don’t play against one another but only against the dealer. The aim is to beat only the dealer’s hand.
The suits of cards have no meaning in blackjack. Number cards (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) have a value similar to their number, the picture cards (Jacks, Queens, and Kings) are counted as 10. Aces can be counted as 11 or 1, what is more beneficial for the player. Thus, a hand with an Ace and an 8 is worth 19 (the Ace is 11, called also a soft Ace). A hand that has an Ace, a Five, and a Nine is worth 15 (the Ace is 1, and is called a hard Ace, since if it counted 11 the player with such a hand would bust).
A playing table is a semi-circle. The dealer is in the center of the table in front of players on the straight side, the players sit around.
Casino tables feature betting limits, with a minimum and max bet as a rule. To start a game, a player just sits down at a white space and puts a bet in the small marked place on the table right in front of him.