Blackjack has been around for quite some time and throughout its history, it gained the attention of millions of players making it one of the most popular table games in any casino on earth.
The popularity of blackjack comes down to a couple of factors such as the game being simple to play, everyone playing against the dealer, and it having a low house edge especially if you learn some strategies.
However, even though blackjack has been around for hundreds of years, there are still some fun facts about the game that most people don’t know.
Let’s highlight some of them.
Blackjack Was First Described by the Author of Don Quixote
In 1605, Miguel de Cervantes wrote an influential novel called Don Quixote, which set a standard for European literature in that period.
Before Cervantes wrote Don Quixote, he wrote a short story about two gamblers living in Seville titled “Rinconete y Cortadillo.” In this story, the title characters are cheating in the game of ventiuno, which means “twenty-one” in Spanish.
As described by Cervantes, ventiuno is a card game in which aces can either represent 1 or 11, and the objective is to reach 21 or close to it without going over.
This is very similar if not the same blackjack game we all know and love today.
Blackjack Is One of Few Games Where You Can Actually Earn a Living
The dream of playing your favorite casino game and making enough money to make a living is short lasted for most casino games. But that is not the case with blackjack. In fact, it is proven that you can actually earn a living playing blackjack professionally.
A gambler who refuses to gamble unless the odds are in their favor is called an “advantage gambler.” There are, however, some gambling games that cannot be played with an edge. There is a house edge in most casino games that cannot be overcome.
Blackjack is the only exception, as you can check here: mbitcasino.io/blackjack
In blackjack, counting cards is the most famous advantage gambling technique, but it's not the only one. If the rules are generous to the player, even if you don't count cards, you can play close to the break-even game.
Counting Cards Is Working and It is Not as Hard as You Think
In continuation of our funny blackjack facts, have you ever heard of or tried card counting before? There has actually been a long history of this technique. This was around the time when the Blackjack counting book was published in the 1960s.
By counting cards, you can predict which cards will be low and high value. Depending on how you do it, you can adjust your bets accordingly. Try checking out the best online blackjack guides if you're interested in learning the technique of card counting.
The concept behind counting cards is not well understood by many people. There's nothing complicated about it, and you don't have to memorize the deck or which cards have been played already. Basically, if a deck contains a lot of high cards, the player wins, and if it contains lots of low cards, the casino wins.
The Name Behind the Game
Look no further than the jack of spades and jack of clubs in the deck for the origin of the name “blackjack.”
A low-level royal pair provided the perfect opportunity for Nevada's first casinos to introduce their new European card game. Blackjack was a gamble that saloon owners and gambling hall operators had to sell to skeptical crowds at a time when most card sharps preferred the mano-a-mano combat of poker.
Early blackjack purveyors developed an elegant promotion that appealed to every gambler's most valuable commodity. When the ace of spades is paired with either the jack of spades or the jack of clubs, the player would earn an instant payout of 10 to 1.
Big Wins at Blackjack
A professional blackjack player who is also in the Hall of Fame took Atlantic City Casinos for $15 million in five months.
During a five-month period between December 2010 and April 2011, Don Johnson lived the dream of every blackjack enthusiast.
Johnson negotiated favorable deals with a trio of Atlantic City casinos using an eight-figure bankroll and the confidence of a high roller. Johnson bet $100,000 per hand and received a 20% discount on his losses at the Borgata, Tropicana, and Caesars.
As a result of these player-friendly conditions, Johnson cleaned up the house's clock by winning $6 million at the Tropicana, $5 million from the Borgata, and $4 million from Caesars, which forced all three venues to stop offering discounts as a result.