» About Playing Blackjack Online

Playing Blackjack Games Online

Blackjack is a favorite game amongst punters and it is a favorite game whether it is in land-based casinos or in online casinos. Just like poker, blackjack needs proper decision-making and a little bit of skill in order to beat the dealer.

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How to play Blackjack

In order to play blackjack, you would need a dealer to serve as your opponent. The objective of the game is to get a hand, which is equal to “21”. As soon as you reach “21” you win the game, but when you get a hand that goes over “21” you lose that round. When you and the dealer gets tied up the existing bet on your game will be pushed. Before you play this game you should know first the value of the cards. An ace could be counted as either 1 or 11 and cards that are from 2 to 9 are valued at their face value. A 10, Jack, Queen and a King are all counted as “10”. There are betting options too in blackjack; the “double” means that your primary bet will be doubled and will get hit with only 1 card. The “split” means when your card gets split into two cards. This means that whenever your primary card goes bust you could have a chance to win on your second card at hand. Finally, the “insurance” is provided when the dealer has already laid an ace. Since this has a better chance of getting a Black Jack, the insurance will pay you at 2:1 odds.

The Emergence of Online Blackjack

During the mid-1990s, the gambling industry made a bold move and decided to go online. When online casinos started to emerge all of the games that you could find in Las Vegas, Atlantic City or any other land-based casinos have also gone online. Instead of a person serving as your dealer a computer program gets to deal you the cards and you have to win against the computer.

With online blackjack, playing with this exciting card game has made it easier and more convenient for punters around the world. The rules stay the same and you still need to come up with a hand that equals “21” or something nearest to it without going over. The wonder of online blackjack is that you could play with your favourite card game from the comfort of your home and you could get bonuses and jackpots that are twice as big as the ones you could get in land-based casinos.

History of Blackjack

This card game has been around for several years but historians are still unsure of its exact origins. It is said that this game was first mentioned by Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, in his short story Rinconete y Cortadillo. In the short story Cervantes’ main characters are gamblers and cheaters that work around Seville and they are experts in cheating on the card game called ventiuna, which is Spanish for twenty-one – the other term for blackjack. Cervantes explained in detail that the rules of the card game is to come up with a deck of cards (composed only of two) that would amount to 21 or anywhere nearest to it without going over. Cervantes wrote and published the short story between 1601 and 1602, which clearly implies that blackjack was already in existence during the 17th century in Spain. A few years after that evidences revealed that the card game gained popularity too in France, where it was called Vingt-et-un.

When this card game was first introduced in the US, the gambling operators provided bonus payouts in order to attract players. One bonus that they offered was a ten-to-one payout when a player had an ace of spades and a black jack, which consisted of either the jack of spades or the jack of clubs. This is where the name “blackjack” first came to be because this kind of hand was referred to as blackjack and the name just stuck even when the ten-to-one bonus was taken out afterwards. In today’s casinos or online gambling sites the term “blackjack” pertains to any hand that consists of an ace and a ten or face card, regardless of colours or suits.