Blackjack Varieties
Blackjack, formerly named Black Jack and Vingt-Un, is the first American variant of an ancient European card game called Twenty-One. While Blackjack has retained much of its Caribbean flavor, it has adopted many of the rules of the newer versions of 21 other card games. The earliest version of Blackjack was invented bycard players in Puerto Rico during the 16th century. In Puerto Rico, there was a version of Vingt-Un named Vincenzo Spanish Jack which was a variation on Blackjack. In the early twentieth century, the English game of Blackjack was modified to allow Blackjack to be played with three decks of cards.
Most versions of blackjack are played with seven-card hands. Of these seven card hands, five of them are Ace/King, King/Queen, Queen/Deck and Rook/Bee. Five of these cards, Ace/King, King/Queen, Queen/Deck and Rook/Bee, form the basic spread, which is a single deck of cards. The remaining deck can be used to support any amount of action that you wish to take. One variation of blackjack that you may find interesting is called “Vegas”.
In a blackjack game of Vegas, after the last round of betting, the player with the most money at the end of the session wins and takes the pot. This is how casinos get their money; by making sure that the bettors keep winning. This is why in a traditional blackjack game you will see a person (usually the dealer) walk away after winning two or three rounds. After winning three or four, the dealer will either say “I think you have already won” or “let’s go for a count” and walk away. Blackjack players know that if they keep winning more, the casino will have no choice but to pay out more money to the losing players until there is nothing left to be won by the winning players.
Another interesting type of blackjack is called “cards-shuffling”. In this game, the dealer will deal five cards to each of the players and then shuffle them, so that the face down cards will become the top cards. Then the dealer will deal seven cards to each player. However, because the dealers have already dealt seven to the table, this is considered to be a “split” hand, since the seven cards have already been looked at by other players. These cards will now be mixed up and a new five-card hand will be dealt to the players.
This type of blackjack is called “deal-and-counter” or “DAC” blackjack. Because this is a hands-on activity, it is much faster than regular games. For an example, say the dealer has an Ace and King, and your Ace is revealed as a King. Since it’s your Ace you have to make sure your Ace is not the King before betting or folding, otherwise you run the risk of getting your Ace exchanged.
The final kind of blackjack is called “spades” and is a fast, highly volatile form of play. It uses blackjack playing cards, which have Ace, Queen, Jack and King on one card. Players are dealt three decks of cards face down, and are dealt a new hand each time the cards are dealt. The player who has the highest hand at the end wins.