The History of Blackjack
Along with poker and roulette, blackjack is undoubtedly one of the most popular and well-known casino table games. A pastime of ancient origins that traces its origins to the 1700s. It was the French who spread this game who invented Ving-et-un or twenty-one, one of the most popular entertainments in the court of Louis XV. The French immigrants who colonized the South of the United States and in particular Louisiana, took Ving-et-un across the ocean, starting the game from New Orleans, the nerve centre of French colonization in the US. In a short time, the game spread widely in the rest of the new state, infecting the English colonists who would shortly be freed from the Motherland by incorporating (with a treaty dated 1806) also Louisiana in the newborn confederation of states.
This game has been able to withstand the stormy epic of US casinos by establishing itself as one of the most popular entertainment. Today, however, with the live rooms now almost becoming a last trench of the ‘900, the game has found a place in the top casinos online UK where blackjack fans try their hand at the new live casinos.
The MIT crowd
Blackjack is also known to be a pastime for mathematical geniuses. The story of the MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) students is now in the public domain in Boston which in the 1990s broke out several casinos in Las Vegas and Monte Carlo thanks to their ability to calculate. The story shot in 21, a famous 2008 film directed by Robert Luketic with Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth and Jim Sturgess, recalls this group of intrepid young mathematicians first told in the best seller published by The New York Times Bringing Down the House, written by essayist Ben Mezrich.
Although part of the story is fictional, this group of counting geniuses really challenged dealers from around the world by showing off their math skills on the green table. Their investments were increased tenfold thanks to a group strategy called Hi-Lo, a technique that involves counting cards (high) and low (low) and allows you to calculate the odds of winning and the output of certain values. A system for truth patented by Al Francesco (since 2002 in the blackjack Hall of Fame at the Barona casino in San Diego in California) the pioneer of counting, known to most as “the master of blackjack” (the master of blackjack). The demiurge of the new system found the inspiration for the creation of his action group thanks to the book by Edward Thorp (another pioneer of counting in the Barona’s hall of fame) Beat the Dealer.
After this enlightening reading, the young Al, formerly a Biribi professional (Greek version of Pinnacola), began to build his team to beat the casinos by indoctrinating new followers with his mathematical knowledge and teaching them the Big Player Concept, a system that provides the use of “forklift players” inserted in tables with a low range of stakes, called to signal the right moment to bring in a big player ready to invest huge capital when the cards in the decks favor winning sequences for the players.
The story of Peter Griffin
Another computing genius lent to the world of blackjack is Peter A. Griffin, a mathematician at California State University in Sacramento. His passion for numbers and the preparation of a course for his students dedicated to the calculation of probabilities led him between the 60s and 70s to attend casinos in Nevada. An experience that brought Griffin some monetary losses but also the awareness of having to devote himself even more intensely to the study. From this scientific approach to the world of gambling halls, “Theory of Blackjack: The Complete Card Counter’s Guide to the Casino Game of 21” was born, still considered by many today as the bible for card counting and a technical approach to the discipline of blackjack.