The game of blackjack is an easy to learn and very popular casino card game. The game’s popularity is due to its ease of play and the fact that the game can results in consistent winnings if people learn the basic strategy. Blackjack is a game of skill and strategy. The game is not a new game. The game’s roots are traced back to France where it is believed to have developed from other card games. The game played in France was called Vingt et Un. This means twenty-one in French. Vingt et Un was played in the 1700s. The game came to the United States from France in the 1800s when it was played with a Jack of Spades and an Ace of Spades received in the first two cards would payout at ten to one. This gave the game the name of blackjack.

In the 1950s and 1960s the game was studied by mathematicians and other experts and subject to thousands of computer simulations. The results of these simulations are the basic strategy charts that are found everywhere. The results of all of this interest were many how to books that basically showed players how to lower the house advantage by following basic strategy. This greatly increased the popularity of the game by making it possible for players to have consistent winnings by following the basic strategy and card counting. The casino countered with using multiple decks, shuffling after each hand and using automatic card shufflers.

There are many different games of blackjack with different variations of the rules. The object of the game is the same in every case – to score twenty-one or as close to twenty-one as possible without going over and to beat the dealer at the same time. Given this basic objective, there are different rules or features that are combined in different ways to make the different game variations. The Downtown Las Vegas version requires the dealer to hit on a soft seventeen. In the Las Vegas Strip version the dealer stands on all hands of seventeen as in the Atlantic City version. The Atlantic City version also allows for late surrender which isn’t available in either Las Vegas versions. For players who like to split pairs, there is the Multi Split Blackjack game that allows for up to three splits in a hand. Players who like to play more than one hand at a time can play the Multi Player version on the game. Depending on the software manufacturer the player can play up to three hands. Players who want something more closely approximating a casino blackjack table can play the Live Dealer version of the game. This allows for interaction between the dealer and the players.

Different games from different software manufacturers combine different pieces that make the different game variations. Players should check the different games to see which ones they like. Online Gambling Insider has software manufacturer listings for blackjack that provides the features of each game.