<P> When twenty - one was introduced in the United States, gambling houses offered bonus payouts to stimulate players' interest . One such bonus was a ten - to - one payout if the player's hand consisted of the ace of spades and a black jack (either the jack of clubs or the jack of spades). This hand was called a "blackjack", and the name stuck to the game even though the ten - to - one bonus was soon withdrawn . In the modern game, a blackjack refers to any hand of an ace plus a ten or face card regardless of suits or colours . </P> <P> The first scientific and mathematically sound attempt to devise an optimal blackjack playing strategy was revealed in September 1956 . Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Cantey, Herbert Maisel and James McDermott published a paper titled The Optimum Strategy in Blackjack in the Journal of the American Statistical Association . This paper would become the foundation of all future sound efforts to beat the game of blackjack . Ed Thorp would use Baldwin's hand calculations to verify the basic strategy and later publish (in 1963) his famous book Beat the Dealer . </P> <P> At a casino blackjack table, the dealer faces five to seven playing positions from behind a semicircular table . Between one and eight standard 52 - card decks are shuffled together . At the beginning of each round, up to three players can place their bets in the "betting box" at each position in play . That is, there could be up to three players at each position at a table in jurisdictions that allow back betting . The player whose bet is at the front of the betting box is deemed to have control over the position, and the dealer will consult the controlling player for playing decisions regarding the hand; the other players of that box are said to "play behind". Any player is usually allowed to control or bet in as many boxes as desired at a single table, but it is prohibited for an individual to play on more than one table at a time or to place multiple bets within a single box . In many U.S. casinos, however, players are limited to playing two or three positions at a table and often only one person is allowed to bet on each position . </P> <P> The dealer deals cards from his / her left (the position on the dealer's far left is often referred to as "first base") to his / her far right ("third base"). Each box is dealt an initial hand of two cards visible to the people playing on it, and often to any other players . The dealer's hand receives its first card face up, and in "hole card" games immediately receives its second card face down (the hole card), which the dealer peeks at but does not reveal unless it makes the dealer's hand a blackjack . Hole card games are sometimes played on tables with a small mirror or electronic sensor that is used to peek securely at the hole card . In European casinos, "no hole card" games are prevalent; the dealer's second card is neither drawn nor consulted until the players have all played their hands . </P>

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