That's how 21 was renamed blackjack-from the combination of those two cards. Some gambling houses offered bigger payouts for blackjack hands, while others gave bonuses for certain card combinations-namely an ace of spades with a jack of clubs.

If the dealer scores closest to 21, you lose.Īlthough blackjack was played even in early American gambling houses, it was never as popular a game as poker, so gaming houses had to spice it up a bit in order to give it a little more mass appeal. The goal of the game is to beat the dealer's hand by scoring 21 or as close to 21 as you can get without going over. It's believed that the game of blackjack has its roots in France.