Blackjack is a classic casino game that has seen many players sit at the table and try their luck at beating the dealer with a hand not exceeding a total of 21. With this in mind, let us flick through the history books and visit some past winners to see if their luck can rub off and help us to manifest a win when we next take a seat at a virtual table to play Blackjack online.
Scroll to reveal winning names.
Kerry Packer – $47 million
Packer has not one, but two big Blackjack wins, with the first in 1991, when he played a few games in the Hilton Las Vegas. Despite being a multi-millionaire, Packer purposely chose a public table, so people could watch his games and cheer him on, which they did. That night, they saw Packer walk away with an extra $7 million in his pocket.
A few years later, in 1995, Packer was back in the casinos of Las Vegas, this time only for a short while – however, he made use of his time on the casino floor; placing $250,000 worth of bets each round. Eight hands and 40 minutes later, Packer walked away with $40 million – that’s essentially one million a minute!
Don Johnson – $15.1 million
Johnson is an avid Blackjack player who played in many casinos, resulting in winning streaks. However, over the course of five months, between December 2010 and April 2011, Johnson won $15.1 million in Atlantic City.
It is said that Johnson is known as a strategic Blackjack player, as he incorporates a lot of mathematical strategies into his gameplay. Not only this, but before this, Johnson, was already a multi-millionaire, so was placing big wagers down, without worrying about the consequences of losing it, and so that when he eventually won, he won big.
‘Shoeless’ Joe – $1.5 million
‘Shoeless’ Joe might not have claimed the biggest win, but he didn’t claim the smallest either. In fact, the entire story of this particular winning night is worth an entry into the Blackjack wins history books.
In 1995, in Treasure Island Casino, Joe, who had just been thrown out by his wife and received a cheque for $400, walked into the casino, ready to play, with no shoes on. This is why he is known as Shoeless Joe, as nobody actually knows he true identity.
On the night he walked in, shoeless, Joe ended up winning $1.5 million. But, due to his aggressive gameplay, on the same night, Joe lost all his winnings, losing his millionaire status and everything he had gained that night. There are many variations of the accounts on what happened that night, and nobody is really sure how Joe won the amount he did, nor how he lost it all too, but what we do know is that he did, in fact, lose everything he won that night.
These are just three of the many big Blackjack wins throughout history, with plenty more out there for you to discover. You never know, if you play your cards right, you could be in the future books of Blackjack wins!
