Why Is a Blackjack Shoe Called a Shoe?

The name “shoe” is derived from a term used in seventeenth century France for a gaming piece, specifically a card game called jeu de paume (pap). The name was borrowed into English in the seventeenth century. The game of jeu de paume, which was popular in France, used a deck of cards and consisted of three stages: priming, playing, and betting. The shoe was the tool used to determine the rank of a card.

A high-ranking card was placed inside the shoe, and then one or more lower ranking cards were placed on top of it. The player with the highest ranking card won the hand.

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