After a brief hiatus I am back in action. I decided to switch it up again a little today with some blackjack. I tried out a game called “Blackjack Vegas Strip” at a Vegas Tech casino, and was rewarded with a pretty fun experience. As soon as I began playing I noticed the background noise, it sounded like I was in a casino, with muffled talking, occasional slot noises, etc.. This just added a little something to the experience. As for the game, the layout was pretty traditional blackjack, the graphics were nice and I liked the layout, it was very easy on the eyes. The board offers the player 5 playing seats, with a minimum bet of $2 and maximum bet of $200 per seat, for a total round bet of $1000. I played most of my rounds with just three seats. The animations were pretty smooth, and I noticed you could turn them off, for quicker gameplay I assume, I thought that was interesting. One unique aspect was speech…when I first clicked the “Hit” button, a voice came across with “Hit me!,” and I was pretty surprised. It was a nice addition to the experience.
Once you place your bets and start playing, if you want to continue betting the same amounts, you can just click the rebet button and it will auto-bet your last amounts, which was nice, so I didn’t have to re-do my bets every round. The payouts are pretty standard, 2:1 payout, insurance pays 2:1 and blackjack pays 3:2. Insurance kicks in when the dealer shows an Ace. As for gameplay, the time really flew by because it was so enjoyable. I got caught up in the game and before I knew it I’d been playing for almost 30 minutes. I started with $3000 in funny money, and played semi-conservatively (3 seats, $50, $50, $100) splitting when I had the option and double my bets now and then. I quickly went down about $400, but in a couple of good hands, I was up almost $500. After that roller coaster, I was pretty steady hovering above $3200, with good wins here and there. Were I a more experience blackjack player I probably would have made more money instead of break even constantly! Regardless, I kept this pace for a while, mainly because I was having fun with it, until I finally looked at the clock and quit. I ended up with $3175, so $175 in the black. Not too bad for a half hour of blackjack.
I would highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a classic blackjack game that offers some good aesthetics and a pretty fluid gameplay with decent win frequency. So take some time out from the drone of the slots and hit the blackjack tables, you won’t be disappointed.
