Vegas Strip Blackjack

The wombat says: Ahhh Vegas. This wombat’s spiritual mothership and infamous casino capital of the world. In fact if it wasn’t such a ballache to get to, we’d visit more often (although Mrs Wombat isn’t quite as fond of it as I am). Las Vegas is home to over 100 world-famous casinos including Caesar’s Palace (so good they named a ruddy salad after it), the Luxor, MGM Grand, Excalibur, the Mirage, Circus Circus and the Bellagio (think Ocean’s Eleven).  Unsurprisingly Wombat fans, Las Vegas is also the home to Vegas Strip Blackjack, one of the most popular blackjack variations.

This cheeky version brought to us from those online slot wizards at Microgaming  uses 4 standard decks each with 52 cards in it. It also follows the usual blackjack rules with a bit of variation involved when it comes to doubling or splitting. But more on that below… Let’s fire it up and take a look! Bonza.

Look and Feel

The overall design of Vegas Strip Blackjack won’t be winning any awards any time soon, but it does get the job done. However this Wombat is a big fan of the soothing jazzy piano soundtrack that tinkles away in the background. Very relaxing.

Game Play

Just like in standard blackjack, the objective of the game is to get the value of your hand t as close to 21 as possible without busting. A dealer’s blackjack beats the player’s blackjack, with the game continuing if both the dealer and the player have a blackjack. Bets start from £1 in Vegas Strip Blackjack and go up to £200 (this kind of bet range is the standard in most Blackjack games). Your ususal blackjack payout of 3:1 applies here too, and an insurance payout (if you think the dealer may have a Blackjack in their hand) will give you 2:1.

Microgaming’s Vegas Strip Blackjack is a hole card game and follows all standard hole card rules. ‘But what does that mean’, I hear you ask? Well, a hole card game is when the dealer is dealt two cards, one face up and one face down. The the unturned card is referred to as the ‘hole card’ and adds an extra element of risk to your game!

Doubling Down is allowed for any 2 cards and it’s also allowed after you split the cards. The splitting of Aces is allows only once and you receive only one additional card before being forced to stand. Further the split aces that have a 10 valued card is not considered as blackjack, but merely a 21 hand.

Conclusion

Ok, so there are no multi-hand options in this straightforward game or any side bets either, just some nice basic blackjack. For all you posh players who might be looking for something a bit more sophisticated, you may find this a bit on the dull side. If so, then try your hand( get it?) at Vegas Strip Blackjack Gold instead, it’s part of Microgaming’s Gold Series. The rest of you sit back and enjoy the simple game play on offer here. Yup, Vegas Strip Blackjack comes with the Wombat seal of approval.

Wombat Score: 4/5