MAXDNAME Blackjack International contains a plethora of bells and whistles allowing for realistic situations and house rules found in many casinos. The ability to change from single deck (a card counter's dream) to an eight deck shoe (and the option to control penetration of the shoe—40% to 80% before a new deal) is in line with house rules worldwide. Dealer controls and double and or split house rules can be altered to conform to any legitimate casino set up. Colors for background vary and a player can pick from 16 different countries as a player's domain. While the betting lingua franca is fun it might not be within the realm of the "politically correct" (beers for Germany, bikini bras for Brazil, and tequila shots for Mexico). The "hints" and "report card" features are handy for the beginning players who needs some advice, though running totals do change. The only negatives I encountered was an infuriatingly slow response time as my betting symbols grew to more than 1,000, and some of the "other" players would hit on unwise hands thus taking a dealer's bust card on occasion or ruining my hand. In most casinos a dealer will have to announce to the pit boss if they are hitting any player's hand over a 17 (this done because it is highly irregular—and I found whomever sat to my right in the 2.0.9 version seemed to have playing strategy akin to "Rainman"). As a long time player I found this disturbing i.e. watching my "go cards" pile up in my neighbor's hand raising the odds of a bust card to me growing with each hit the computer took past 11 (with a dealer showing a four). As free software goes this game is better than most, but I'd settle for fewer colors and fancy graphics if the two negatives mentioned could be corrected. With those items changed this cold be one the best blackjack games on the market. All in all: let me know when the next version is available and its cost—I'm in…
(Version 2.0.9) | 
