This program has virtually no documentation or online help (neither about the game of Blackjack itself, nor the particulars of this program). There is very little information provided by the vendor concerning what this program actually does, how many decks are in play, how often the shoe is shuffled, etc. I just had to play for awhile and try and figure all of that out.And here is what I found. This simulates a multi-deck game (not sure, but I'd guess 6 decks) with 5 players, with fairly decent shoe penetration. The dealer shuffle is definitely visible, and occurs after about 15-20 hands. With 5 players and a dealer, that's around 16 cards per hand, which is consistent with full penetration of a 6-deck game. Nothing is configurable here; you play the game that the programmers wrote.
There is no tutorial feature, no strategy helps, nothing other than a precise simulation of playing multi-deck blackjack with 4 other people at a typical casino with good rules. You only get the help you would have if you were in an actual casino environment. This, by the way, is a strong feature if you want to simulate actual casino playing experience, which was my intended goal.
There is a statistics feature which helps you gauge how much money you are winning, how many hands have been played, your percent gain over time, etc. This is nice for those interested in measuring the effectiveness of their play. These statistics persist over time, no matter how many times you launch the application and close it, and they can be easily cleared at any time.
There is realistic sound with this game, typical casino background noise, which adds to the atmosphere conditions of actual casino play. You can set the graphics speed to either fast or real-time (I chose real-time, because it more closely approximates the actual casino experience, but reduces the pace, which is usually desirable, but not always), but that apparently is only upon installation. I don't believe that you can switch it back to the faster graphics once installation is complete.
Most of the other Blackjack software packages I have seen merely simulate one-on-one play, and move at a fast pace. I was specifically looking for a multi-player simulation in order to duplicate actual casino experience. When I found this game at Best Buy for $4.99 on their discount software rack, I was elated, but disappointed by the lack of product feature descriptions. I got lucky and discovered that this product did everything I had hoped it would. Hopefully this review will help some of you avoid having to commit to this (awesome) purchase blindly.
