Blackjack Bob gives thumbs up to Zappit as change of pace game
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My old card-playing pal Blackjack Bob is a Midwesterner through and through, and online casinos remain illegal in his home state.
So when visiting relatives in New Jersey in June, he took advantage of the chance to check out a few sites. He found a blackjack game he'd never played and it intrigued him enough to play a short, low-stakes session.
"It's called Zappit," he said. "Ever hear of it?"
I had. In fact, I played a demo version seven years ago at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. It was invented by Geoff Hall, the same developer who devised Blackjack Switch. Shufflemaster, now part of Scientific Games, acquired Zappit from Hall.
"It seems like fun," Bob said. "If you're dealt a 15, 16 or 17 in your first two cards, you can 'zappit' or 'zap it,' whatever you want to call it. If you zap, you get the next two cards off the top of the deck to start your hand instead.
"I cut the session after about 20 hands. You know how I am with these games. I want to see what they're about, but not for serious money. Even if I like the game, I want to look up the strategy before I play more."
Bob and I are of one mind in that regard. Learning all you can before serious play is the smart way to go.
"There's always a tradeoff," Bob said. "Being able to zap a bad hand is cool. The tradeoff is that if the dealer draws 22, it's not a bust. The house gets a push on dealer 22s."
Just to get everyone up to speed, here's how Zappit works.
