My Blackjack skills on a scale of 1 to 10 are about a zero. So when I spotted
Kenny Rogers Blackjack in the iPhone Apps store I was skeptical that it would improve my already dreadful game. Only one thing made me buy this application. During your Blackjack game the song “The Gambler” plays in the background. To me there’s just something funny about listening to The Gambler while gambling on the iPhone. The sound can be turned off or Kenny fans can set it to keep repeating over (and over and over).

While the game has quite a few options – as evidenced by the screens below – one of the weaknesses is that it has no teaching mode. For neophytes like me – this means that I’ll have to learn by doing. There isn’t any instructional assistance as I’ve seen with some programs. The help screen is limited to one page of instruction that explains you win the game by coming closer to 21 than the dealer without going over.

The first option (thankfully) allows you to shut off the background music. If you’re a real Kenny fan, you can not only keep the music on – but you can loop it forever..

You can customize some of the gambling options by increasing the numbers of decks and whether the dealer hits on a soft 17 (I think that’s an Ace and a six).

One of the cool things about the game is that you can enable “swiping” to show whether you want to take a card to stand. Just like at the casino if you wave (swipe) your hand side to side that will tell the dealer you are standing. While if you swipe your hand up and down that means to take a hit.

This is a cool little game that I think is going to be useful to pull out and show off to people like my Mom who will be impressed by the Kenny Rogers singing in the background. I don’t expect it to make me a fortune but I guess miracles happen – and heck, you can’t win if you don’t (know how to) play!

Kenny Rogers Blackjack (iTunes Link)