We'd call blackjack games on the App Store a dime-a-dozen, but they're actually cheaper than that since most of them are free.

There are a million ways to screw up such a simple, engaging table game like blackjack. The avalanche of apps that came before  this one have discovered all those, as well as invented plenty of new ones. Big Win Blackjack manages to avoid some of the common pitfalls, but the game has also found new ways to be annoying.

Big Win Blackjack is free to play, meaning you can jump in on the table and test out that new system you've concocted, losing all your fake money before you do the same with your real cash at a casino. The problem is that when your chip stack gets low, the game gives you the option to buy some more funny money with actual coin.

There are plenty of online casinos that allow you to gamble and lose real money in an instant, but at least those supposedly give you a shot at winning. Big Win Blackjack, on the other hand, asks you to spend real money just to get pretend chips ($9.99 U.S. gets you $60,000 in fake chips). If you make such an ill-advised purchase, you're already a loser. We recommend deleting the game and re-installing it to get your money back.

Rip-offs aside -- there's also a card counter assistant that offers to teach you how to play better for $7.99, and you can also buy new casinos -- the mechanics of the game are fairly solid. Big Win Blackjack dispenses with the dopey animations that plague so many other gambling games. This omission allows you to get straight to the action.

We were annoyed with how the game's double-down prompt covers up your cards, forcing you to either memorize your hand or cancel out to get a glimpse. Our laziness coaxed us into idiotically double down on 14; something that may well get you laughed off a table in real life.

As titles go, "Big Win" is a big-time exaggeration. "Adequate Blackjack" would have been more fitting. Stay out of the store and the game will let you have a little fun killing some time along with your chip stack.

RATING: 6/10

Big Win Blackjack (free-to-play), is available on iOS platforms and published by MobileDeluxe. We played the game for two hours on an iPod Touch.

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