Hit or Stand Makes Practicing Blackjack Basic Strategy Fun

To get a quick reality check on whether or not you know basic blackjack strategy, we recommend you try the free Macromedia Flash game called Hit or Stand. With this smart game players try to earn
  high scores in either normal or difficult mode by making the right basic strategy decisions in the quickest possible time. 

Hit or Stand is a fun application. You’re given a beginning bankroll of 100 credits which you can bet in increments of 5 up to the level of your bankroll. However, as we mentioned, this game isn’t about winning money. It’s about making the right quick decisions in blackjack. 

In normal mode, you’ll get a number of no-brainer hands, but just when you think you’ve got it made, a hand will come along that will test your basic strategy knowledge. In the difficult mode, the game is much more challenging and in order to score well, you’ll have to have your strategy down pat. Difficult mode also adds the extra tension of a timer bar quickly decreasing. If you don’t make a decision in time, you’ll incur a penalty.

If you do make a mistake, Hit or Stand will tell you why. This is a great reminder of the precepts of basic strategy.

Once you’ve played 19 hands, you’ll be asked to enter your name to see where you’ve landed in the winner’s list. I think it’s a safe bet that if you don’t score 100 you won’t see your name in lights. There’s a three-day ticker for high scores for both levels, and for ultimate bragging rights, an all-time ticker for the difficult level.

The game is well designed with clean graphics. It can be sized to your liking with either a small, medium or large format.  Overall,  Hit or Stand is a fun and painless way to practice basic strategy.

While you’re at the site, check out the message boards, rules & strategy, blackjack books and recommended places to play blackjack online. The site operators are also very straight-forward about the fact that even with perfect strategy play, blackjack, is a negative expectation game.