I love to play blackjack, both online and on land. So I was really looking forward to my visit to Blackjack Castle, a site dedicated to Blackjack and Video Poker.

Blackjack Castle uses download games supplied by ICrystal. It's the same software you'll find at Video Poker Palace and Triple Play Casino.

After a minor technical hassle and a phone call to Blackjack Castle's toll-free tech support, I was at the table with a meager $20 buy in, complemented by a 10% ($2) bonus, just to take them for a test drive.

Blackjack Castle offers 8 varieties of blackjack: You can play one or two spots with one or six decks where the dealer either hits or doesn't hit soft 17. Oddly enough, detailed rules were no where to be found and I didn't even see any table limits posted, though the minimum bet appeared to be $5. Multiplayer games aren't available.

The games look okay and the cards are dealt fast but my computer occasionally locked and I had to restart the casino to play, which annoyed me, and the server seemed a little slow to respond.

On to Video Poker, the only other casino game offered at Blackjack Castle. You can play Joker Poker, Jacks or Better, or Deuces Wild, in single or "triple-play" mode. For those who haven't seen triple-play video poker, here's how it works: You're dealt three identical hands of 5 cards. You hold the cards you want to keep then receive different draw cards on each hand. It's a nice way of spicing up the standard game.

Their Jacks or Better is a 6/9 machine with a 4000 royal, so it should pay out at about 99.5%, with optimal play of course. If you're feeling lazy, the software will choose which cards to hold for you.

Overall, I would expect to see more varieties of blackjack -- and especially multiplayer games -- at a site that calls itself "Blackjack Castle". I'm disappointed. And I lost my 22 bucks.