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Text File | 1996-09-24 | 27KB | 493 lines

DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT Users of Sage Blackjack Simulator must accept this disclaimer of warranty: Sage Blackjack Simulator is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of Sage Blackjack Simulator. You must treat this software just like a book. An example is that this software may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it being used at one location while it's being used at another. Just as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the same time. COPYRIGHT 1995, 1996 Sage Software P.O. Box 7223 Huntsville, AL 35807 (205) 830-9364 Welcome Welcome to Sage Software's Sage Blackjack Simulator. The reason Sage Software has devoted time and resources to the development of blackjack software is because the rules of the game are very simple, yet people who take some time to learn a winning system can gain an advantage over the casinos. Sage Software provides the software to satisfy a casual player who wants to play for the enjoyment of playing, and also to satisfy the serious player who wants to create, test, and learn advanced winning systems. A list and a brief description of the blackjack programs that Sage Software provides follows: Sage Blackjack Simulator (unregistered). This is the shareware version. This program can simulate the house rules of most casinos in the world. Up to seven players may play at the same time. Any seat can be unplayed, played by the user, or played by the computer. A random shuffle is used to shuffle the cards. From 1 to 8 decks can be used in the game. The minimum bet, maximum bet, and shuffling point can all be defined by the user. The speed of the game can also be adjusted (slow, medium, fast). Also, various statistics such current bankroll, largest bankroll, smallest bankroll, winnings, number of rounds played, and more are kept. With the animated graphics, sound effects, and background music, this is a very entertaining program to play. Sage Blackjack Simulator. This program is given to the user when he registers the unregisterd version. This program attempts to simulate a casino blackjack game as close as possible. It has all the functionality of the unregistered version plus can simulate a face down game (most single and double deck games in the casinos are dealt face down). The speed of the graphics can be adjusted more precisely by the user to control the speed of the game. Also, the user can define actual casino shuffles (casino shuffles are not random and can have an effect on the game). With the casino shuffles and because all cards are collected and discarded in the same order as the casinos do, this program is one of the best casino blackjack simulators on the market at any price! Sage Blackjack. This is the top of the line as far as blackjack programs go. This program was designed to teach the user winning blackjack strategies and can also be used to test and even create them. It has many teaching aids available for doing this. One teaching aid provided by this program is the Tutor. When the tutor is turned on, the computer will monitor each playing action the user makes while he plays and will notify him if he makes a mistake. The user can define any playing strategy to be tutored on, including playing strategies based on a true count. Another teaching aid is the Count Training functionality that can help teach the user how to count cards. Card counting is a method that expeirenced blackjack players use to gain an advantage over the casinos. It is no secret that a player who counts cards can gain an advantage over the casinos. Yet another training aid provided by this program is the Flash Cards. Any playing strategy that you define for a player can automatically be transferred to flash cards which you can scroll through to help you learn the proper playing actions to take under different situations. To test playing or betting strategies, this program has the ability to define most playing and betting strategies to each of the 7 seats. When the graphics are turned off and the game is started, the computer can deal more than 1,000,000 hands an hour (or closer to 6,000,000 when a 100mhz pentium or better is used). At this high rate, it is possible to evaluate different strategies by assigning them to different seats and comparing the statistics. The players advantage for each strategy will converge toward the actual value when a large number of hands are tested. Also this program has the Evaluation functionality that can be used to find the best playing action to take under different conditions. This functionality can be used to calculate the basic strategy for different house rules and can also be used to calculate count based strategies for different counting methods! The decks used in the game can also be modified. The players can be programmed to enter and leave the game under different conditions, such as based on the true count or based on money won or lost or the number of rounds played. This program offers a wealth of statistics including statistics based on the types of hands, the true count, count reversal, progression, sessions, previous hands, and more. The animated graphics, sound effects, and background music makes this a great blackjack program to play for the shear entertainment as well. This program comes packaged with a manual and can be found in a few selected stores. If you have additional questions about any of these programs, please call Sage Software at (205) 830-9364 9:00am - 5:00pm CST Monday - Friday. About Your Sage Blackjack User's Guide This manual is only one part of Sage Blackjack's documentation set. The second and more extension documentation is the Online Help system. This manual is arranged as follows: o "About Your Sage Blackjack User's Guide" An overview of this manual o "System Requirements" A list of system requirements. o "Installation Procedures" Instructions for setting up Sage Blackjack on your computer. o "Online Help" Instructions on how to use online Help to find information about tasks and features. o "Start Playing" Instructions on how to start playing Sage Blackjack. o "Rules of the Game" A description of the rules for blackjack. o "House rules" A description of different house rules and how they can effect a player's advantage. o "Basic Strategy" A description of the basic strategy and basic strategy tables for different blackjack games. o "Card Counting" A description of card counting and introduction to a simple card counting system along with count adjusted strategy tables for this system. o "Betting Strategy" A description of several different betting strategies. System Requirements The minimum software and hardware requirements your computer system needs to run Sage Blackjack successfully are shown in the following list. o Windows version 3.1 or later. o 2 megabytes (MB) of free disk space. o A mouse that is supported by Windows. Though it is not required, a mouse will make working in the graphical interface much faster and easier. Installation Procedures Installing Sage Blackjack on your computer is simple. To install Sage Blackjack, follow these steps: 1. Start the Windows application and select the Program Manager. 2. Select the run entry from the File menu item. 3. Insert the Sage Blackjack disk into the disk drive. 4. Keyin the letter of the drive that you inserted the disk into followed by ":\setup" in the command line field. For example, if the disk is in drive "A" you would type: a:\setup Next, select the OK button on the dialog box. This will cause Sage Blackjack's setup executable to start running. 5. The setup executable will display a dialog box with a default directory specified in the field. If you want to install the files in another directory, key it in in this field. 6. Select the Install button on the dialog box and the files will be installed. If the specified directory does not exist, it will be created for you. 7. If no errors have occurred during installation, a dialog box claiming successful completion will be displayed when all files have been copied and expanded. If the installation was successful, a Sage Blackjack program group will be created in the Program Manager. This will contain the Sage Blackjack program item. When you double click on this, Sage Blackjack will begin execution. Online Help Sage Blackjack's Online Help can be accessed in three different ways: by selecting the Help entry under the Help menu item, by selecting the F1 key from the keyboard, and by selecting the Help button from each dialog box. The Online Help contains extensive information that explains all aspects of the game of blackjack and describes how to use all the functionality that Sage Blackjack provides. This should be the users main source of help. Once the Help window is displayed, the buttons near the top help you find the information you need. The Contents button displays a list of Help topics that Sage Blackjack provides. The Search button displays a dialog box where you specify a topic to search for. The Back button displays the previously viewed topic. The History button displays a chronological list of all Help topics viewed during your current Blackjack session. If you need to learn how to use Help, press the F1 key on the keyboard while the Help window is open. Start Playing To start play simply select the Start Game entry under the Game menu item, however you may want to change some of the default settings before doing so. All the playing parameters can be accessed from the Game Options dialog box, which is displayed by selecting the Options entry under the Game menu item. Rules of the Game Each casino has its own set of house rules that govern the blackjack game. Although these rules vary from casino to casino, the basic rules remain the same. The game is composed of one dealer and usually from one to seven players. Generally from one to eight decks are used. Single and double deck games are dealt by hand. When more than two decks are used, a device called a card shoe is used to hold the undealt cards. To start the game the dealer deals each player two cards in sequence, one at a time, either face up or face down, depending on the house rules, in a clockwise direction. The dealer also receives two cards, one face up and one face down. The object of the game is for the player to get closer to the value of 21 than the dealer without going over (busting). If the player does this, he wins the bet. If he doesn't, he loses. If he ends up with the same value as the dealer without busting it is a tie and no money is won or lost. Each card has the same value as its index except for the ace and the picture cards. All 10's and picture cards are counted as 10. The ace can be valued as either 1 or 11, at the option of the player. The suits have no value in blackjack. When a player is dealt an ace and a ten-valued card as his first two cards it is called a "blackjack" or "natural" and generally receives on and one- half times his original bet. If the player and the dealer both have blackjacks, the player pushes with the dealer and no money is won or lost. A blackjack beats an ordinary 21. When the dealer's exposed card is an ace, the players are allowed to make an insurance bet equal to half of the amount of their initial bet. If the dealer has a blackjack, the players will be paid at 2-to-1 on their insurance bet. If the dealer does not have a blackjack, the insurance bet is lost. If it has not been determined that the dealer has a blackjack, the players are allowed to take certain actions on their hands after the initial two cards have been dealt. If the player wants another card, he can inform the dealer for a hit. In a face up game where the players do not touch the cards, the player does this by scratching the surface of the felt with his finger(s). In a face- down game where the players hold their initial two cards, the player would use his cards to scratch the felt. The player may take as many hits as he wants as long as he doesn't bust. If the player does not want anymore cards he should inform the dealer that he wishes to stand. In a face-up game the player does this by waving his hand in a lateral motion with palm down. In a face down game the player would tuck his first two cards under his bet. A player may double the amount of his initial bet after looking at his first two cards. This is referred to as doubling down and once this is done the player receives one additional card only. In face up games the player informs the dealer that he wishes to double down by placing an additional bet equal to his initial bet in the betting circle and announce "double down". In a face down game the player would also turn his first two cards over. The dealer would then deal one card to the player (face up in a face up game, face down in a face down game) and then move on to the next hand. Many casinos place restrictions on when a player may double down. Some casinos only allow doubling down on hand values of 10 or 11, some do not allow doubling down on soft hands, some do not allow doubling down after splitting. The less restrictions placed on doubling down, the more advantageous it is for the players. If a player's initial two cards are identical in value, he may split them by betting an amount equal to his original bet on the second card. He then draws additional cards on each of the split pairs, playing each hand (from his right to his left) in turn. Most casinos place a limit on the number of times a hand may be split, usually from 1 to 3. When aces are split, a player is normally permitted to draw only one additional card on each ace. Some casinos allow the player to surrender his first two cards. When a player surrenders his hand, he immediately gives up half his bet without playing his hand out. On early surrender, the player gives up half his bet regardless of whether the dealer has a blackjack or not. On late surrender if the dealer has a blackjack the player loses his entire bet. Atlantic City used to offer early surrender but have since abandoned it. Once all the players have acted on their hands the dealer flips his unexposed (hole) card over and draws cards until she has a total of 17 or above. Some casinos require the dealer to also hit soft 17s, which is to the player's disadvantage. House Rules Each casino has its own set of rules that govern the blackjack game. This set of rules is known as the house rules. The player should be aware of the house rules before he sits down to play because they have an effect on the playing decisions he must make and also determine his odds. Below is a summary of how different house rules can effect a basic strategy player's advantage. Rule Variation Effect on Player's Advantage Early Surrender +0.62 Late Surrender (single deck) +0.02 Late Surrender (multi deck) +0.07 Double Down after splitting +0.13 Drawing to split aces +0.14 Re-splitting of aces +0.03 Double Down any number of cards +0.20 2:1 pay-off for blackjack +2.32 No doubling on hard 11 -0.89 No doubling on hard 10 -0.56 No doubling on hard 9 -0.14 No doubling on hard 8 0.00 No doubling on soft hands -0.14 Dealer hits soft 17 -0.20 Dealer takes no hole card -0.13 Two deck (vs. single deck) -0.35 Four deck (vs. single deck) -0.51 Six deck (vs. single deck) -0.60 No re-splitting of pairs -0.05 Basic Strategy For a given set of house rules, there is only one best action to take for each possible hand a player may get versus each possible upcard a dealer may have if no other information is known. This set of "best actions" is known as the basic strategy. All successful blackjack systems are based on the basic strategy. This strategy was calculated by extensive computer analysis of the game. For example, to determine if it is best to hit a soft 18 versus a dealer's 9 or to stand, thousands of hands were tested hitting and then standing to see which action produced the greatest wins, or smallest losses. The action which is best is part of the basic strategy, in this case hitting is better than standing. Different house rules can effect the basic strategy. If, for example, the rules do not permit doubling down after splitting, the basic strategy would not suggest splitting as much as it would if doubling down was permitted after splitting. The number of decks used in the game will also effect the basic strategy. If a player wants to master the game of blackjack, he must first learn the basic strategy for the house rules that he intends to play under. Basic strategy tables can be found in the Online Help. Card Counting Although basic strategy is the best strategy possible when all the player knows is his hand and the dealer's exposed card, it is possible to improve on the basic strategy if the player knows some additional information. One way blackjack players can gain additional information is by keeping track of the cards that have been dealt. By doing this, he knows to a certain extent what cards are left to be dealt, and with this information he can gain an additional edge. This process of keeping track of dealt cards is called card counting and the people who perform it are labeled "counters". Contrary to many people's belief, card counting does not require a photographic memory to perform. The only ability the player needs to be able to do is simple addition and subtraction and to keep track of one number. The first step to becoming a card counter is to thoroughly learn the basic strategy. The next step is to pick a counting system. There are many published blackjack systems in most book stores and I will present a simple one that has been proven to work here. The count definition involves assigning a count value to each card value in a deck of cards. An example of a count definition would be: 2 - 6 = 1; 7 - 9 = 0; 10, Ace = -1. A good count definition will assign negative numbers to the cards that are favorable to the players and assign positive numbers to the cards that are unfavorable to the players. Once this count definition is defined, a player can determine the favorability of the cards that have yet to be dealt by maintaining a running count of all the cards that have been dealt since the cards were shuffled. For example, when using this count definition and the player has seen a 2, 10, 10, 7, Ace, 5, 10 dealt from a newly shuffled deck of cards, the running count would be 1 + -1 + -1 + 0 + -1 + 1 + -1 = -2. Since this is a negative number, it indicates that the remaining cards are less favorable than average to the players. A positive number would indicate that the remaining cards are more favorable than average. Although the running count will give the player an indication of whether the remaining cards are more favorable or less favorable than average, it does not give an indication of how favorable or how unfavorable. Suppose a player was counting cards and the current count was 4. If there were still 4 decks of cards left, this would only indicate a very small advantage. However if there was only half a deck left to be dealt, this would indicate a very large advantage for the player. In order to get a clearer idea of how much of an advantage the running count represents, it should be adjusted by the number of decks left to be dealt. This adjusted running count is called the true count and it is calculated by dividing the running count by the number of decks remaining. The larger the true count is, the more favorable the remaining cards are for the players. The smaller the true count is, the less favorable the remaining cards are for the players. For the examples given above, when the running count was 4 with 4 decks left the true count is 4/4 = 1. When the running count was 4 with half a deck left the true count is 4/0.5 = 8. When you compare these two numbers it is very clear which situation yields the player the best advantage. When a player calculates the true count, he must know the number of decks remaining. The best way to do this is to estimate the number of decks in the stack of discarded cards and subtract this number from the total number of decks used in the game. A player can practice estimating the number of decks in a stack of cards by placing a random number of cards in a stack and guessing the number. He can then check his estimate by counting the cards. If you can consistently estimate within 1/4 deck for single or double deck games or within 1/2 deck for four or more deck games, this is sufficient. Once the true count is known, the player can use it in various ways to gain more of an advantage over the casino than the basic strategy player. One thing the player can do with the true count is to vary his bet size based on it. As the true count gets larger, the player's bet size should get larger. As the true count gets smaller, the player's bet size should also get smaller. Using this technique alone will yield the player a slight advantage in most casinos. Some card counters use the true count to signal when to enter and when to exit a blackjack game. To perform this technique a player will go to a blackjack table where the dealer is shuffling the cards. He will then watch the game as the dealer deals the cards, keeping track of the current running count. When the true count raises to a certain level (perhaps 2) the player will enter the game. As he plays, he continues to keep track of the running count and when the true count falls below a certain level (perhaps 0) the player will get up and leave the game and search for another one. The advantage to using this technique is that the player only plays when the cards are favorable for him, thus he can expect to win a high percent of the money he bets. The disadvantage is that he is spending more time watching the cards then playing and it can get tiring moving from game to game. A third technique that only the very skilled players perform involves adjusting their playing actions based on the true count. As the dealer deals cards out, the undealt cards go through periods of being rich in high cards (an advantage for the players) and being rich in low cards (a disadvantage for the players). When these fluctuations occur, deviations in the basic strategy also occur. Since these fluctuations correspond to fluctuations in the true count, the player's playing strategy can be based on the true count. Betting Strategy There are many different betting strategies players use to try to gain an edge over the casinos. Flat betting is the term used to describe making the same size bet each round of play. This is probably the most common betting strategy used, however it makes no attempt to take advantage of favorable conditions. Therefore skilled players usually do not use this strategy unless they are playing only when they determine that the cards are favorable and leave the game when they turn unfavorable. There are many different types of progressive betting strategies that players use. Many players tend to make larger bets when they are consistently winning and make smaller bets when they are losing. This type of betting strategy will only work if the cards run in cycles, going through periods of winning and then periods of losing. Since the results of winning or losing a hand have very little effect on the results of the next hand, this type of betting strategy will not produce positive results consistently. Many inexperienced or frustrated players perform a type of progressive betting strategy which is opposite this. They tend to increase their bet size as they lose in an effort to make up the losses they have already endured. This is called chasing your bet and is a very risky strategy that should not be adopted by any player. The betting strategy adopted by most serious players is one that is based on the true count. As the cards become more favorable you want to make larger bets. A simple technique that is commonly used by card counters is to define a betting unit. This unit will represent the minimum bet that you will make. When the true count < 1 bet 1 unit, when 1 <= true count < 2 bet 2 units, when 2 <= true count < 3 bet 3 units, etc. Simply stated, as the true count goes up your bet size goes up, as the true count goes down your bet size should also go down. This is a very successful betting strategy and is the strategy recommended if you want to become a serious player.