CVData/ST is an add-in to the CVData Blackjack Simulator. That is, it requires CVData and adds additional functionality. The primary reason for separating the function is to keep a reasonable price for CVData while adding the ability to perform simulation functions required by few people. 4r502s
Over the years, many people have created Blackjack simulators to examine complex techniques. Generally, these sims can only be used by the developers themselves as they have little or no interface. The trick is to create a very generalized interface that can be used by non-programmers to specify complex conditions and techniques. Such is the attempt in this software.
ST consists of three parts: The shuffle, the method of attacking the shuffle and the data collected.
The Shuffle - Shuffle code already exists in CVData. It is highly configurable allowing enormous variation in the skill of the dealer. You can describe levels of randomness in each step. 200 steps are allowed and an entire rifle & restack, strip or stepladder is one step. Two changes have been made in this release. When riffling two equal stacks, dealer right or left handedness is selected randomly. Also, the riffle itself is changed. Prior to this release, you specified the percentage of card falls that are 1, 2, 3 or 4 cards. A perfect riffle is all one card falls. But, dealers are not perfect. In this release, the percentages can vary during the riffle. As the cards are riffled, the angle of the cards against the dealer's thumb changes. Cards near the end of the riffle are riffled less precisely. You can now specify the card fall percentages at the start and end of the riffle and they gradually change as the riffle progresses.
The Attack - The focus is on detailed specification of many techniques as opposed to handling every technique. At least at first. The more common techniques exist now and further techniques will be added as requested. One or two track zones can be specified. The counts are merged. Independent zones will be examined later. One or two play zones can be specified depending on the "richness" of cards in the track zone(s). Each play zone has a cut point, start, length and optional pseudo-length. Two methods of play are allowed for each play zone. Either fixed betting through the zone (a poor method) depending on the value of the TZ or betting by count. When betting by count, a large amount of flexibility is provided in calculating the IRC. Also, different playing and betting strategies can be specified in each play zone. Errors can be inserted at every step. In fact, the main purpose of this function is to simulate the effect of player errors on ST. Errors can be vastly more costly in ST than in straight card counting. An extended NRS calculator is included to aid the in setting the specifications.
The Data - The standard CVData 53 tables of data are created during ST simulation. Two additional columns have been added - the average running and true counts by hand depth. This can be used to the effect of the cuts. Also an additional three tables can be created for a total of 57. Three tables of statistics are normally kept by hand depth. Normally, there is one row per hand depth. If this new option is selected, the data is displayed as one row per quarter deck of depth. This is not the same because hands have variable lengths. The option is useful when examining shuffle tracking results.
And More Data - Normally all hands are displayed in the True Count, Running Count and Hand Depth tables. 54 tables of data is a good start. However, when looking at shuffle tracking results it is often far more valuable to examine selected hands. Using a dropdown list you can request that only hands in a specific play zone, both play zones or no play zones be collected in the sixteen tables displayed by True Count, Running Count and Hand Depth. This provides the ability to run millions of shuffles and focus purely on the activity within the play zones. The cost of errors becomes immediately visible with this data. Of course all the data is also available in the Report Generator and Web table generator.
Added in the latest release -
- The shuffle has been doubled in speed.
- Shuffles can now have 200 steps. Note: A two riffle & restack and stepladder is only five steps. But in fact I did get a request to increase the steps from 50.
- Multiple, independent track and play zones now ed for shuffle-tracking. In fact, you can have two pairs of married trackzones and the software will pick the best and set up the playzones accordingly.
- Shuffle map feature added from CVShuffle to CVData/ST.
Note: CVData/ST does not shuffle tracking practice, shuffle or cut analysis. For these functions, see CVShuffle.
