Hello, I'm Don, owner of Metaware Productions.
Back in the mid 80's I became interested in statistical
analysis which soon led to my becoming an above-average black jack
player. I played for several years and over the years
I've noticed how the rules have changed and tried to keep up with
those changes without becoming a card counter.
In the early to mid 90's I started getting interested
in multi-deck shoes and various theories floating around then. In
particular there was a theory called 'clumping', which had to do with
how the cards came out of the shoe. In a nutshell, it said there
would be longer winning streaks and longer losing streaks with a
multi-deck shoe.
At that time I had several blackjack simulators but
one way or another, they all fell short of allowing me to test
various strategies which I or someone else had devised. So I set out
to write my own simulator. I took into account all my experience and
only left out one item from this simulator: It won't allow you toke
the dealer (big deal, who wants to tip an electronic dealer?)
This simulator follows most casinos in that all of the
player's cards are dealt face-up and the players are not allowed to
handle them.
In addition to playing at a full table of seven spots,
I also plugged in the ability for other (computer controlled) players
to come and go from the table seemingly at will to see how clumping
was affected by this factor. But rest assured I have made this VERY
authentic. I programmed some players to be stronger than others and
have several versions of basic strategy for them to use (or not use,
depending on their intelligence level). Of course the strategies I
use (or which ones you will use) may not be the same as the simulated
players but then, that's real life and will affect how the cards come
out of the shoe. This simulator may not have a lot of bells and
whistles, but what it DOES have is a lot of mathematical accuracy and
that's far more important if you're gearing up for a trip to your
favorite casino. If you're an experienced player you'll see what I
mean when you get into it. Speaking of of bells and whistles, if you
have a sound card on your computer and choose to use it, you will
notice all kinds of 'noise' in the background. This is no accident
because if you intend to play in a casino environment you do need to
be able to play with a lot of background interferrence..
The Bottom Line
I don't play black jack any more because I found out the hard way
that it doesn't take very long for a casino to figure out who's good
and who isn't. They've come up with some pretty inovative techniques
to discourage good players because they're in business to make money,
not to give it away. So the bottom line is... if gamblng is your
lifestyle choice, at least be smart about it and prepare yourself
ahead of time.