CVReview Results/Activity Tracker/Analyzer

Practice and simulation software are forward looking. That is, you are improving your accuracy and attack methodologies, and evaluating strategies, betting, risk, bankroll requirements, etc. for future play. CVReview is backward looking. That is, it is used to evaluate your past play: What worked, how you tracked against expectation, how much tips and expenses affect your results, which locations and casinos have been problematic, where you have realized the best results per hour, from which casino groups you have extracted funds, etc. It can also be used to track comps, expenses, backoffs, time, and other important information.

The objectives in building this software are:

Ease of use
Quick, accurate, and flexible data entry
Standardization of dates, rules, casinos, casino owners, and other fields
Flexibility in customizing the data held to match your personal requirements
Flexibility in display/calculation of data and charts
Flexibility in report generation.
Ability to configure for different activities: Blackjack, Poker, Sports, etc.
Tie-ins to other products, including CVCX and CBJN (Current Blackjack News)
Team tracking/analysis
Modern architecture to allow easy additions. Suggestions are welcome.
Documentation: In addition to this document, you will find a Help ? at the lower right or upper right of most screens which will display screen help.

A sample journal has been included. It is advised to play with this first to become accustomed to the functions. Once you are ready for a real journal, use the New button to create your own.

CVReview Functions/Features

Following find a brief overview of the functionality.

Journals and Chapters

We start with journals. Each journal is a database. Some users will have one journal. Some may decide to separate data into multiple journals, say for blackjack, poker, and sports; or for team play versus solo. Journals are made up of tables of rows and columns. Each row is an event, say an hour at a blackjack table. Columns contain data about those sessions.

Each journal is made up of chapters for different types of data: sessions, expenses, comps, etc. Some users will use one chapter, some more. As always, the point is flexibility.

Sessions

Flexible database architecture, management, and backups.
You can start with standard columns or no columns except date and notes, and then build your own. You add columns by name and data type.
You can also add standard calculated columns. For example, click a check mark, and the standard deviation from the norm column will be added showing where you stood on the standard normal curve for each session. (This requires a CVCX license or other source of the advantage and standard deviation.)
You can add columns which contain custom calculations. You define the formula used to create data in a column. Formulas can be simple, like “won/total bet”, or complex containing functions and if statements.
Ability to define which columns are collected, displayed, charted, printed, and for which dropdown lists are created.
Dropdown lists are used in selected columns. That is, when you enter a casino, you can select from all casinos previously added or add a new one. This standardizes the names for later grouping and charting. These lists are constantly updated.
Connections to the CBJN casino database from which the casino owner and CBJN notes are automatically extracted. If you do not have a CBJN subscription, an old version is used. Enter Bellagio, hit enter, and MGM will be added to the Owner column. It can be useful to know how much you have won from all the casinos owned by the same parent corporation. CBJN casino notes are also added.
Connection to the CVCX simulator archives, including your own sims, is provided if you have a CVCX license. This will take fields (decks, penetration, rules, minimum bet, and spread) apply them to the selected sim and calculate and autofill columns for various stats of your choosing. This also works with the demo version of CVCX – but the results will not be correct.
For the statisticians, you can add calculated columns of the Std.Dev. from norm and probability of the achieved result or better. This is where your results stand on the standard normal curve. Zero means your results were what were expected. 1.0 means your results were one standard deviation above what was expected.
In addition to the above, it can calculate the same stats for a selected set of sessions and chart where your results sit on the standard normal curve.
Data import capability is supported from spreadsheets, text files, emails, etc. This is a simple copy/paste, only the paste is analyzed by CVReview while it is applied. CBJN and CVCX data may be automatically added during the import. Rules will be standardized. Imported data can have different column names and orders. You can add fixed columns. That is, if you are a team captain, you can import emailed data and specify the player name to go in a player column.
Easy to use data subset selection and sorting. For example, you can ask it to display only sessions in a specified date range which had 6 or 8 decks in a casino owned by MGM where you won over $1,000 sorted by casino and date within casino. This is done with simple dropdowns populated according to the selected columns. All charts and stats will be based on the current selection. You can save and load selection definitions.
Mini-charts and overall statistics are displayed in a dashboard as you add, change, or select data. Custom columns can be included. Dropdown lists are used to change a chart and the lists of charts are created by you by simply clicking on the chart option next to the column name.
Large charts can also be displayed with more detail.
Chart Build capability allows you to create custom area, line, horizontal bar, vertical bar, and pie charts. You define which columns are used for the X and Y axes and the math added to the data. This is done with simple dropdown lists created dynamically from your settings. You can save these custom chart definitions.
You define which stats are included in the dashboard statistics display. You can also create your own statistics. The custom calculated column formulas discussed earlier are horizontal. That is, they are calculated using data from the same row (session). These stats can be vertical, looking at entire columns For example, you can create a stat like “sum(won)/(sum(minutes)/60)”. Additional functions are supported. You just type the column names and it finds the columns and performs the math. This is simpler than Excel where the formula would be “=SUM(L3:L41)/(SUM(I3:I41)/60)” and might change as you add rows or insert columns.
Click a button, and selected data is sent to Excel. If you don’t have Excel, you can use an included spreadsheet system with over 100 functions for complex data manipulation and examination.
An Examine function designed by Dr. Richard Reid is included. This examines the sessions looking for nine possible problems. This was designed for examining team player results; but may also be useful for a lone player.
Data entry and importation is designed for ease, and accuracy. Dates can be entered in many formats. Clicking on a date field brings up a calendar. Imported dates could be Jan 5 2023, jan 5 23, 5 jan 23, 5 jan 2023, january 5, 23, 1/5/23, 23/1/5, your local country format and language, or military format. These will all be standardized to an internal format. Rules will also be standardized, standard abbreviations used (e.g. ds changed to das, nh changed to enhc, sr changed to ls), all changed to lower case, and sorted alphabetically. This allows for charting and selection purposes and creation of dropdown lists. For the Owner field, it tries to recognize the casino. For example, add casino Bell and it will recognize you probably meant Bellagio and add MGM as the owner. Add Cae, it will assume you meant Caesars and add that. Add Caesars Palace and it will shorten it to Caesars to take less space in the display. Tracking results by casino owner may be useful to avoid problems. If you are using the CVCX connection and have previously added a session with the same penetration, decks, rules, min bet, and spread, it will remember the values calculated previously and autofill any CVCX fields that you have selected.
If there is a new release, an install new release button will appear on entry. Click the button and you will be updated in a few seconds.
Customized reports are supported. You can select the sessions and the columns to be printed, and if stats and/or notes are included. You select page orientation and font sizes. PDFs can be generated in Windows 10 & higher. So, you can create a report for a particular set of casinos and take it with you on another trip.

Expenses

A journal currently has six chapters. The above covers the Sessions chapter. You decide which chapters to use. Let us continue.

Expenses has its own chapter with its own tables with their own settings including most of the above relevant functionality which will not be repeated here.
Expenses in the Expenses table can be automatically aggregated by trip and then divided up into the sessions for that trip. They can be evenly divided over a trip’s sessions or prorated by time spent in each session. These calculations are inserted into the Expenses column in the Sessions chapter if you have included the column. The process is automatic. This provides a better idea of actual advantage.

Comps and Backoffs

Two additional chapters include tables to track comps and backoffs (day or full bans, trespasses, betting limits, game limits, backrooming, confiscations, etc.). Again, functionality includes adding columns, selections, dropdowns, reports, charts, etc.

Time

I don’t expect much use of this chapter. But, I have always thought that not enough attention is spent on time used. As an example, hole carding can provide very high win rates. But, there is much time spent on scouting. Roulette can be beaten in some cases. But time spent scouting is a major factor. So, your win rate per hour is not just amount won divided by time played. In most AP activity there is time for travel, research, practice, etc. The Time chapter is for tracking this cost. Most of the functions above are provided, including customization of columns, reports, charts, etc.

Stuff

The stuff chapter is for miscellaneous information that may be of use. For example, people, sources, eateries, countries, jurisdictional laws, experiences. They can fit into one table by using a category field for the type of information. You can then select the data by category as well as other related columns that you have created.

Merge

You can merge multiple journals into one. For example, if you have separate journals for blackjack, NFL, video poker, and the track; you can merge them into a new journal. Each chapter of each journal is analyzed and a new database is created with only the columns that are common to all journals -- columns, like Won, Date, Total Bet. This provides the ability to create charts based on all of the activity. This could also be used by teams or for different types of advantage play in blackjack.