CVData and CVCX V5 Blackjack Simulators

New versions of the CVCX and CVData Blackjack simulators are now available. If you are unfamiliar with these products, you can obtain information on the CVCX page and CVData page. Version 5 changes are outlined below. Note: Only added features are mentioned. (For blackjack game, practice and drills, see CV Blackjack Game.)

Blackjack Simulator, Sim Library & Risk/Goal/Bankroll/Trip Ruin/Optimal Bet Calculator

Wonging

As conditions become more difficult, Wonging (playing only at good counts) becomes more important. CVCX includes a post-sim calculator. That is, unlike CVData, simulations are run and then the results are manipulated after the sim to fit the user's circumstances and calculate optimal betting ramps, risk, expected results, etc. Wonging is a problem in post-sim calculators because entering or exiting the table changes the count frequencies and these frequencies cannot be recalculated after the sim is run. Basically, when you specify back-counting after the sim is run, you are assuming that someone leaves the table when you enter it. However, unlike other post-sim calculators, CVCX also includes its own simulator. In CVCX V5, you can specify Wonging either before or after the sim. If it is specified after the sim, you can dynamically change the count at which you enter the shoe. But, the results will be less accurate. If you specify Wonging before the sim, you will enjoy substantially improved accuracy and many additional options. Options now provided include:

Entry and exit points -The ability to accurately calculate results based on entering or exiting the shoe at any counts.
Stop Observation @ - If you are observing a shoe and the count drops below at specified point, you can leave the table and look for another, reducing the time spent observing.
Wong by depth - Many players enter or exit the shoe at different counts depending on the depth. For example, the player might leave the table at a count of -1 with five decks left but leave at zero with two decks left. Turning on this option provides the ability to set different start play, stop play and stop observation counts by the depth into the shoe.
Enter shoe multiple times - Normally, once you leave a shoe you do not play any hands until a shuffle. This option allows shoe reentry if the Start Play setting is again satisfied.
Force Shuffle - When set, the dealer will shuffle on wong-out.
Find Table Delay - When you wong-out, it takes awhile to find another table to observe. Enter the number of hands it takes to start observing again here. This number will be added to the number of hands observed but not played.
Wong-In Limitations - A few casinos have started using a second cut card placed in the middle of the shoe. After this cut card is reached, you can no longer wong-in.
Wong-Out Limitations (cover) - You may wish to limit when you wong-out to look more like a gambler. In particular, gamblers rarely leave a table after a push. You can limit table exit as follows: Can Wong-Out anytime, No Wong-Out after Win or Push, No Wong-Out after Loss or Push, No Wong-Out after Push.

New rules

A few CVData rules have been added including: early surrender, multi-card surrender, all four types of no hole card, insure Blackjack only, variable Blackjack bonus.

Output

Added export to Excel or other spreadsheet. The function will look for a spreadsheet program, invoke it and transfer data. A file is created if no program can be found.
ScreenPrint of the viewer and widgets is included.
Export to support is also included to improve customer support.

Usability

Like CVData, most post- and pre-sim settings are now remembered.
You can now directly modify canned playing strategies. (Previously you had to create a new strategy based on a canned strategy.) You can restore to the original by clicking on Restore in the Open screen.
Process priority can be automatically lowered during simulation to improve response time when you are performing other tasks.
True-counting unbalanced strategies are now supported. For example, TKO (true-counted KO.)
Various other usability enhancements.

Depth-based optimal betting

This one takes some explanation. It is well-known that unbalanced strategies like KO tend to overbet late in the shoe and miss betting opportunities early in the shoe. While overall results of unbalanced strategies are good, they can be better. Daniel Dravot's new book, The Color of Blackjack, (among other sources) details the problem and provides a solution involving the use of different betting ramps at different depths. A problem with this approach is the development of optimal betting ramps. Up until now, this has not been supported. The new version of CVCX calculates optimal betting, risk, bankroll requirements, performance, etc. for such counting methods. See Depth-based optimal betting post for a full explanation.

Color of Blackjack

In addition to the above, the following changes have been made in support of The Color of Blackjack:

The COB Insurance Tweak is now supported. Set this option on the Insure screen for a playing strategy
Playing strategy tables have been included for COB by permission of the author
Canned six deck sims for COB have been included

Advanced Blackjack Simulator

Wonging

Most of the features discussed above already existed in CVData. The following have been added:

Easier method of setting wonging by depth. This was possible in earlier version, by involved creating multiple strategies. The old method allows extra flexibility and also remains.
Added leave table at specified count (Stop observation @).
Added no mid-shoe entry after a set point.
Force shuffle now works in all CVData simulators.
Additinal Wonging-related data has been included on the Miscellaneous Stats screen.

Optimal Bet Calculation

You can now call the CVCX viewer screen from CVData. This will calculate optimal bets, allow bet changes and recalculate many stats after the sim is complete. This feature supports optimal bet calculations for 1-7 hands and changing number of hands by the count. The function can be used with or without a CVCX license. If you also have a CVCX license, CVCX widgets will also be displayed and automatically updated as you change bets, spreads, bankroll, risk, etc.

Next-Carding

Next-carding strategy generation and simulation has been included. That is, strategies assuming that you know the next card to be dealt. There are three basic types of support:

First base - If you do not take the known card, another player gets it.
Last base - If you do not take the card, the dealer may draw it.
No hole card - If you do not take the card, it may become the dealer's second card. This is very different. Say the dealer has a ten showing and the next card to be dealt is a ten. If you don't take it in a no hole card game, the dealer will have 20. But if the dealer has a hole card, she will only draw the card if she has a stiff, and it is a bust card. In one case, you want the dealer to take the card and in the other you don't. Of course this has to be balanced against what the card will do to your hand.
Partial information is also supported for strategy generation. For example, you know the next card is a six or seven, but not which. I don't expect anyone to use this, but added it for completeness.
In keeping with my aim of supporting how real players perform, as opposed to machines, an error rate can also be specified. X number of misidentifications of the next card will be generated.
Note: Doubling stiffs is not supported as I think it would burn out opportunities.
Hole-carding was added in the previous version. A hole-carding error rate has also been added in this version.

Side Bets

As conditions become more difficult, and new side bets become more prevalent, additional support has been added. You can now specify a side count to be used in determining when to take a custom side bet. The side count can differentiate between face cards and suits.
You can also set CVData to make a side count only if the next card is known and is one of a specified set. (Call this the fourth type of next-carding.)
The custom side bet feature, added previously, allows a huge number of side bets and bonuses to be added. Because of its flexibility, and the increasing number of complex new rules casinos are adding, it can become difficult to determine if your settings are correct. A new Debug feature allows you to stack a deck and run a one round sim to test custom bonuses and side bets. You specify the exact cards to be dealt, including face cards and suits if desired. You can then see if the bet is handled as you expect.
The side bet can now be fixed instead of based on the count.

Betting Strategies

If the count is high, and the last round is about to be dealt, some players will split to multiple hands to take better advantage of the good cards. A last round bet can now be set in Betting Advanced strategy.
Richard Reid's book, Dynamic Blackjack, suggests an interesting method of cover betting. You split your bankroll into two different sized bankrolls. You then create an optimal betting ramp for each. Then, you alternate the strategies every hand. You will be betting optimally, but your betting will look crazy to the casino. This method is now supported.

Requests

Previously, penetration could be set to fixed cut-card, variable cut card or fixed rounds. Added in this version are a combination of 'cut card and rounds' or 'cut card or rounds.'
Multi-parameter index generation support has been added. I am not an advocate as I think this is more trouble than it is worth.
Unbalanced strategy true-counting has been added to both simulation and index generation. So you can now generate accurate TKO (true-counted KO) indexes.
Color of Blackjack playing strategy tables and Insurance Tweak have been added.

Usability

It is now a bit easier to specify early surrender indexes. This game still pops up.
You can now modify canned playing strategies. You can restore to the original by clicking on Restore in the Open screen.
File - Parameters after a sim can now display the custom bonuses that were used in the sim.
The Archive Groups function can be used to aid Archives organization. I added this for myself.
Process priority can be lowered during simulation.
File - ScreenPrint prints the configuration screens. Various report improvements added.
Help readability improvements

Data

Two additional screens of session data have been provided. Also, you can extend a session when the count is above a set level.
I have long resisted keeping a log of hands as it could never be large enough to evaluate a strategy and would tempt progression players into using CVData. However, legitimate reasons do exist and I have included such a log for the first 400,000 hands. Hands and other pertinent data are logged and can be displayed. Data can also be exported to a spreadsheet or file. Purposes:
- My main purpose was to add to custom bonus and side bet simulation debugging. All bonuses are logged making it much easier to see the results of games like Spanish 21.
- All wonging events (enter shoe, exit shoe, abandon shoe) are also logged. This makes it easier to see the pattern of observation versus play.
- All Team Play Big Player events (enter shoe, exit shoe, abandon shoe) are also logged.
- All session events (session won, lost, pushed, bankrupted, target reached) are logged. Again, this makes it easier to get a sense of what sessions are like depending on session settings (bankroll, target, length).
- Clicking a button will remove all normal hands from the display and you will see only bonuses, side bets, wonging and session events.
MRI Slices - Tens of thousands of stats are kept by True Count, Running Count, Deck Depth and Units Bet. But sometimes you would like to see data that is by a combination of these. For example, you might want to look at all True Counts of 4 in the second round. Or all Running Counts that result in a True Count of 4. Keeping all of this data for every sim would mean thousands of tables. So the MRI feature was added in the previous version to look at a slice of data. Two features have been added to increase the data:
- MRI slices now includes the fifteen Hands tables. These are stats by player first two cards and dealer upcard. So you can now see these results by specified counts, depth, etc.
- MRI Slices added based on player first card, dealer upcard and shoe range by the card.
SimTract is a function added in a previous version to subtract all the data in one sim from another sim to see where the differences exist. A new feature has been added to only show the largest n differences. This can be used to quickly determine which hands are most affected by a difference in strategy.
Custom output screen - I like to include an experiment in each version. Although no sim generates every possible data item available in the output screens, there are now a total of 270,000 possible stats displayed by CVData (ignoring MRI Slices which expands this to hundreds of millions). Depending on the area in which you are currently interested, you are going to want to view different sets of stats, possibly over many simulations. The Custom Data Screen function provides the ability to create your own data screen pulling data from other screens. You link data items into your own screen, and when you run any sim, those data items will be pulled into that one screen for a quick overview. As this is a part of the CVSpread spreadsheet facility, you can also use any of the 140 included math functions to combine data, include charts on the screen, and control fonts, colors, etc. You can create a library of such screens.
Other changes that have been added since version 4 in intermediate free updates include: KISS, Mentor, REKO and FELT strategies, Spanish 21 Redouble, Vista, Windows 7 and 64 bit support, and hole-carding partial information strategy generation.

Note: Only recent additions are described on this page. For full feature sets see CVData Features and CVCX Features.

Upgrades

The CVCX upgrade costs $17 from V4 and $30 from earlier versions. (Free shippping on the upgrade from V4.)
The CVData upgrade costs $30 from V4 and $50 from earlier versions.