looking for feedback on new site

I'm creating a new blackjack site at

(Dead link: http://www.barracudafix.com)

Right now it lets you play blackjack, see the correct basic strategy play etc. You can also create an account which will allow you to record all the mistakes you make playing basic strategy. There is also a training mode where you will only be presented with scenarios that you played incorrectly during the recording phase.

I'm looking to expand the basic engine into card counting in the coming months and am wondering what kinds of features the blackjack community is interested in.
Any and all feedback is welcome.

[email protected]

johnwatson11218 said:

I'm creating a new blackjack site at

(Dead link: http://www.barracudafix.com)

Right now it lets you play blackjack, see the correct basic strategy play etc. You can also create an account which will allow you to record all the mistakes you make playing basic strategy. There is also a training mode where you will only be presented with scenarios that you played incorrectly during the recording phase.

I'm looking to expand the basic engine into card counting in the coming months and am wondering what kinds of features the blackjack community is interested in.
Any and all feedback is welcome.

[email protected]

Click to expand...

If you're going to be using it for blackjack strategy training, you may be uniquely qualified. Surely you will include some kind of punishment/reward mechanism for conditioning the most profitable responses to the hands the user sees.

http://psychclassics.asu.edu/Watson/views.htm

In terms of "..kind of punishment/reward mechanism for conditioning the most profitable responses. .." I'm thinking about animations that show wrong plays maybe as red Xs that fade out. Something like a video game.

In the immediate future I'm planning on recording the entire game and scoring it in terms bad plays for the player to review. I'm just trying to come up with a UI concept that works.

I have thought about making the background change colors to indicate how "hot" the shoe is. But I'm probably just going to put an animated thermometer up instead.

you could let the user input a betting strategy and index numbers so that they would be tested against that as well. if they made the correct play, but wrong bet, that would be scored somehow. also, if they hit 12 v 2 when they were not supposed to, that would be considered an incorrect play.

a wong-out feature would be good.

also the ability to play more than one hand. and possibly the ability to watch other hands (as would typically happen in a real casino)

Some thoughts, it would be nice if it showed hole card when player busts or gets BJ.

Secondly, it lets you double but not split if you're broke :grin:

Lastly, split aces can be drawn to and if you get a face it counts as BJ, this should be changed.

But I like it a lot!

thanks guys

this is very valuable info.

Perhaps make the keyboard shortcuts the typical alphanumeric character in the B.S. chart - i.e. "P" for split, and "H" for hit. Maybe "Space" for deal.

assume_R said:

Perhaps make the keyboard shortcuts the typical alphanumeric character in the B.S. chart - i.e. "P" for split, and "H" for hit. Maybe "Space" for deal.

Click to expand...

I like it! There was far too much thought involved in remembering the right keys to press.

Oh, and if its not too much trouble, late surrender and insurance could be added. Maybe not insurance because it's not BS, but then it does show penetration, which is of no consequence to BS either.

keyboard keys

I put the keys there because they are all on the "home" row. So for me it is super easy to remember which is which. I can see that other people are asking about the key. I may try and make it configurable. That could be another reason for people to create an account!

Thanks again for the feedback, this is very inspiring.
Also keep checking for updates. I'm very committed to making this site the best on the net.

johnwatson11218 said:

I put the keys there because they are all on the "home" row. So for me it is super easy to remember which is which. I can see that other people are asking about the key. I may try and make it configurable. That could be another reason for people to create an account!

Thanks again for the feedback, this is very inspiring.
Also keep checking for updates. I'm very committed to making this site the best on the net.

Click to expand...

Another idea for customization, the ability to change number of decks and penetration levels.

another site

Take a look at hitorsplit.com, a nice site and you can develop your speed as far as BS

nice site

That is a good looking site. It isn't quite what I'm going for in my own site. One of the biggest problems I have with most blackjack site is that they try and recreate the casino look and feel.
I want a site that is super fast and allows you to focus on increasing your skill level.
I'm building my site myself using lightweight open source tools and techniques. From the looks of that site it is pretty obvious that the development was paid for. So if they want new features they will have no choice but to pony up the money for the development. Nothing wrong with that approach but I really think I can bring a more compelling experience to the net.

bug fix

I think I got the bug with splitting aces fixed and deployed. I tested it locally with a special deck that only gave aces and as soon as you would split the aces the round was over.

A comment also mentioned that you can double down but not split if you can't afford it. I'm thinking of just removing the check against the bankroll. I think I will allow you to split, double and keep playing with a negative balance. I was thinking of putting in a pop up that says "your broke! Go to ATM?" but there were a few problems with that.
For starters I have recording mode and training mode games you can access if you register and the bankroll concept doesn't really matter in those game modes.
Secondly my site is about learning correct play in the shortest amount of time and modelling that aspect of blackjack isn't important to what I'm trying to do.
So I'm going to remove the bankroll checks and let the bankroll become negative (which is what is already happening if you just keep playing).

bug fix

I decided to allow the player to split even if they don't have enough money. You can think of this as borrowing money to keep in the game.
It is the easiest thing to do for right now. Later it may be important to enforce this restriction but it isn't what I'm trying to do with this site.

Dealer hole card

Now I'm showing the dealer hole card no matter what. Does anyone know if there is a situation where the dealer would not flip over the hole card? I seem to remember some casinos doing it when the player has black jack or the player busts and some do not.


Still working on the spit aces paying 1.5X when they draw 10s.

johnwatson11218 said:

Now I'm showing the dealer hole card no matter what. Does anyone know if there is a situation where the dealer would not flip over the hole card? I seem to remember some casinos doing it when the player has black jack or the player busts and some do not.


Still working on the spit aces paying 1.5X when they draw 10s.

Click to expand...

There are some, but few, casinos that hide the hole card when all players bust, have BJ or surrender.

By the way, you are putting a lot of work into this site and it shows! It is a very valuable training tool, even for someone well versed in BS such as myself.

updates

thanks for the updates Blue Efficacy.

I just put some code up that brings back an old feature that I had removed. Basically you log in and click the button labelled (Kiss L.1). Then when you play there is a second set of messages that come up that show the RC number where RC means running count and I think it tells you basic strategy mistakes you are making.

I'm going to write up the details and put up some help info on the site. I know I was trying to model several different counting systems to see which one I wanted to put on the site.

Ideally I would let the player browse some systems that have been back tested and make that their active strategy for the extra hints that are displayed.

Also if the player splits 10s and gets aces are those paid as blackjacks? I'm still going to fix the bug where split aces pulling 10s are paid as blackjack.

fix for split aces drawing 10s paying 3 to 2

I coded a fix for split aces that draw 10s paying 3 to 2. I tested it with something called mock objects and unit testing. I tried for a few minutes to see if I could get it to come up in actual play but that could take hours.