Parallel Simulation

A second problem with comparison is dealing with the large number of variables. To examine a Blackjack strategy, we set up all the variables in a simulator, run a billion hands, and we have an answer. But we have an answer for only one set of variables. Several years ago, unhappy about this situation, I created a parallel simulator. Unlike the standard sims, CVCX simulates all numbers of decks at all penetrations for 16 rule sets, for all different standard betting ramps creating the answers for thousands of situations in one run. The results are placed in one huge file that is compressed to save space. The viewer then allows you to make changes in decks, rules, bet spread and penetration by the card and instantly recalculates the optimal betting ramp, SCORE, EV, and many other risk related stats. This tool can now be used to examine quickly the effect of many variables on a strategy. Using CVCX, we can then come up with:

Penetration Charts

Penetration is generally the most important variable. It also affects different strategies in different manners. Therefore, comparing two sets of circumstances at one penetration may be misleading. To avoid misleading comparisons, many of the charts in this book display results for all reasonable penetrations. That is, instead of simply saying strategy A is x% better than strategy B, at say, 75% penetration, a chart is created providing comparisons at every level of penetration. We will get to the charts in a moment. First, a few notes on the charts:

Ø  Charts do not always print very well. The location on the Internet of a larger version of each chart is provided below each chart.

Ø  Most charts display SCOREs, the win rate under specific standards, defined in Don Schlesinger’s Blackjack Attack.

Ø  All sims must be run under selected conditions (rules, decks, strategy, penetration, etc.). There is a large variation of conditions. Therefore, actual results will be different if your conditions are different.

 © 2009 Norman Wattenberger