Black Jack
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Bet:$10 $20 $50
D's $: P1$:
P4 P3 P2
Swedish International
Casino rules vary on ties between the dealer and players, Swedish rules means that ties of 20 and 21 have no winners; International rules means that any ties have no winners. You can change the rules after each game.
You may shuffle the deck of 4 packs of cards at any time but it is more correct to let the game shuffle automatically after 75% of the cards have been played. The program will tell you when this happens and begin a new game. JavaScript © 1998 by John A. Byers
Begin by clicking the [Hit me] button for player one. Keep doing this if you want more cards but try not to go over 21, if you do you will BUST and lose your bet immediately. The dealer draws cards until reaching 17 and then stays or busts if the last card puts the total over 21. A running total of winnings is shown in each of the text fields in the center top area. You may set the bet at $10, $20 or $50 only after the first two cards are drawn and before any subsequent cards are taken. When you are done drawing for a player click [STAY], if you have gotten 21 then you should not click [STAY] as you are not allowed to BUST if you get 21 and so you are moved to the next player. If the cards in the deck (4 packs of 52 cards each) are 75% dealt, then the packs are reshuffled at the end of the game (after the dealer draws). In this way you can "count" cards and try to remember which have been played and if the variation is such that either a greater or lesser number of high cards have been played then you can adjust the play strategy. This would only work if there were, for example, a higher density of low cards so that later the probability of getting a high card (10 or face card) is better than usual. The problem in a real game is that some players play stupidly, but in this game you can control all 4 players. Casinos also reshuffle the deck after about 80% of the cards have been played so you can never know with any certainty which cards will be played at the end of the game (as you could if most all cards had been played). Even if you had a computer memory and could calculate probabilites exactly and played perfectly, you can not beat the casino odds in which the dealer wins with ties on 17, 18 or 19 (Swedish rules). Even if ties give no win to the dealer (International rules) the fact that if you BUST (go over 21) and so does the dealer, the dealer takes your money. You just can't beat the Casino over the long haul, and so you are throwing your money away. Only if you can play a game where all the cards are dealt to the last one and then shuffled could you possibly win and then only by betting high and low depending on the odds (which you must keep track of in your head). You could win in the short run, possibly a lot, but the more times you return to the playing table the sooner you will lose it all and then some! But I guess the point is to be scared and thrilled when you win or lose, which some people seem to like.