NOTE: To download SIMSIMP, click here.

              "With the continuing rapid growth in the number of
               scientists and engineers, and the rise of fantastic
               new scientific tools, the interest in the possibility
               of winning gambling systems is increasing"
                                       E. O. Thorp
                                       Beat The Dealer  '66 edition

It's as true today as it was 34 years ago when Dr. Thorp penned it. Investigators tirelessly pursue new strategies to try and improve their odds of winning at blackjack. For example:

1) When JA had a question about the advantage associated with a zero count four decks into a six deck shoe versus the ev at the top of a two decker, he asked Ken Fuchs to whip up a custom version of his blackjack simulator to crank out the answer.

2) When Stanford Wong wanted to know how much the casinos were giving away by handing out coupons that could be parlayed as an ace, he just inserted a few new lines into his sim program. He "patched the source" so the player got an ace every hand.

3) Later, when yours truly was studying ace location techniques, I found I couldn't use Wong's figures. It turns out that a coupon is different from taking an ace from the shoe, since that ace would no longer be available for the rest of the hand. No problem! I simply rigged my own home-brewed simulator to swap an ace from the shoe to player number one - hand after hand.

The story is always the same. To do serious, original blackjack research you must do your own programming. "Have source code will travel," has always been my motto.

So what if a programmer made the source code to a top notch simulator program available to the general public? And what if he wrote it in BASIC, so everyone could read it? Furthermore, what if he made it compatible with Quick Basic, as well as First Basic - a fast, widely respected compiler available as shareware on the net? Would this be TOO MUCH COMPUTER POWER in the hands of the squalid masses??

We're about to find out! SIMSIMP is a blackjack SIMulator program with an emphasis on SIMPlicity and readability. The concept is to provide a serious research tool, and a FAST, FREE sim program together in one package. You won't find any eye-popping graphics here, nor rare, exotic features. That would defeat the purpose by muddying the source with ugly "spaghetti code." If you want an exotic option, program it yourself! That's the whole concept behind SIMSIMP - to encourage and enhance independant research while eliminating the need to "reinvent the wheel" before you get to square one.

Even if you're not a programmer, SIMSIMP may be a valuable download to you. As it stands, SIMSIMP provides FAST simu- lation of many different rule variations for the flat betting basic strategist. At present, surrender is the only major option not supported, but that situation will not last long. Surrender is actually a very easy option to program, which is why I decided to leave it 'till last.

Similarly, no counting system is supported in this initial version. Believe it or not, this is also a very simple option to add, and could be accomplished in an evening or two by some one familiar with SIMSIMP and the BASIC programming language.

The hard part is already done. The game logic has been pro- grammed to follow the flow dictated by the dealer in a typical casino. Code simplifying tricks, such as settling busts and naturals after a round is finished, instead of immediately as they occur, have been avoided. This should ease the task of modifying and maintaining the code through the many options and strategies envisioned for future versions (shuffle tracking, anyone?).

SIMSIMP is also a great "argument stopper." When someone claims that card counting is just a bunch of hooey, show him some SIMSIMP sim results. Then, if he sings the old song "It's just not the same as in a real casino," show him the source code, and tell him to make a list of the logic errors. (Don't do this if he owes you money - he may decide to skip town!)

The time for excuses is over! Anyone who's ever taken a remedial computing course has programmed a few lines in BASIC. Now's the chance for you to test that supernatural progression you've been pondering, or that new rule at the Trop where the 8 of clubs is wild, or... the possibilities are endless!

COMPUTER POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!

**** SIMSIMP FEATURES ****

SIMSIMP is a fast blackjack simulator with executable program and support files (including source code!) available for free, courtesy of bjmath.com and ET Fan. Main features are:

• Source code compatible with QBasic and FirstBasic - a highly regarded shareware BASIC compiler available at www.powerbasic.com
• Simulates up to 5.9 million hands per minute on my K6-2 350 mhz computer. Even faster speeds will almost cer- tainly be implemented in future versions.
• Simple, structured programming style, to encourage and enhance "home brewed" customization.
• Up to 2,147,483,647 rounds may be simulated. (This limit can easily be programmed out, with some speed degradation.)
• Most of the important rules variations (and a few unusual ones) such as:
  • Any number of decks
  • Any number of players at the table
  • Any penetration can be selected, or alternately, a fixed number of rounds can be dealt from the shoe
  • Burn card(s) can be specified for each new shoe and/or each new dealer
  • Split to a selectable maximum number of hands
  • Optionally specify Double After Splits on non-aces
  • Optionally allow resplitting of aces
  • Optionally allow continued hitting on aces after they are split
  • Optionally allow doubling on 10 or 11 only
  • Optionally allow doubling after aces are split
  • Dealer may stand on soft 17, or hit soft 17 - your choice
  • You may choose to have the dealer peek under tens
  • The option to take insurance is supported
• In addition, debugging aids, such as the option to display the shoe before each shuffle, and/or all individual hands are supported
• User can elect to use a seed for the random number generator (repeatedly using the same seed allows you to stratify results, for efficient comparison of different strategies against the same set of shoes) or have SIMSIMP default to a TIMER generated seed
• User customizable .STR strategy files which determine the BASIC strategy employed
• Multiple .CFG configuration files for quick set up of previously stored sims
• Auto-save of the LAST configuration file for easy retreival
• Optional command line parameters for easy batch file operation.
• Output to display and (optionally) to disk.
• Suspend / Resume feature to view intermediate results. Simu- lation can be resumed immediately, or stored to disk for auto-resume at a later date
• FREE SUPPORT through the COMPUSIM board on www.bjmath.com.

***** SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS *****

Any DOS box with 256k free memory. Windows 3.1, 95, or 98 users can run SIMSIMP in an MS-DOS window, or in native DOS mode, as described in the SIMSIMP.DOC user's guide included. Hard drive recommended, but floppy drive operation is possible.

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Currently, surrender is not supported, and no counting system is employed. I'm throwing down the gauntlet. See if you can implement these before I steal your thunder! The surrender option should be very straightforward. A simple counting system, such as hi-lo, could be done in an evening or two by a top-notch programmer. Putting in the option for the user to input his own tag values and betting scheme would be slightly more challenging.

Hack away to your hearts content. Let me know what you come up with!