Blackjack User's Manual

There is no appreciable change from the FirstUserManual, other than the number of options available and the order of parameters presented in-game. Run the executable 'blackjack' (no command-line arguments) and follow the prompts. There should be no hidden 'gotchas' such as system incompatibilities or required environments; the only known dependency is on the standard C library.

Invalid input will either request you try again (e.g. if the entry is not in the correct range), or throw an error if completely malformed (e.g. string data in an int field).

The user-configurable options include:

• Number of players (per game) -- should be a number between 1 and 10
• Rules in force (per game) -- pick one of the displayed choices
• Number of decks to fill Shoe with (per game) -- should be a number between 1 and 10
• Depth into the shoe to play to (per game) -- should be within 1 and num_decks * 52, although the program will scale it down if it doesn't allow enough leverage to complete a final game without running out of cards
• Strategy to use (per player) -- pick one of the displayed choices
• Name (per player) -- any single-line string
• Initial bankroll (per player) -- any positive integer, max of 1000

The major features are not terribly apparent in action, but under the hood all of the following are implemented (only used by the advanced strategies and under Standard Rules):

• Double Down
• Splits
• [Late] Surrender

In short, Insurance is the only major Blackjack rule that is absent. All of these advanced rules (everything but hit & stand) are turned off under Basic Rules.

The decisions made by the strategies cannot be summarized in one page, but the advanced ones work by counting the cards they've seen (every play that's made before their turn, plus the rest of the cards once the hand is complete) and keeping a running total of their devising. For more in-depth information see the StrategiesManual.

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