Created my ideal counting app

Hi,

I was looking for a card counting app, but I couldn't find one that had the features I were looking for. The ones I found were either too minimal or too cumbersome to use.

So, I decided to create my own. My design goals were:

• Both count buttons and strategy table in one
• Strategy table that updates in real time based on true count
• Show both primary and secondary decisions
• Layout that supports both desktop and mobile
• Ability to use it on the phone without looking at the screen
• Option to choose total decks in the shoe
• A timer that shows how long you have been counting for
• The ability to undo, even if you accidentally reset the count
• Display that shows the last 3 counts

Please check it out here: https://ready21.com/count

Currently it's based on the following rules:

• S17
• No Re-splitting
• No Surrender

However, if people are interested in using the tool themselves with different rules, I can add settings to change the rules.

I'll look forward to checking this out, but in the above image, the 12 vs. 4 decision should be red (stand).

Don

There seem to be other BS errors. Also, you have to hit each type of card? They don't come out in random fashion? No one is going to want to choose the cards himself. That's silly. You need them to appear randomly.

Don

Thank you for checking it out Don!

You're right, that's likely a mistake. I have been running my own simulations based on the exact rules I have access to and have made tweaks to maximize the expected value. Though it's possible I made mistakes, especially with 12 vs 4.

I will double check against other S17 charts update this and run some additional simulations just to be sure.
 

Could you elaborate on what you mean by this? I'm guessing you were imagining this to be more of a traditional count training tool, where you see cards come up on screen and you're supposed to keep the count.

The idea for this tool is a bit different, with various uses. Such as being able to visualize the deviations based on true count. So far I have just seen deviations, such as Illustrious 18 in forms of a list. By having the colors on the table update directly on the table itself, it helps contextualize the deviations. ​​​​​​

Yes to all of the above. But there are so many different ways to create the RCs and TCs, and you are requiring the user to keep clicking on the boxes below, to create those counts, rather than to have them appear randomly.

Out of curiosity, why would one ever want to click on the 7-8-9 box?

Suggestion: Don't label the soft hands "Ace." "Soft" would be better and clearer.

Don

I find this app interesting, but there is a math problem here. As Don has pointed out, the number of middle cards is not random. Statistically speaking, for every 10 removals of counted cards, there are 3 removals of un-counted cards. Therefore, for each removal of high (or low) cards, there should be 0.3 removal of middle cards. Other than this, everything looks fantastic.

Again, the creator has explained that the cards aren't being dealt in normal fashion. In fact, they aren't being "dealt" at all. It's the user who pushes the buttons. So, he can push them anyway he chooses. But, the problem is, if you just want to force a count to be a certain integer, having the 7-8-9 button is superfluous.

Don

The purpose of the 7-9 button is that the user would click the button each time a 7-9 is dealt. This way, we can calculate an accurate true count.

If the user only clicked on the high and low buttons, we would only end up counting 40 out of 52 cards in a single deck.

One use case of this would be where someone records a video where they are dealing to themselves and they want to be able to verify that they got both the running and true count correct once they are done.

Another use case would be to use this for true count estimation, while dealing or watching a video. Thanks to the unique sound effects for each count button, the user can simply register the count without looking at their phone. Then after estimating the true count, they can look at their phone to verify if they got it right.

Of course, some may just use this tool for practicing deviations, then they have no need for the 7-9 button. But it makes the tool more flexible.

As for labeling it "Ace" instead of "Soft", I understand why you bring this up, as that is the accurate term. This was intentional decision, to make the tool more accessible, for those that might be picking up blackjack for the first time and want to get into counting as well. On the other hand, I understand that it may take away from the credibility of the tool I have created. So if there are more people that feel the same way, I will most likely change that.
 

Thank you for sharing your thoughts aceside, and I appreciate that you like the look of it!

I am a bit unsure if the intended use of the tool is self explanatory enough and perhaps that's why the math appears to be off. Based on my explanations in this post, does the math still seem off?


Thank you to both of you, I appreciate the honest feedback.

I wish I could better understand the functionality. You say that, if we didn't have 7-9, a full deck of 52 cards wouldn't be dealt. But you're forcing the user to click on the buttons. I'm telling you that this isn't an appealing feature. No one wants to click on 52 buttons to see if he got the count right! It's too time consuming. 

I think that incorporating the deviations into the charts as the count changes is a very interesting and innovated idea, but the operation of the tool itself needs refining, in my view.

As for "Ace," you imply that this would be easier for a newcomer to understand. No it wouldn't! "Ace" doesn't mean "Soft hand." "Ace," by itself, doesn't mean anything at all.

Don

Hi there,

I like the visualization of the playing deviations as well. It looks like this could be really good as a training tool. 

A couple of things I noticed so far:

I seem to be able to deal an unlimited amount of cards of any value when the decks are set to one or two, I haven’t tried other numbers of decks. I wasn’t sure if this was a bug or if I was using it incorrectly. 
 

I didn’t see some of the deviations show up. For example I didn’t see 11 vs. Ace or 10 vs. Ace

or 10 vs. 10 turn yellow for double no matter how high I went in the count.

(was running it on my phone in the Safari browser)

Thanks,

Phil