Boris' Blackjack Table Felt

In anticipation of and preparation for the long awaited Boris 4.44 Release (introducing the KING Shuffler in Update "a".), the Blackjack Table is emerging from a lengthy redesign, well worth the wait. The actual screen looks smoother than the above .JPG image (JPG's compression algorithm "corrupts" certain colors). Notice the felt font improvements. The chip tray is still with us and as shown below, still allows popup Data Overlays.

Here is a more another look at the new Blackjack table as the player at Seat #6 draws a break-card.
The UCP Data popup is for PRO and PRO+ Edition Users.

This new Blackjack table is LOADed with "innate" intelligence. Every object you see on the screen contains "artificially intelligent" sub-objects. If you move the cursor over most objects on the screen, a "Tooltip" will appear, describing what that object is. (In release 4.44a, even the playing cards will have a detailed popup giving us all the "behind the scenes" information about that card.

Here is another felt view, showing the Strategy Data Panel popped over the chip tray (available to Advanced and Higher Editions of Boris). Also notice the new (toggleable) discard tray feature, telling us how many decks are in the game.

Notice in the above images that the Soft-17 rules and Blackjack payoff were changed mid-game.
6-to-5, 7-to-5, 8-to-6, 2-to-1, 3-to-1 and Even-money Blackjack payoffs are yet another feature that keeps Boris ahead of the competition.

Boris Behind the Scenes

Some people have asked to see inside Boris; behind the scenes, so to speak. Well, I promise you it is not glamourous, but is nevertheless an interesting "culture-shock".
The following screen shows you how Boris' Blackjack table actually looks behind the scenes before the software starts up.

Notice the "scaffolding" that eventually becomes an accurate, live casino simulation.
Boris may not run the fastest blind-simulation, but the software is more accurate and more featured than the competition, thanks in part to the above use of Microsoft's ActiveX technology (what I sometimes jokingly refer to as "OLE-3"). I may have my beefs with Microsoft and even aspects of ActiveX, but overall, the last several years of Boris Software enhancements have only been possible, thanks to the power and flexibility of ActiveX.

Navigating Boris' Blackjack Felt.

Because Boris has increasingly relied Microsoft's ActiveX technology over the years (one of the things they actually more or less got right), Boris sports a robust, full set of features "wired" right into the table felt objects. As version 4.43 evolves into 4.44 and eventually 4.50, every object you see on the screen will continue towards its intelligent-destiny; a fancy way of saying that every object on the screen will eventually possess "innate" A-I (Artificial Intelligenct), allowing you to "peek behind the scenes" where appropriate to that context in/of the game.

As you can see from the above screen shots, the Blackjack table has undergone a MASSIVE facelift. (Now y'all know what I was up to last summer - redesigning the scaffolding in order that the Felt could be revamped.) One thing that has not only NOT changed, but has been enhanced as part of the redesign are the Short-Cut keys; specifically, the Ctrl-Keys. It has been my experience (in working with Boris software users such as yourself) that the Ctrl-keys are under utilized; even tho they are laid out in the original manual.
Table #1 (below) details these keys and their use:

	Control Key	What the Control-key Sequence is useful for
	Ctrl-A	Save the Casino Environment as a NEW .Env File. (pops up a File I/O Window)
	Ctrl-B	Initiates a Blind-Simulation Run.
	Ctrl-C	Pops up the Playing Options Screen - pressing Ctrl-C again closes the screen.
	Ctrl-D	Pops up the Display Options Screen - pressing Ctrl-D again closes the screen.
	Ctrl-E	Ends the Blackjack game, closing down the table.
	Ctrl-F	Freezes play after completion of the next major step. Press Ctrl-F to resume play.
	Ctrl-G	(When ready, this will link you to Boris' new Online Blackjack Glossary)
	Ctrl-H	Enables Boris' Help-List Feature, when you are uncertain the next step to take.
	Ctrl-I	Input a .Shoe file (overlays the current card-set at the Blackjack table).
	Ctrl-J	Saves a Shoe File - writes the Blackjack table's current card-set to a file.
	Ctrl-K	Quick Save the current casino environment to it's.ENV File
	Ctrl-L	Load a Casino Environment - (pops up a File I/O Window)
	Ctrl-M	Opens Boris's current Software Manual under your favorite .Doc WordProcessor
	Ctrl-N	Pops up the Decision BAR - pressing Ctrl-N again hides it.
	Ctrl-O	Opens the Blackjack table for play.
	Ctrl-P	Pops up the Player Setup Screen - pressing Ctrl-P again closes the screen.
	Ctrl-Q	Quick Exit - allows you to quick-exit the program w/o saving anything.
	Ctrl-R	Pops up the Casino Management Screen - pressing Ctrl-R again closes the screen.
	Ctrl-S	Save the Casino Environment to its .ENV File. (pops up a File I/O Window)
	Ctrl-T	Pops up the Hit-Stand Legend Box - pressing Ctrl-T again hides the Box.
	Ctrl-U	Pops up the Clump Statistics Screen - pressing Ctrl-U again closes the screen.
	Ctrl-V	Pops up the Audio/Visual Aids Screen - pressing Ctrl-V again closes the screen.
	Ctrl-W	Pops up the CardViewer™/ShoeViewer™ to study the cards remaining in the Shoe.
	Ctrl-X	Exit the Casino - leaves Blackjack table, returning to the Container Screen.
	Ctrl-Y	Pops up a Playing Speed Adjustment BOX - press Ctrl-Y again to hide the BOX.
	Ctrl-Z	Toggles the [Sit Down] Button (next to the DropSlot).

In addition to the above Ctrl-Keys, there are numerous Function Keys (F-Keys or Fn-Keys), including Shift-FKey, Ctrl-FKey and Ctrl-Shift-FKey combinations.
These key combinations are detailed in the following table:

	F-Key	What the F-Key Sequence accomplishes
	F1 Shift-F1	Brings up Player Detailed Statistics Screen #1 (ADV+ Editions) Software Help Facility
	F2	Brings up Player Detailed Statistics Screen #2 (ADV+ Editions).
	F3 Shif-F3	Brings up the Table Statistics Screen (ADV+ Editions). Brings up the Advanced Table Statistics Screen (PRO+ Edition).
	F4	Brings up the Summary Statistics Screen. (All Editions).
	F5 Sh-F5 Ctrl-F5 Ctrl-Sh-F5	Toggle-POPs the Strategy Data Box over the Chip Tray. (ADV+ Editions) Toggles-POPs the Rules Display over the Chip Tray. Toggle-POPs the House Advantage Calculator (H-A-C) over the Chip Tray. Toggle-POPs the UCP Display (PRO & PRO+ Eitions) over the Chip Tray.
	F6	Invokes the Strategy Drills Facility (All Editions)
	F7	(Coming Soon)
	F8	Toggles the Casino Information Screen.
	F9 Sh-F9 Ctrl-F9	Toggles TimeStamp Screen when running Blind Simulations. (ADV+ Editions) Run a Blackjack Script (PRO+ Edition) Preplay the Blackjack Table (PBJ, PRO & PRO+ Eitions).
	F10	Reserved by Microsoft.
	F11 Sh-F11 Ctrl-F11	About Boris Learn Basic Strategy Invokes the Auto-Save Facility
	F12 Ctrl-F12 Ctrl-Sh-F12	Playing Strategy Evaluation (PRO+ Edition Only) View the ReadME File Card Evaluation Window (PRO+ Edition Only)

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all F-Key Sequences above are "Toggles" (just like the Ctrl-Keys), meaning that the feature can be toggled on and off with the same key sequence.