This section of BJRM should be thought of as an "advanced" feature, and most users can safely ignore it. Its purpose is to allow one to supplement the pre-run One Second Sim files with one’s own custom generated data. Though it is designed to make that process as painless as possible, it does require some careful, deliberate work. Your reward will be the use of the One Sec Sim, and all other features of BJRM, for your custom simmed game conditions.

There are two basic methods for populating the grid with data: entering it manually; or having BJRM automatically parse the output file text of a sim that you have previously run using Karel Janecek’s SBA (versions 3, 4, or 5 and as of end of year 1999).

Before you start filling in the grid, you have to have the specific data values (see below) available to you, from some source. SBA is one good place, of course, but several commercially available simulators can produce the data you will need, or enable you to derive it from the data they do produce.

You need to fill in 13 rows of data, 6 columns in each row. The rows will constitute either 13 True counts, or 13 Running counts. The first row and the last row are of a special type, being a "less than or equal to" row in the former case, and a "greater than or equal to" row in the latter. The true-count based One Sec Sim pre-run simulations, for example, usually use the range of –3 to +9, or <= -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, >=9 for the 13 rows. However, you can use ANY combination of 13 rows you like. Just make sure you label them correctly. The screen will default to the <= –3 through >= +9 range.

So, that explains the first column. It contains 13 integers representing 13 "bins" of count data, running or true.

The second column, Freq %, holds the frequency, to two decimal places, of the True or Running count(s) that the row represents, e.g., 4.56. The Freq % column should sum to 100% (99 and 101 are allowed, due to rounding). The screen shows a Total at the bottom, and provides an Adj button, described below, to help you settle on a 100% total, should rounding factors enter in.

The third column, Freq SE, represents the Standard Error value of its associated Freq % value. The Freq SE is specified to six decimal places, e.g. 0.001415.

The fourth column, EV, represents the Expected Value associated with its row’s True or Running Count. This value can be positive or negative. Format is to three decimal places, e.g., 1.234 or –0.549.

The fifth column, EV SE, represents the Standard Error value of its associated EV value. The EV SE is specified to four decimal places, e.g., 0.0146.

Finally, the sixth column, SD, holds the Standard Deviation of the EV for the True or Running count "bin" that the row

represents. It is specified to four decimal places, e.g. 1.1642.

You will find a button on the screen labeled Try to Auto Parse an SBA File. Its purpose is to do just that — it tries to read in, and parse, the text output file of a simulation you have previously run using Karel Janecek’s Statistical Blackjack Analyzer (SBA) program. As such, it is of course highly dependent on the exact format of SBA’s output file. Should that file format change in future releases of SBA , which is, of course, out of this author’s control, then this Auto Parse feature may become inoperable on the output of those future releases. I will attempt to provide updates to BJRM, if that occurs, but as "tomorrow is promised to no one," this may or may not be possible. For now, I believe Auto Parse works reasonably well — provided you abide by the SBA sim setup particulars explained below, and use the standard sim output of SBA versions 3, 4 and 5 of SBA, as they exist at year-end 1999.

Now, Auto Parse cannot successfully read in just any SBA output file. You need to have set up SBA to produce sim output for exactly 13 rows, so that they will correspond to the 13 rows of data on the Build screen, and are ultimately what the One Sec Sim expects to see. Fortunately, this is very easy to do, in SBA. Here is how.

There are two sim configuration settings, in SBA, that you need to enter correctly. They are found under the "Other Configuration" (SBA versions < 5) or the "Simulation" (SBA version 5) item of the "Configuration" Menu, and are called "Minimum Count Observed" and "Maximum Count Observed." Together, they specify the range of True or Running counts for which SBA will print output data. For example, if you have them set at "-50" and "50" respectively, you would get 101 rows of SBA TC or RC data output. The first row would be <= -50, the last row would be >= +50, and in-between would be 99 individual rows, each for a single running or true count from –49 through +49 and including one row for 0.

Since BJRM needs to see only 13 rows, not 101, you need to adjust those SBA settings accordingly. Thus, you might set "Minimum Count Observed" to –3 and "Maximum Count Observed" to 9. This would create 13 rows of output — just what BJRM is expecting to see. Any range that forces exactly 13 rows of output will do, of course.

Assuming that you now have such a specifically formatted SBA output file available on your computer, you can direct BJRM to attempt to parse that file, and in the process save you a lot of data entry.

Select the Try to Auto Parse an SBA File button to start the process. When you do, a new screen will pop up, with which you simply point BJRM to where the SBA output is located. This is done in a very standard Windows way, in that you click on the various screen lists, specifying the drive, folder, and finally file name of the SBA output file in question. With the file name highlighted (a mouse click will do it), you can then click on the Display the File button to see the contents of the selected file. This will to let you verify that it is, indeed, the one you want.

When you have verified that it is, click the Parse the Displayed File button, and BJRM will attempt to parse the selected file, extracting just the data it needs. In the process, you will be automatically returned to the Build screen. If BJRM was successful, you should find the data Grid populated with the proper values. If not, you will, unfortunately, have to resort to the manual measures explained above.

Assuming the grid data is now correctly populated, only a few settings remain to be verified.

Sim Decks in Play: Select/verify the number of decks that were in play, for your base sim.

Sim Rule Set: Select/verify the rules that were in effect, for your base sim. You must pick from the available choices.

IRC: Select/verify the Initial Running Count that you used, for your base sim.

TC/RC: Select/verify whether your base sim was played by True Count, or by Running Count

Penetration Text: Enter the text that you want to display, based on this sims penetration. You can enter anything you like. Examples: 4.5 of 6; 245 cards, 5 decks, etc. This Penetration text actually gets linked to a Sequence number (described next), and it is the Sequence number that the One Sec Sim will use to retrieve the Text for screen play.

Sequence: BJRM allows for only 4 unique Penetrations per individual file. Those four Penetrations can be at any level, but there can be at most four of them. If you add data based on different penetrations into the same One Sec Sim file, these Sequence numbers will keep them straight.

Enter Text Description of Sim Details: This is your opportunity to list relevant details about conditions of the sim not covered by the previous settings. You could, for example, list the number of players that were at the table, how many indices were used, whether or not you were allowed to re-split aces, etc. Whatever you type in this box will be displayed on the One Sec Sim screen, when you select this simulation.

File Name (system): Here you specify a unique file name, or an existing file name if you are adding to one you created previously. Try to select a file name that is somewhat descriptive of the sim details, as this file name becomes the text that appears in the System drop-down list of the One Sec Sim screen. Do not select a name that matches one of the canned sims that come with BJRM. You can see what those are by looking at the System list on the One Sec Sim screen.

Format Data: This button will "scrub" the data in the grid, to make sure that it is in the proper format. You can actually click this button at any time, even with an empty data grid, and you do not have to click it before clicking the Save File! button, as the Save File! does an automatic format. It is this button that sums the Freq % column.

Save File!: This, as you can probably guess, is the button that actually starts the formal process of creating the One Sec Sim file. It contains a number of edits, so, depending on how "clean" your data is, you may see some error messages that you will need to respond to. If your data passes all edits, you will see a pop-up message that says "New files were successfully created!." It says "files," plural, because the One Sec Sim actually expects the Frequency data in one file, and the EV data in another. You need not be concerned, however, as this is taken care of for you, behind the scenes.

Now, if you are adding more data to an already existing sim file (same file name), then when you click the Save File! button, you will be presented with a screen that will ask you some questions about how you want to merge the new data with the existing. How to use that screen (Make Your Overwrite and Merge Choices) is described further below in this Help file.

First, there are a few more screen buttons to explain.

Clear Data: Does just what it says. It clears all the data from the Data Grid part of the screen. Use with caution, or you may accidentally erase data you wish to keep.

Set Freq SEs: This button can be used to enter default Freq SE values. The entire Freq SE column is affected. You might want to use it if you are entering sim data manually, and the sim data you are working from does not include SE data for Frequencies. If that is the case, this feature will greatly speed up data entry.

Set EVs: This button can be used to enter default EV SE values. The entire EV SE column is affected. You might want to use it if you are entering sim data manually, and the sim data you are working from does not include SE data for EVs. If that is the case, this feature will greatly speed up data entry.

Close button: Click to implement the decisions you have made. A pop-up message will inform you of the action that BJRM took.