dozenal Blackjack

About

Blackjack with dozenal (base twelve or duodecimal) deck and chips. The dozenal deck has 5 dozen cards. You'll need to think in dozens, and not tens.

Object

To get as close to 2 dozen 1 (base twelve, 21) without going over. In base ten this is a game to 2 tens 5 (base ten, 25).

Quick start

Here's a screenshot in portrait mode. Your orientation may be landscape. The 4 player quadrant areas are shown, from top to bottom, with order of play, the house (4), you (1), Charlie (2), and Nellie (3).  Within each player zone, you have an upper left, avatar and name, and status line. In the middle, your hand, and to the left the total. And at bottom of zone, your chips on left with total, and your bet chips with total (not shown), on right. Charlie, Nellie, and the House are computer players. Yourself, Charlie, and Nellie play against the House. The T is the ten card, and the E is the eleven card.

Game Play

A session (repeated games) starts with an equal allocation of chips to each of 4 players, 9x White (10), 9x Red (30), and 9x Blue chips (100), totalling 1000 (1 dozen gross).  Each player's chip total is shown with 'C:' prefix. The game number, and a progress bar showing the remaining cards in the deck are shown in the title bar. The 1st player, You, is yourself. The 2nd and 3rd players, Charlie and Nellie, are computer players. The 4th player is the House dealer, also a computer player. All non-house players play against the House.

Non-house players (You, Charlie, Nellie), make a Bet from 10 (1 dozen) to 100 (1 gross = 1 dozen dozen) using White (10), Red (30), and Blue (100) chips. The House deals 2 Cards to each player. Each player takes Hits trying to get to 21 (2 dozen 1) without going over. When a player is as close as they dare, they Stay, and the next players go.

After all players have played their hand, if a non-house player wins against the House with closest to 21, the House pays this player in chips for the amount of their bet. If the player loses, their bet chips are transferred to the House. A tie is a 'push' (no change to chips). A non-house player wins double for blackjack (2 dozen 1 (21) in 2 cards), and a 5 card charlie (5 cards totaling not more than 21), irrespective of its total compared to house's. A non-house player wins triple for a 6 card charlie (6 cards totaling not more than 21), irrespective of its total. There's no support for splitting, or doubling down. A session of games continues until You or the House are bankrupt (no chips).

There are additional details in the help file provided with the web app.

Image credits

The Wizard of Oz images came from iHeartCraftyThings.com. The images are based on 1939 movie. The book was written by L. Frank Baum in 1900.

The card back image is from OpenGameArt.org. Author and open license is at link

The image for the 4 x 4 player face avatars came from, iStockPhoto.com, downloadable with free trial

Revision History

Oct to Nov 2022, Ver 1.0 to 1.6 

2 players (yourself and the house). The dozenal Wizard of Oz deck was perfected. Bets and your holdings were done numberically, (without chips). The interface used buttons for click events (Bet, Deal, Hit, Stay).  At startup all 5 dozen card image ids were loaded (and a card back image id). The player hands were 7 card image objects each, which had applicable card image loaded from image id each time needed. With ver 1.6, a comprehensive help page was added.

The dozenal card Deck is implemented as a library.

Dec 2022, Ver 1.7 

Changed from 2x 7 card hand objects which required image loading, to 5 dozen card image objects, which map to deck. At startup 5 dozen card image objects have image loaded from image id. There is a common table surface so the 5 dozen card image objects can be placed and shown as needed. The startup delay is slightly longer, but no runtime delays for imaging loading to display player hands. Improved game and player object data structures, and data handling between client and server.

Jan 2023, Ver 1.8, 1.9

There's now 4 players, (yourself and 3 computer players, 1 of which remains the house). Bets and player holdings are now done with dozenal Chips (White 10, Red 30, Blue 100). There are 6 dozen chip image objects, which have the applicable chip image loaded 1x at startup. Chips can be moved without runtime delays for image loading. Buttons were replaced with click areas on screen (Chips, Bet chips, Cards, Table), which saves screen real estate. Ensuring players have min 2 white, 3 red chips at each game start by exchanging equivalent chip values has been improved with more options and better logic. Betting is improved, handles 1 blue case. The help page is updated, and includes a screen image to help illustrate the click event interface.

The dozenal card Deck library updated to include the dozenal Chips. The improvement to betting functions are in library.

Jan 2023, Ver 2.0, 2.1, 2.2

Changed how card and chip images implemented. 

• • Removed Google api DriveApp call. Required read only OAuth permission from users. Was needed to load image id's. While app only read files on author's Google drive, and didn't read any files on users' Google drive, the permission seemed like big ask for the functionality provided.

  • Instead the images are shared publicly, and image id's are stored as constants within the card and chip library for loading.  No OAuth api permission is needed. Image loading at startup has gone from 12 to 16 s to only 2 s. Progress bar at startup removed. 

Added Settings page. Fully autonomous play supported with settings for game play decisions. Instead of remaining cards in deck displayed numerically, switched to progress bar. Added game Statistics page. Help updated with new Statistics and Settings help. Added new dozenal Blackjack logo, and fobsplace App logo. For better immunity from bad luck, when using max bet, chip buy in increased from 8 gross to 1 dozen gross. 6 chips of each color increased to 9 of each color. Total chips increased from 6 dozen to 9 dozen, Added browser tab title and icon.

The dozenal card Deck library updated to include the dozenal Card and Chips image Id's, and increase Chips from 6 to 9 dozen chips.

Feb 2023, Ver 2.3

Added setting option for displaying hand, bet, chip totals only at game end. Settings page format improved by using grid. Fixed menu icon size when in portrait mode. Improved chips display, so 18 chips height doesn't exceed 4 row height, and chip width doesn't exceed col width. No overlapping chips. Improved implementation of player statistics. Added advanced setting to help, and overall minor help improvements.

Jul 2023, Ver 3.0

Game state saved between uses, and added 'Reset' for starting new session. There's a Settings option for Ten and Eleven symbols to be A, B or T, E. Improved game flow architecture and display. Game play no longer suspends play during display of other menu pages. Changed menu interface and color scheme to be consistent with other fobsplace Apps. Added help drop down selectors for categories and topics. Added AB and TE images to help.

The dozenal card Deck library updated so dozenal Deck can be A for ten, and B for eleven; or T for ten, and E for eleven. The doz, ten, elv labels are larger 16 font size.

Sep 2023, Ver 3.1

Max bet changed from 100 (1 gross = 1 blue chip) to 1000 (1 dozen gross = 10 (1 doz) blue chips). Charlie's default bet increased from 10 (1 dozen to 30 (3 dozen). Added 

Sep 2023, ver 3.2

Changed layout. With landscape: House upper left, You upper right, Charlie lower right, Nellie lower left, play proceeds from You clockwise. Portrait: top to bottom, House, You, Charlie, Nellie, play proceeds from You clockwise. Added avatar image for players; pickable from set of 16. Status line on top. Hand, chips, bet chips values now near associated cards and chips. Removed prefixes. Chip edge increased to make count more visible. Chips use stacks of 9 to use less height. Chip size better tuned for screen use. Chip value no longer includes pending bet value. Help updated with changes. As state data structure has changed, a one time 'reset' is done at startup. This results in loss of prior state data (settings return to default values)

Sep 2023, ver 3.3

Card font and image sizes increased to improve readability, especially on phone. Added ↊, ↋ option for deck. All images hosted at imgbb.com, (rather than google drive) to improve reliability of image loading, and provide Firefox compatibility. Uses new ver 14 of card and chip library. Fixed end of session issues, added recognition that when house's turn, any player can go bankrupt, and when Your turn, house can go bankrupt.. Fixed stacking position issue with chips. As card and chip image url's have changed, one time reset of data done at first startup (new session and settings return to default values).

Aug 2024, ver 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7

Images are now embedded in code. No more time out delays from image hosting service, imgbb.com. Card format changes improve readability on small displays. Added τ as ten, and ε and elv deck option. Uses new ver 17 of card and chip library.  Data retrieval more fault tolerant. Updated browser icon retrieval. As card and chip image url's have changed, one time reset of data done at first startup (new session and settings return to default values).