Blackjack manual

For how AudioGameAccess works in general, open the general manual with F1 from the main menu. To go back to the game, close this tab, or switch to the AudioGameAccess window with Alt+Tab.

The Las Vegas casino table

Sit at a blackjack table as on the Las Vegas Strip. Frankie, the dealer, deals the cards, calls the game and talks along. He speaks French when the game is in French, English otherwise.

Blackjack is in Offline games, Create a table, then Casino games. You play it offline, alone or with bots, or with others at the casino. It is the same game either way.

The goal and the rules

• Get as close to 21 as you can without going over, and beat the dealer's hand. Face cards count 10, an ace 1 or 11.
• A blackjack, an ace and a ten-value card in two cards, pays 3 to 2.
• The shoe holds 6 decks of 52 cards. When three quarters are dealt, the dealer shuffles before the next hand.
• The dealer has one card up and one hidden. If he shows an ace or a ten-value card, he checks his hidden card.
• The dealer draws to 16 and stands on every 17, a soft 17 too.
• A push gives your bet back.

Betting

• You start with 1,000 chips. Bets go from 10 to 500 chips, by steps of 10.
• Shift+Up arrow and Shift+Down arrow raise or lower the bet. Hold the key to go fast. Only the new bet is said, and the most or the least only once.
• Enter bets and deals the cards. Space plays the same bet as the last hand.
• Your balance is the same at all your offline tables. When your chips run out, the casino offers you 1,000.

On your turn

• Space: hit.
• Enter: stand.
• D: double. On your first two cards, you double your bet and take a single card.
• P: split two cards of the same value into two hands, with a second bet, up to four hands. You can double after a split. Split aces get one card each, and 21 on a split ace is not a blackjack.
• A: surrender the hand and get half your bet back, after a Yes or No question.
• When the dealer shows an ace, you are offered insurance: it costs half your bet and pays 2 to 1 if he has blackjack. With a blackjack in hand, you are offered even money instead: paid 1 to 1 at once, without risk. These are Yes or No questions.

Knowing the cards

• 1, 2, 3 and so on up to 9: your first, second, third card. If there is none, the game says so.
• G: only your total, for instance "soft 17".
• With Shift, the same keys give the dealer's cards and total. Until he turns his hidden card, Shift+2 says "Hidden card", and Shift+G the total of his card up.
• After a split, these keys speak of the hand you are playing, then of your first hand once your turn is over.
• The keypad's numbers work for your cards too. For the dealer's, use the numbers at the top of the keyboard: with NumLock on, Windows turns Shift and the keypad's numbers into arrows.

The other keys

• V: your balance and your bet.
• Shift+T: the whole table, seat by seat, then the dealer.
• T: whose turn it is. When it is yours: "It's your turn."
• S: everyone's balance.
• R: the hand number.
• Control+S: offline, between two hands, save the table. Online, the game tells you there is no saving at the blackjack.
• Q: leave the table, after confirming. A hand in play is lost, as at the casino.
• Escape: the pause.
• Shift+F1: the instructions, said. F1: this manual.

Offline, with bots

In Offline games, choose Create a table, Casino games, then Blackjack. You come to your table, presented as at the casino: "Table created by You, Blackjack. 1 of 7 players." If you are logged in to the casino, it is your name instead of "You".

• Start the game.
• Players at the table: Enter gives the list. B seats a bot and Shift+B sends one away, up to six. You can also do it during the game, between two hands. The bots play the best known strategy.
• Leave the table, or Escape.

Control+S, between two hands, saves the table: its bots and their chips, the shoe, the hand number. Your table then becomes that saved table: saving it again updates the same one, never a copy. Your tables are in Offline games, Saved tables, Casino games, Blackjack. Enter sits you at the table again, then Resume the game; Delete removes it, after confirming. At a saved table's menu, B and Shift+B change nothing: a saved game keeps its players. During the game too, a saved table keeps its bots; at a new table, between two hands, you can still add or remove one.

At your table's menu, Game options gives the time to act: no limit (the default), or 5 to 60 seconds. It counts your turn: when the time is up, your hand stands, and you hear it in one phrase. The pause stops it. Confirm keeps it for your next tables.

With others, online

At the casino, choose Create a table, Casino games, then Blackjack. The table has 7 seats. Its creator adds bots with B, then starts the game.

• The server shuffles, deals, referees and pays: nobody can cheat. Your online balance is kept with your account, apart from your offline balance.
• Betting: once a player has bet, the others have 20 seconds. A seat that has not bet does not play that hand.
• The time to act is chosen in Game options, at the table's menu, by its creator: 30 seconds by default, no limit, or 5 to 60 seconds. It counts your turn and the answer to the insurance: after that, you stand, or the insurance is no.
• The game warns you when your time runs out: 10 seconds before the end, it says the time left, then Frankie counts the last 5 seconds, one number each second. As soon as you play, the count stops dead.
• You arrive during the bets: you can bet at once. You arrive during a hand: you play the next one. You leave during a hand: your bet is lost; even money already taken stays yours.
• Everyone's cards and chips are heard at their seat, in 3D, from your left to your right.
• At the blackjack, there is no online table saving: a hand is short, and your balance is always kept.

Frankie, the dealer

• He calls the game: the bets, his cards, each seat's turn, the decisions, the results. The exact information, your cards, your totals and your balance, always goes through your screen reader and braille, right after him.
• He has a personality: he welcomes you according to the time of day, differently the first time and when you come back, and picks up where you were at a saved table. He remarks on your blackjacks, your big wins, the pushes, your streaks, the shuffle, and says goodbye when you leave.
• His voice has its own volume, Dealers, in the Settings and with F5.
• Everything he announces in text is found in the History, with Control+5.

The leaderboards

Control+0 opens the Leaderboards. At the blackjack, it is your fortune: your best balance, offline and online, of the week and of all time. When a hand won gives you your best balance of the week, the game tells you your place.