Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack was a pack-in game for the Intellivision Model 1. As a result, it sold 1.939 million cartridges, making it the best-selling Intellivision game of all time. You can play against the computer in Blackjack, Five Card Draw, Five Card Stud, Seven Card Stud.

Objectives

Game Selection

The four card games you can play are: [4] Blackjack, [3] Five Card Draw, [1] Five Card Stud, and [2] Seven Card Stud (played in that order in this TAS). Pressing [5] on the gamepad chooses one of the four games at random and [6] chooses the game last played. If the game does not remember the last game played (i.e., after a hard or soft reset), pressing [6] automatically selects Blackjack. This is actually quicker than pressing [4] on the controller for Blackjack as this skips the dealer telling you that you've just selected "Blackjack".

RNG

The order of the cards dealt along with the dealer's behavior is determined on the frame a game is selected. As a result, taking a longer time to select bet amount, call, etc. will not affect luck.

Resetting the Console

This is the first Intellivision submission to use the reset button, which we press after beating each game in order to select the next game faster compared to waiting after a win. To keep things consistent with the objective, I only reset once the "W" appears next to P1's cards so the win is 100% confirmed. When deciding whether to engage the reset or power button, I decided on the reset button because the "W" is retained on the screen longer, and is therefore easier for the average viewer to notice the win did indeed occur.

Blackjack

As explained earlier, we save time by pressing [6] to select Blackjack instead of [4]. We then manipulate the dealer to give us an ace and a jack for an instant Blackjack and a quick win.

Five Card Draw

Betting in this game costs time and has no effect on the dealer's decision-making, so it is always fastest to call, and HOPE the dealer also calls as it is also costly if he decides to raise the bet. Next, we obviously decline to trade in cards as that is just extra costly animation(s). The dealer never decides to fold in this game (which would be quickest if he could), and will instead trade in 0-3 cards. You might think, "Well obviously the less cards the dealer decides to trade the faster, right?" Thing is, if the dealer trades in 0-2 cards, he seems to ALWAYS want to raise the bet right afterward. On the other hand, if he trades in 3 cards, I guess he must have lower confidence in his hand because only then will he sometimes call afterwards. This is the scenario we want. One more thing: we also want the dealer to trade in his 3 center cards as the replacement cards will have less travel distance as they fly onto the table compared to if any of the edge cards are traded in.

Five Card Stud

Unlike Five Card Draw, the dealer here can decide to fold, or drop, if he thinks his cards suck. If we decide to just call like we did in the last game, the dealer does not have an incentive to fold, so we must raise the pot by a small amount, $8 in this case, and now the dealer will fold.

Seven Card Stud

Same notes as Five Card Stud. This game was strategically played last because it has the largest delay between last input and when the "W" appears, and is therefore most optimal for ending input early.

Comments on a previous submission for this game

The idea for this submission arose due to the rejection of a previous submission for this game I made 4 years ago in which the goal was to earn the maximum amount of money possible; in other words, turn $1 into $9999. I would be interested in hearing in the discussion thread a judge's opinion on the acceptability of that goal now, given the recent rule change regarding maximum score submissions. If it is positive, I could try to convince FractalFusion to submit their improved version of that submission.

Suggested Publication Notes

Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack was a pack-in game for the Intellivision Model 1. As a result, it sold 1.939 million cartridges, making it the best-selling Intellivision game of all time. You can play against the computer in Blackjack, Five Card Draw, Five Card Stud, Seven Card Stud.

Through the powers of luck manipulation, Winslinator breaks Las Vegas and beats the four card games in just over a minute.

Samsara: Claiming for judging.

Samsara: Looks good to me. I agree with letting the win register on screen before each reset, even if it's only there for a handful of frames it definitively proves completion. The goal makes sense as a standard goal as well, as all content is completed in the fastest possible time. Accepting!

To briefly address the maximum score run, I think the best course of action for it would indeed be the $1 -> $9999 version. "maximum score" should imply "the maximum amount that is actively scored through gameplay", instead of simply setting the score to maximum before any gameplay occurs. I don't see why it wouldn't be acceptable already, but if a discussion is needed over it then the best way of getting that discussion would be with a new submission.

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