bitZino - Bitcoin Casino - Blackjack, Roulette, 3 Card Poker, Slots and more!

[dooglus]

Probably a silly point, but "lose -2" reads strangely.  If I lose -2, don't I win +2?

[1713444306]

1713444306

[1713444306]

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[libertaad]

There's one other feature that might be useful -- user configurable timeout, so that like 15 minutes of inactivity I need to log back in to play.  (optional, of course)

Good call! This would be really good for users that play with a lot of BTC, and want some extra security. We are also likely going to add 2-factor auth, and email confirmations for all withdrawals in the near future.

I was wondering about timeouts too.  My Internet connection is pretty flaky here.  What happens if it goes down for an hour part way through a hand?  Can I expect the hand to continue when I get back online?  What if I click 'hit', but the connection is down at the time?  Will the client deal nicely with not getting a server response and let me try again later?

I guess ideally I'd like to be able to have my browser crash part-way through a hand, then log in on a different computer and see the half-finished hand still in play.  But maybe that's expecting too much.

We are fully resilient to internet timeouts. All actions you take on bitZino are atomic. If your internet connection dies right as you hit the "Bet" button - your action will either make it to our servers or not. If it does, then next time you reload the page you'll see the table as if you had made a bet. If the action doesn't make it to our servers, then next time you reload, you'll see the table as if you hadn't made a bet.

We also keep tables around pretty much indefinitely - so if your internet connection dies mid-bet while you're about to go on a 3 day vacation, you can come back 3 days later and see your table exactly as you left it.

My Internet connection is pretty flaky here.  What happens if it goes down for an hour part way through a hand?  Can I expect the hand to continue when I get back online?

Funnily enough, my Internet just went down.  While it was down, I clicked 'buy in', and eventually got an error page from Chromium.  When the connection came back, I refreshed the page, and got:

Not Found

The page you were looking for doesn't exist.

You may have mistyped the address or the page may have moved.

The browser's address bar is now showing https://bitzino.com/table_transfer rather than the usual address, but I didn't change it.

(So I guess that answers my question!)

Ah - this is because your connection died while it was making a POST request to /table_transfer. And, now that you're trying to reload hte page, it is doing a GET request to /table_transfer, which isn't implemented. I will implement the GET request for this action so that it just does a redirect back to the table.

Regardless of the Not Found error though - your game should still be in a non-corrupt state. Either our server received the POST to /table_trasnfer, and you got bought-in, or it didn't see the request, and you didn't get bought in. If you just go back to the main page at https://bitzino.com/blackjack, you'll be able to see what state the table is in.

[dooglus]

Probably a silly point, but "lose -2" reads strangely.  If I lose -2, don't I win +2?

It should probably read more like "Lose: -2" he wants to tell that hand is a losing hand and the amount taken from your balance.

Yes - I think a simple colon after each of the 5 result words would be better.

Win: +2
Blackjack: +3
etc.

[libertaad]

Probably a silly point, but "lose -2" reads strangely.  If I lose -2, don't I win +2?

It should probably read more like "Lose: -2" he wants to tell that hand is a losing hand and the amount taken from your balance.

Good suggestions! I went ahead and made this change for all the outcome messages. I agree that it is much more clear.

[dooglus]

There's one other feature that might be useful -- user configurable timeout, so that like 15 minutes of inactivity I need to log back in to play.  (optional, of course)

And don't forget that timing me out because I've been sat half-way through a hand for 15-minutes should log me out, but leave me in the same place when I log back in.  

Ah - this is because your connection died while it was making a POST request to /table_transfer. And, now that you're trying to reload hte page, it is doing a GET request to /table_transfer, which isn't implemented. I will implement the GET request for this action so that it just does a redirect back to the table.

Sometimes when I reload a page that made a POST request, it re-makes the POST request.  Is it only when the POST times out that the reload does a GET?

[libertaad]

And don't forget that timing me out because I've been sat half-way through a hand for 15-minutes should log me out, but leave me in the same place when I log back in.  

Yup, that's definitely how it will work!

Sometimes when I reload a page that made a POST request, it re-makes the POST request.  Is it only when the POST times out that the reload does a GET?

Hm, I'm not sure what the exact behavior is for browsers, but I would suspect that if the POST request times out, the browser would prompt you to redo the POST when you try to refresh the page. I know that if you select the URL bar and hit "Enter" it will always to a GET request though.

Either way - I've implemented the GET handler for /table_transfer, so you should at least be able just get redirected back to the blackjack table rather than just seeing a 404 page.

[dooglus]

I would suspect that if the POST request times out, the browser would prompt you to redo the POST when you try to refresh the page. I know that if you select the URL bar and hit "Enter" it will always to a GET request though.

I hit control-R.  Whatever. 

Another observation:

When the dealer's playing, the slow reveal of the hole card takes longer than his next 3 or 4 cards.  So for a while I can see his 1st, 3rd, and 4rd card before I can see the 2nd card.  Which is just a bit weird.

[dooglus]

It's kind of traditional to use a different bitcoin address for each transaction.  I've deposited twice and been given the same address to deposit to both times.

I don't care, personally, but maybe some clients would.

[ErebusBat]

It's kind of traditional to use a different bitcoin address for each transaction.  I've deposited twice and been given the same address to deposit to both times.

I don't care, personally, but maybe some clients would.

Personally I prefer one address for my address book. However having a new address button woul be nice, I think GLBSE does this.

[dooglus]

Personally I prefer one address for my address book. However having a new address button woul be nice, I think GLBSE does this.

Agreed.  A "new address" button gives the best of both worlds.

[dooglus]

I had a run of losses, and now my balance has gone all scientific notation:

[dooglus]

I had a run of losses, and now my balance has gone all scientific notation:

https://i.imgur.com/mKc41.png

See also:

[libertaad]

Another observation:

When the dealer's playing, the slow reveal of the hole card takes longer than his next 3 or 4 cards.  So for a while I can see his 1st, 3rd, and 4rd card before I can see the 2nd card.  Which is just a bit weird.

Yeah - this is a known issue. It's due to the way that jQueryUI interacts with jQuery itself in certain situations. I'm exploring using CSS3 3D animations to make the reveal much more slick - similar to the technique here: http://thewebrocks.com/demos/browsermemory/

It's kind of traditional to use a different bitcoin address for each transaction.

Personally I prefer one address for my address book. However having a new address button woul be nice, I think GLBSE does this.

I like the idea of the "New address" button! I think I'd limit it so that the button only showed up after a each new deposit that you make. This would limit us from having to potentially map thousands of addresses to a single account.

I had a run of losses, and now my balance has gone all scientific notation:

This is actually intentional :/ But I can see that it's not exactly the most user-friendly. The problem is, the only alternative I can think of is just to display a lot of zeros, which I also don't think is great: eg, can you easily see the difference between "0.0000045" and "0.00000045"? It's way easier to see the difference when these numbers are displayed as "4.5e-06" and "4.5e-07". But, I'm open to any suggestions you may have here. How do other bitcoin sites display very small numbers to users?

[ssaCEO]

Nice site. Good code. I lost a couple coins to you just messing around. I don't know if the hashing on the customer side is really necessary, but it's a nice touch, and you implemented it well.

Now you just need a full-time customer service staff to handle Dooglus... and watch out, he wins more than he loses

[dooglus]

I don't know if the hashing on the customer side is really necessary, but it's a nice touch, and you implemented it well.

Provable fairness is a nice feature.  Most people won't ever check it, and those that do won't check many hands, but it's reassuring to have it there.

Now you just need a full-time customer service staff to handle Dooglus... and watch out, he wins more than he loses

That's funny.  I'm not doing too well so far.  I blame it on the positive house edge - they shuffle the deck before every hand, can you believe it???

[CrownCloud]

Awesome Casino won about 1.1x my deposit 

[Stephen Gornick]

eg, can you easily see the difference between "0.0000045" and "0.00000045"? It's way easier to see the difference when these numbers are displayed as "4.5e-06" and "4.5e-07".

You, um ... , you don't get out much into the real world nowadays anymore, do you?

But, I'm open to any suggestions you may have here. How do other bitcoin sites display very small numbers to users?

Always display precision down to the satoshi.  So if I have 0.1 BTC, it shows 0.10000000 BTC.

We'll get used to it.

[libertaad]

Nice site. Good code. I lost a couple coins to you just messing around. I don't know if the hashing on the customer side is really necessary, but it's a nice touch, and you implemented it well.

Now you just need a full-time customer service staff to handle Dooglus... and watch out, he wins more than he loses

Thanks for the praise! It means a lot coming from another programmer

You, um ... , you don't get out much into the real world nowadays anymore, do you?

Hey! Just because I like my numbers displayed in a logical format doesn't mean I don't get out

Always display precision down to the satoshi.  So if I have 0.1 BTC, it shows 0.10000000 BTC.

We'll get used to it.

I like this approach. It's both logical and palatable.

[dooglus]

You, um ... , you don't get out much into the real world nowadays anymore, do you?

I think a pretty small percentage of the population would know what 6.2e-07 ฿ means.

[ErebusBat]

Yeah - this is a known issue. It's due to the way that jQueryUI interacts with jQuery itself in certain situations. I'm exploring using CSS3 3D animations to make the reveal much more slick - similar to the technique here: http://thewebrocks.com/demos/browsermemory/

That is pretty slick, however FYI: it doesn't work on my iPhone, but DOES on my iPad.  Wonder if it could be a size issue.