Norm Qfit Interview

Oct 2010

Ken Tucker | POSTED IN Blackjack, Interviews | 1 COMMENT

Our second interview in our Best Blackjack Sites series is with Norm from Qfit.

Qfit is very well known by advantage Blackjack players as the go-to for Blackjack training software. Casino Vérité is their most popular software and it replicates an authentic casino environment and gives players a chance to practice card counting in a virtual Blackjack game!

Kendall: Hi Norm, Could you let our site readers know a little about yourself and your blackjack history? More specifically how you got started and what made you decide to make simulation software for blackjack?

Norm: Like many of the people that have been in the field a while, I read Thorp’s card counting book and couldn’t resist. That was 35 years back. Although my “real jobs” have always been in technology, I’ve always felt the pull of the tables and found reasons to make time for play over the decades.

When PCs started to become more popular, I looked around and discovered that the available Blackjack software was seriously lacking and seemed to have little to do with realistic casino play. In 1993, I thought I’d take a stab at correcting the situation. The name, Casino Vérité, sums up the software’s philosophy — an attempt at casino realism.

Kendall: How long did it take you to build your software? And how often do you have to create updates for it?

Norm: Well, there’s no way to answer the question on build time. I’ve been working on it for 18 years, and I’m not done. What appears, on its face, to be a rather trivial game, seems to have unending possibilities. A long list of functions that I would like to add remains. I am always tweaking here and there. But, major updates to one of the Blackjack modules are released about once a year.

Kendall: Does your software offer different levels of training? Or is it designed for all players in mind? – From beginners to professionals looking to freshen-up on their skills.

Norm: There is no level of play that cannot benefit from practice. Practice with hand-dealt cards is slow and in casinos is expensive. Casino Vérité products are designed to cover most every level of play, so that you can start with basic strategy, and if you wish to advance, continue ahead step-by-step with the same software environment, until you have reached your desired level of expertise. One area that I refuse to support is progression play. It doesn’t work and it would be fraudulent to train people in methods that must fail.

Kendall: I understand your software is designed as a simulation of live play in order to teach players card counting. Do you hear a lot of success stories from players winning at the tables thanks to your software’s training?

Norm: I hear them, and I NEVER repeat them. I don’t like sites that provide anonymous references like “I won so much I bought a house in Vegas – Joe H from Florida.” Card counting is not trivial. If you don’t have the patience and discipline, it won’t work for you and I don’t want to give anyone the idea that advantage play is an easy path to riches.

Kendall: Other then using the qfit software what other resources do you recommend players looking to become an advantage blackjack player use?

Norm: There is an online free version of my book, Modern Blackjack, which covers a fairly wide range of topics. But, the best source is online forums.. I post at Ken Smith’s blackjackinfo.com and Nacht’s advantageplayer.com.

Kendall: Are you creating any new blackjack simulation software that we can look forward to?

Norm: I don’t like talking about work underway, because I am constantly switching projects. There is so much to work on. But, I certainly plan on new software releases.