Blackjack Shuffle Tracking

Shuffle tracking is different then card counting, but you need to have been counting cards the previous shoe in order to be able to track the next shuffle. By shuffle tracking what you’re trying to do is gain an advantage over the house by watching how the dealer is dealing the cards. Typically the casinos will use measures to ensure shuffle trackers don’t have it easy, but you can often predict to a certain extent how good the deck will be.

If the casino you’re playing in doesn’t use any shuffle tracking measures then they will simply split up the cards from the shoe and shuffle them as they split them. This means that the cards in each pile will be in the same pile for the next shoe so if you know that the last shoe ended with a +10 count then you know the cards at the bottom of the shoe are going to equal -10. So this means that you want the bottom of the shoe to be at the top this time when you play. In order to do this you need to watch which pile the bottom of the shoe is in and then watch where in the deck that pile of cards gets placed for the next shoe.

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Often players will be allowed to cut the deck before the start of the new shoe so your job is to ask the table to let you cut the cards if possible. Generally the players on the table won’t have a problem with someone wanting to cut the cards so you should try and cut the cards so that the bottom of the shoe is at the top. So if the pile of cards was placed in the 3/4 portion of the deck then you want to try and cut the deck down the middle so that the 3/4 cards are now on top of the deck. If this works out then you should play a couple hands with your regular unit bet, but if it turns out you made a good cut then you should work on increasing your bets slowly.

If the casino uses techniques to avoid shuffle tracking such as splitting up piles and shuffling them with other piles so you can’t predict where the hot spots in the deck are then you need to try and watch where the piles end up in the shoe when they are being split up. You won’t be able to easily as predict where the hop spots are because they could be mixed up with lower cards, but you should still have an idea of where the high valued cards and aces ended up.

By shuffle tracking you will have an idea of whether or not the high cards are on the top of the shoe or on the bottom. If the high valued cards are on the top of the shoe then you should stick around and play the next shoe, but if they are on the bottom then you should walk away and find a new table. I would suggest playing a few hands first because you don’t want to make it appear to the dealer or pit boss that you were just shuffle tracking.