Shuffle track

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Shuffle tracking is an advantage gambling technique where a player tracks certain cards or sequences of cards through a series of shuffles. Shuffle tracking is typically done in blackjack games, although it can be done in other card games.^{[citation needed]} Games with simple shuffles are easier to shuffle track than games with complicated shuffles. Thus, shuffle tracking is usually done in 6 or 8 deck shoe-dealt blackjack games, as these tend to have simpler shuffles compared to pitch games, due to the time required to accomplish a complicated shuffle on 6 or 8 decks of cards.^{[citation needed]}

There are 3 types of shuffle tracking.

1 Shuffle tracking "slugs"
2 Ace sequencing
3 Ten steering
4 Notes

[edit] Shuffle tracking "slugs"

One way of shuffle tracking is done as an aid to card counting. The player keeps track of "slugs", or sections of high or low cards while the game is played. The player will then attempt to follow slugs of cards through the shuffle, and cut the high cards into play, or the low cards out of play, thus changing the normal composition of the deck. ^[1] ^[2]

[edit] Ace sequencing

Another form of shuffle tracking is called ace sequencing, because it involves attempting to figure out exactly where an ace is in the deck. If a player knows that he will be dealt an ace as his first card, he gains a 50.43% advantage^[3]. This is because a player has a 30% (4/13) chance of getting a blackjack and a good chance of making a strong hand if he is not dealt a blackjack. So ace sequencing involves cutting an exact number of cards - usually exactly one deck of 52 cards. It doesn't really matter how many cards, as long as it is always the exact same number, but many players choose one deck because it is simple.^[4] After the player has cut the deck, he looks at the card that he cut to. This will be the 52nd card. Thus, if the cut is accurate, and the player can see the card he cut to, and that card is an ace, he will know that an ace is coming in 52 cards, and can bet accordingly.

In response to this tactic, many casinos have trained their dealers to be more careful about flashing the bottom card when cutting the deck.

[edit] Ten steering

The last form of shuffle tracking is similar to ace sequencing but comes up if the player sees a ten-valued card instead of an ace. Instead of trying to get the ace for himself, the player instead attempts to "steer" the ten valued card to the dealer by drawing extra cards or not drawing cards, in order to increase the dealer's chance of busting. Normally the dealer has approximately a 30% chance of busting on any given hand^[5] (depending on the rules and number of decks in play), but if the dealer's drawing card is always a ten, the dealer will bust any stiff hand, and thus will have a greatly increased chance of busting.