Is my Pitboss a ploppy?

p8ntballsk8r

Well-Known Member
#1
I made a post earlier saying that I deal blackjack in a bar. I was instructed to switch to a different shuffle for the last two shoes of the night. I asked him later why, if it had to do with the fact that we were losing on that table. He told me that two of the guys have been there for most of the night, and when you keep the shuffle the same for the entire night, blocks of low cards and blocks of high cards are established. He said that those guys who had been playing for the whole night tend to recognize them. Any way this can be true? He's been dealing and pitboss-ing for a while, but I just can't believe it.

The only thing that offers any truth to this, is the guy who was sitting at 3rd base. Hes a regular who always plays 2 hands, and moves his bet a lot, but not with the count. He also plays TERRIBLE, but ends up winning fairly often. Sometimes he'll hit a 14 against a 5 or 6, other times he'll wave it off. I always thought he was just playing on a whim.
 

p8ntballsk8r

Well-Known Member
#5
I highly doubt the shuffle was trackable... Probably 6 different dealers dealt on that table within 4 hours. I know for a fact, that my shuffle is not consistent. I don't really even try too hard to make it consistent.
 

blackchipjim

Well-Known Member
#6
The Reading

He just may be the luckiest person in the joint so don't sweat it. He also may be able to read the place and all of you dealers like a book. I won't get into the paticulars but I wouldn't worry about it.
 
#9
Wong writes that a shuffle is irrelevant. I believe him. The dealer is at the same advantage/disadvantage as the individual player, EVEN if the cards aren't shuffled at all.

I've been counting for thirty years and have never met a successful shuffle-tracker --MIT dudes notwithstanding.

Of course, there's always an exception, but I think shuffle-tracking is 99 percent B.S.
 

Blue Efficacy

Well-Known Member
#10
Multiple dk counter said:
Of course, there's always an exception, but I think shuffle-tracking is 99 percent B.S.
I can think your mom is one hot piece of ass. That doesn't make it true.

And to the OP, sounds like your pit boss is smarter than most.
 

Gamblor

Well-Known Member
#12
Multiple dk counter said:
Of course, there's always an exception, but I think shuffle-tracking is 99 percent B.S.
Yep, its complete BS. Come on, they shuffle the whole deck like twice, who can possibly track that! You need some super powered eye sight or something to track that.

Sands in PA actually shuffles the deck 3 times when their ASM goes down. Thats completely impossible to track! If their not standing around 20 minutes trying to fix the ASM while holding up the game. What a waste of time and money for the casino, their so paranoid.
 

LovinItAll

Well-Known Member
#13
Gamblor said:
Yep, its complete BS. Come on, they shuffle the whole deck like twice, who can possibly track that! You need some super powered eye sight or something to track that.

Sands in PA actually shuffles the deck 3 times when their ASM goes down. Thats completely impossible to track! If their not standing around 20 minutes trying to fix the ASM while holding up the game. What a waste of time and money for the casino, their so paranoid.
If you watch a DD hand shuffle, shuffle tracking is totally plausible. I haven't done much research into ST, but it seems to me that it isn't about tracking ONE clump of high/low value cards, but two or more clumps located at the optimum spots in the deck.

Watch how the dealer cuts off and shuffles the cards in DD game. Once you've got that down, mess with the shuffle at home and I think you'll see how, given the knowledge of the location of two clumps of value cards, they can be tracked, with the result being a higher than normal distribution of high/low hands when the tracked spot is reached.

Of course, I don't have enough faith in my puny sampling to shove a huge bet out there when I think I've tracked the shuffle properly, though I think my predictions have been very accurate on many occasions. Could be variance, though. In other words, DON'T FLAME ME! I do not claim to be a professional shuffle tracker!
 

Gamblor

Well-Known Member
#14
LovinItAll said:
If you watch a DD hand shuffle, shuffle tracking is totally plausible. I haven't done much research into ST, but it seems to me that it isn't about tracking ONE clump of high/low value cards, but two or more clumps located at the optimum spots in the deck.

Watch how the dealer cuts off and shuffles the cards in DD game. Once you've got that down, mess with the shuffle at home and I think you'll see how, given the knowledge of the location of two clumps of value cards, they can be tracked, with the result being a higher than normal distribution of high/low hands when the tracked spot is reached.

Of course, I don't have enough faith in my puny sampling to shove a huge bet out there when I think I've tracked the shuffle properly, though I think my predictions have been very accurate on many occasions. Could be variance, though. In other words, DON'T FLAME ME! I do not claim to be a professional shuffle tracker!
I've never said I never exaggerate, be sarcastic, mis-direct at times ;)
 
Top