I want to share a story about a dealer. He deals normally at $100 table minimal table so I don't know him. Ploppies call me "Wicked". Other dealers call him Champion. Anyway he is assigned to my table and I can feel he is someone special because no one wins at his table. When Champion took his 20 minute break, I asked his replacement how he gets the nickname. He said Champion almost never loses. So when he came back, I paid attention how he shuffled.
There are two casinos I often visit and they all have hand shuffled Blackjack. The other one takes about one minute to shuffle the shoe. They are both two pass shuffle. But at the other casino, the dealer just mix two chunks quickly to have the shuffle done as quick as possible. But Champion and many dealers at this casino take four or five minutes to shuffle a six deck shoe. The first pass is normal. But this is the details of the second pass:
Champion took five steps to complete the second pass. He divided six decks to three decks on each side. Each time he took 0.6 decks from each side and shuffle. Unlike the other casino the dealers just shuffles head on. Champion (and many dealers in this casino) tilt the decks while shuffle. So they can see the ranks of the cards while shuffling. Then each time they will select a few cards either put them to the top of 1.2 decks or the bottom of 1.2 decks. They do this about six to ten times for each 1.2 decks. To most players, the stripping seems to be random, the few cards he selected can either go to the top or the bottom. But Champion is watching while shuffling, so he makes sure if the cards contains most faces go to the top, the cards contains most aces and smalls go to the bottom.
There are two casinos I often visit and they all have hand shuffled Blackjack. The other one takes about one minute to shuffle the shoe. They are both two pass shuffle. But at the other casino, the dealer just mix two chunks quickly to have the shuffle done as quick as possible. But Champion and many dealers at this casino take four or five minutes to shuffle a six deck shoe. The first pass is normal. But this is the details of the second pass:
Champion took five steps to complete the second pass. He divided six decks to three decks on each side. Each time he took 0.6 decks from each side and shuffle. Unlike the other casino the dealers just shuffles head on. Champion (and many dealers in this casino) tilt the decks while shuffle. So they can see the ranks of the cards while shuffling. Then each time they will select a few cards either put them to the top of 1.2 decks or the bottom of 1.2 decks. They do this about six to ten times for each 1.2 decks. To most players, the stripping seems to be random, the few cards he selected can either go to the top or the bottom. But Champion is watching while shuffling, so he makes sure if the cards contains most faces go to the top, the cards contains most aces and smalls go to the bottom.
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