Advantage Gambling: Shuffle Tracking

Shuffle Tracking

Shuffle tracking is an advanced blackjack technique. It is not cheating but rather is part of advantage gambling. Advantage gambling is a term given to legal ways of gaining an advantage over the house.

A shuffle tracking expert watches cards as they are dealt and discarded. By memorizing their position and knowing how various shuffling methods work, the expert can predict where these cards will fall in the next shoe or deck.

It is easy to see how shuffle tracking can benefit a player. If you know what the next cards are going to be, you can adjust your play and wagering accordingly. And with shuffle tracking, there is no need to resort to illegal or unethical means such as hole carding or card marking.

Kinds of Shuffle Tracking

There are a few ways to use shuffle tracking:

- Slug Tracking. A "slug" is a clump or bunch of high or low cards that appear successively in a deck or shoe. If a player can tell when and where a slug will appear, it gives them an advantage during play. They can also cut certain cards out of play during shuffling, thus changing the arrangement of the deck.

- Ace Sequencing. In ace sequencing, the shuffle tracking expert tries to pin down where exactly an ace is. If they are able to locate an ace during cutting, they can figure out when the ace will appear. To thwart players who trace aces, dealers must be careful not to show the bottom card in a cut.

- Ten Steering. This is similar to ace sequencing. But instead of an ace, one looks for a ten-valued card. The objective is to lead these high cards toward the dealer to make him or her bust. The expert can make this happen by hitting or not hitting, whichever would put the high cards in the dealer's way.

Shuffle Tracking and Other Strategies

This strategy works well when combined with hand strategy and card counting. But shuffle tracking requires a great deal of patience, concentration and dedication. Few players are willing to invest so much time and energy into it. It is for advanced players only; specifically those who have mastered card counting.

Shuffle Tracking Detection

Shuffle tracking hasn't been around long enough for the casinos to know what to do with it - yet. That is good news for advantage players. While card counters are easily spotted and identified through high-tech surveillance and the counters' own predictable behavior, shuffle tracking is harder to detect. One reason for this is that a shuffle tracking expert often acts contrary to how a typical card counter would during play.