One Shuffle Fits All
Remember when dealers split six decks in half, riffled the cards once or twice in three sections and offered you the decks to cut all in about 90 seconds? What happened to those days? Nowadays, you can walk to the nearest bathroom, use the facilities, wash and dry your hands, walk back and still have time for a phone call before the next shoe is cut. In fact, a bathroom break can even be had in the time it takes to shuffle a double deck game! Today's complex shuffles consist of time consuming twists and turns, riffles and strips, stacking and unstacking that are designed to thwart EVERY possible known technique where a player can track cards through a hand shuffle. How many people in the world have the ability to accurately shuffle track a simple shuffle? I can count them on one hand. How many people in the world can accurately sequence cards through a simple shuffle? I can count them on my hands and feet. How large an edge can be accomplished by the world's most skilled shuffle tracker or a computer for that matter? Two to three percent at best. How large is the window of opportunity in a 6 deck shoe that is shuffle tracked? 26-78 cards! In simple terms, a shuffle tracker plays with a disadvantage up 3 percent about 80% of the time and an advantage up to 3 percent about 18% of the time (and at greater advantages and disadvantages the other 2% of the time). The amount of training, skill and accuracy that is required to shuffle track is comparable to the amount of training, skill and accuracy that is required to become one of the Blue Angels! A similar situation exists for sequencers except their window of opportunity is minuscule in comparison. The bottom line is that every time the casinos discovered a weakness in their shuffles, they added a procedure to thwart that weakness. Paranoia lead to more paranoia which made a 90 second procedure a 6 minute chore. The additional four and a half minutes spent shuffling and not dealing costs casinos thousands of times more money each year than they could ever save.