When the Machine Deals Blackjack
By Brian Jamie

Two changes have overrun blackjack tables that are disadvantageous to the player. They are continuous shuffling machines and modified blackjack payouts. Neither are particularly new. Continuous shuffling machines were developed and deployed for the first time almost 10 years ago. And casinos routinely review the rules of blackjack to continue to give to maintain a house edge (which is casino speak for the profit margin built into games).

Continuous shuffling machines are bad for the player, and the only surprise is you don’t see even more so than you do now. As a player at a six-deck game, you can get an instinctive feel for the shoe and after a short time, have a pretty good sense of what cards are coming. The reason for this is that the cards in play never get truly shuffled.

When you watch a dealer shuffle, you will notice they use the same series of steps every single time. And in fact, the casino’s method of hand shuffle does not truly shuffle the cards to random so in effect, clumps of cards stay clumped. That is why even without counting cards you can start to see patterns of the cards coming out of the shoe. It’s also why when a table starts bad, it tends to stay bad. It’s not karma, and it’s not just how you play; it is that you are essentially playing the same shoe over and over again (like Groundhog’s Day.)

There are two common types of machine shufflers that you will encounter at blackjack tables. One is a shuffler that works behind the dealer to shuffle one shoe while the other is in play. When it is time to shuffle, the dealer simply swaps shoes and plays with the decks that the machine has just shuffled. The purpose of this type is to speed up the play by losing a major work stoppage: the dealer’s shuffle. It equates to more hands per hour for the casino.

You could probably live with that type of shuffler if you have to.

The other type of machine shuffle, however, is to be avoided at all costs. The continuous machine shuffler was invented to ruin card counters, speed up play and even demolish basic strategy. The way it works is at the end of each hand, the dealer puts the cards that were just played back into machine, which is continuously rotating cards in its innards. The machine, inside, has shelves (19 in the original model) which continuously rotate and collect the cards as the dealer puts them back into the machine. Then, when the dealer needs more cards, one shelf at random is emptied and the cards are ejected from the machine for the dealer to use.

The net result is that the ace you just played could come back the very next hand. Or, even worse in some cases, some cards never get played. They just get caught endlessly in the loop. Of course, that really screws up card counters because you are never playing with a full shoe. For everyone else it speeds up the game and there is little to no pause in the action. Remember that playing blackjack is small margin of advantage in favor of the house, which means the more hands you play, the more likely you will end up losing. The four deck continuous machine shufflers actually reduce the house advantage by .034 percent. But what small statistical benefit you might gain is vastly outweighed by the 20% increase in the speed of the game.

The great thing about Las Vegas is that there are always other casinos nearby. Even though casinos are expanding all over the U.S., they are still far enough apart that you do not always have a lot of other options. Remember, if there isn’t a table that suits your liking, go elsewhere. Get up and walk next door (a Vegas block is the equivalent to half a mile, but chalk it up to exercise) and scope out the tables there.

Which brings me to my other complaint; blackjack payouts. Blackjack is typically paid out 3-to-2, which means if you bet $10, the payout is $15 on a blackjack. Some casinos have modified the payout to pay 6-to-1 ($6 payout on a $5 bet). Though this used to be more common single-deck games where you could count the cards, it is now starting to appear on six-deck shoes as well. This a huge disadvantage to the player, and I don’t recommend sitting down a table with modified blackjack payouts.

You can lose your money anywhere. If house rules are not to your advantage, you should keep looking. Sure, it’s still a gamble, but take whatever advantage you can get.

Read more of my philosophy on 21 at philosophyofbj.com.

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