Continuous Shuffle Machine Blackjack

• How To Beat Continuous Shuffling Machines
• Continuous Shuffle Blackjack Odds
• Blackjack Automatic Shuffler
• How To Count Cards With A Continuous Shuffling Machine

1. I am a recreational blackjack player. I visit AC a few times a year. I have my days and the casinos have theirs. I use basic strategy. People do look at you funny when you hit a soft 18 against a 9 -10 – A. Over the past year Caesars, Bally’s and Harrah’s have incorporated more continuous shuffle machines.
2. If a dealer deals out a few rounds, then takes the used cards and puts them into a machine that he is continually taking cards out of, then he is using a CSM. These machines continually shuffle together 3-5 decks, making it impossible to predict what types of cards are left in the shoe. Thus, it’s impossible to count a CSM game.
3. Continuous shuffling machines are a mainstay in the casino game of Blackjack. The game’s basic components contributing to your outcome is luck of the draw. Shuffling of cards automatically can affect both the odds of the players to win and the house advantage.
4. This electronic shuffler accelerates the game by up to 20 percent, as compared to manual shuffling. The shuffler can fill up to 6 decks of playing cards and ensures a continuous card supply without any interruptions. This shuffling machine ensures universal use for blackjack or poker games in any variation. For maximum comfort and overview, the user can use a configurator of custom games played in the.

When your table has continuous shuffle machines (CSMs) Every blackjack table has shuffle machines that take four or six decks of cards and shuffle it. This is a regular shuffle machine used in any.

I’m getting more questions from blackjack players about continuous shufflers now that they are being used in more casinos. What players want to know is if the odds are better or worse withHenry Tamburin is the editor and publisher of the Blackjack Insider Newsletter and author of the best-selling Blackjack: Take the Money & Run. He is also the lead Instructor for the Golden Touch Blackjack course, a feature writer for Casino Player magazine (and 6 other publications); an owner of a casino gambling publishing company (www.rsucasinobooks.com) and the host of www.smartgaming.com. For a free three month subscription to the Henry's Blackjack Insider Newsletter with full membership privileges go to www.bjinsider.com/free. Henry's website is www.smartgaming.com
ShuffleMaster is a leader in production of continuous card shufflers like the one pictured here. a continuous shuffling machine (CSM).

First, let’s make sure you understand what a CSM is because players often confuse them with automatic shufflers. The latter have been around a long time in casinos.

Usually a casino will use two sets of multiple decks of cards on a blackjack table.

While one set of cards are used to play the game the other set is being shuffled offline by the automatic shuffler. When the cut card appears, the round is completed and then the dealer will swap the cards-the just used multi-decks will be placed in the automatic shuffler to be shuffled while the shuffled decks that were in the machine are put into play. The purpose of the automatic shuffler is to eliminate the wasted time involved in having the dealer manually shuffle the cards (from the casinos perspective, time is money, so their hourly profit goes up when they eliminate the wasted time in manually shuffling the cards).

The odds against the player in blackjack do not change when an automatic shuffler is used on the table to shuffle the multi-decks of cards. If the casino were using 6 decks of cards, they will usually deal 4.0-4.5 decks and then place the entire 6-decks into the automatic shuffler for shuffling while continue to play with the second set of freshly shuffled 6-decks of cards. With an automatic shuffler, about 70-75% of the cards are dealt out before the cards are reshuffled. This is an important point to remember.

The CSM was invented primarily to discourage card counting at blackjack. But it also has a negative effect over average players as you will soon see.

A CSM is a combination automatic shuffler and dealing shoe. Casinos usually place 5 decks of cards into the CSM. After a betting round is completed, the dealer will scoop up the just played cards (discards) and instead of placing them into a discard tray will insert the cards back into the CSM for shuffling with the remaining 4.5 or so decks of cards. (Some casinos will place the discards from several rounds into a small discard tray and then scoop up the deck or so of discards and place them back into the CSM).

Do you understand the difference between a CSM and automatic shuffler? With the latter most of the cards are played (ca. 70%) before the discards and unplayed cards are reshuffled. With a CSM, the discards are immediately returned to the shuffler to be randomly mixed with the unplayed card. . It’s possible that a specific card from the round just played might wind up being dealt in the next round.

So do the odds change when a CSM is used? The answer is yes, they change very slightly in favor of the player with the house edge against a basic strategy player in a typical 6-deck game reduced by about 0.1%.

The reason the CSM causes the house edge to go down ever so slightly is because of a phenomena known as the “cut card effect” (this increases the probability slightly of getting tens and blackjack when a CSM is used).

Now before you rush out and play blackjack on a table that uses a CSM, listen to the rest of the story. Even though the house edge goes down slightly with a CSM, this is more than negated by the increased speed of the game. Remember with a CSM dealt game there is never any down for shuffling cards. So on average the casino can deal about an extra round or two per hour resulting in about 20% more hands played per hour with a CSM and because they have the edge against the vast majority of players who play blackjack their hourly revenue goes up by 20%. From the player’s perspective, you will lose 20% faster on average playing against a CSM dealt game compared to a game dealt manually or with an automatic shuffler.

Casinos love to spin the tale that the reason they use a CSM is to foil card counters.

How To Beat Continuous Shuffling Machines

Yet you will rarely see a CSM used at high limit tables where most of the pro card counters would play. The reason is that most high rollers who know nothing of card counting are suspicious of the CSM and they insist that blackjack should be played the old fashion way or they will take their business elsewhere.

So in most casinos you will find CSM’s on the main casino floor where the table minimums are lower. It’s here on the $5 and $10 tables where the casino grinds out it’s 20% more revenue per hour against average low stakes players.

Casinos also like CSM’s because it allows them to always have the edge just like they enjoy with all their games. By using a CSM, blackjack becomes virtually unbeatable much like roulette, baccarat, Three Card Poker and other table games.

CSM’s are not cheap. Casinos coast to coast have been testing them for the past several years. In some casinos the devices were removed because of player complaints or because the extra revenue didn’t justify the extra cost of these devices. Nevertheless, casinos keep putting CSM on their tables in the hopes that the playing public will get accustomed to them.

My advice is to stay away from any blackjack table that uses a CSM. If more players do this casinos will reluctantly have to remove the machines and return to the more player friendly automatic shufflers (or manual shuffles). Blackjack is tough enough to beat without introducing devices that cause average player’s to lose more quickly.

Editor's Note: One of the most famous casino sites in Turkey named Turkcecasino25.com offers live blackjack. You can click and start playing online blackjack. You won't get a better shuffle, but it's a quick way to get some blackjack action.

Home » VT News » Continuous Shuffle Blackjack Machines Beaten

I got an email from a friend in casino security for one of the big operators, asking me what I know about beating continuous shuffle blackjack machines.

I've done a great bit of research about card counting (applied), some tools and techniques for cheating casinos, as well as interviewing famed casino cheat Richard Marcus. Nothing I've uncovered ever implied or led me to believe that continuous shuffle machines (CSMs) could be beaten by card counters or shuffle trackers.

According to our source, a group of players seem to have figured out how to beat these machines quite regularly although it's unclear how exactly, it's being done. Which I guess is why they asked me.

My first impression was obvious skepticism, but based on the quality of our source, I can't not believe that this is actually happening. For an advantage player to be able to beat a continuous shuffle machine without help on the inside (via dealers, or predicting the specific behavior of the hardware's algorithm) requires out of the box thinking on how to use and manipulate information gained during play.

One possibility - cracking the shuffling algorithm - is dicey at best, and would probably require investment into two CSM machines to test with, one to hack and one to test theories on. Even if one were to crack a given machine, you would have to know which casinos used a that specific model and whether or not it was using a the latest software update (if they even do software updates on these things.)

A second, slightly more realistic methodology for gaining advantage would be to develop a system of microcounting, wherein a player, or team of players, uses information available - the number and count of cards played in the last hand - to determine the composition of the remainder of the deck set.

Here's a theoretical : if there are seven playing positions (plus dealer) and each position is dealt, say, an average of 3.1 cards per round, then you would know that an average of 29.6 cards are played each hand. 29.6 cards per round equals 9% of a six deck set, 11% of 5 deck, 14% of 4 deck, 18% of 3 deck, 28% of 2 deck, 56% of 1 deck. The less decks used in a game, the more insight the player gets into the composition of the deck set remainder.

To gain further knowledge, it is to the players advantage to increase the number of cards played per hand. It is entirely possible that an adjusted basic strategy chart could mathematically tell players which hands should be sacrificed for the team when the deck set is below a certain advantage threshhold. The higher the number of cards out of the CSM, the more accurate the players insight unto remainder deck set composition will be.

It is a greater advantage to the player to play at tables with a smaller deck set. Six deck = 312 cards, five deck = 260 cards, four deck = 208, three deck = 156, two deck = 104, one deck = 52

Based on the percentage of played cards, and count of those cards, a team of players could construe a betting schema that would take advantage of specific situations.

It is also within the realms of electronic engineering that an electrostatic device could wirelessly adjust a CSMs shuffle algorithm, or trip it altogether as well as defeat fail safes to protect against such measures. Given the right amount of brains, invention and investment, this isn't beyond the realm of possibility. Men created far more complex pieces of technology for much less return on investment.

One thing is sure, as long as there is cheese, there will always be mice trying to steal it. With technology and hacking becoming as much of a sport as it is a profit making venture, it's a given that mathematicians and engineers will attempt to crack the latest advances in casino game protection. While the casinos may take a periodic hit from industrious inventors, it will barely make a dent in the buckets of cash blindly poured onto the tables by players who don't even know basic strategy.

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