Several questions on the MD3 shoe shuffller, counting, and basic strategy

The casinos in a bordering state offer 6-deck games, some are shoe and the others are non-shoe. I googled for information on the shufflers. The non-shoe was easy to find because the name, One2Six, was on the side. Anyway, the shufler for the shoe looks like the MD3 also made by shufflemaster. When the dealer changes decks, they take about 1 inch of cards from the top then seperate it into 3 piles and inserts each back into what looks like top of the bottom 1/4, middle and the bottom of the upper 1/4 of the remaining cards, inserts it in the left tray. Then takes the other shuffled deck on the right and places the cut card about 1 to 2 inches from the back.

Does the MD3 shuffler or reinserting part of the top discards as mentioned above causing the shuffled deck to have a pattern or to retain a pattern? With the cut card inserted 1 to 2 inches from the back, for 6-7 players, how many rounds are there before a reshuffle? I'm trying to decide whether there would be enough hands before reshuffle to make counting worthwhile, or if basic strategy and the small house edge decrease by the csm would be better. A few counting books are seperated into a section on counting (to only adjust the basic strategy) and one on betting (ie, Paroli or 1,2,3,5 back to 1 sequence). Any pros or cons compaired to counting using the score for a bet spread? Are there any practice websites to help with increasing counting speed?

As long as the cards are dealt from a shoe w/ a cut card, the game is countable. Forget about the CSM unless you are just a flat bettor. When the shoe ends, the dealer plugs the remaining cards into the used cards and affects nothing when used w/ an ASM.

Also, penatration is the #1 factor in determining if its a good game for a counter. 2 inches cut off a 6 deck game is not good. Next is bet spread followed by casino rules (the more liberal the better,), less decks the better, fewer players the better.