Ace clumping - shuffle track worked!

Yesterday at Mohegan, this one shoe had something like 10 aces show up in the first 1.5 decks. So after the shoe ended, I kept focused on that slug of cards throughout the shuffle, and cut the deck so that the high ace-concentration would show up somewhere near the start of the next shoe. I was alone vs the dealer and I opened at 3 hands with two units each (how's that for counting cover?!). The aces took a while to show up (ie, I cut out too much) but then they came and I got 4 blackjacks in three rounds. Most of the other aces showed up in unhelpful ways, but they were still sufficiently concentrated.

Anyone have any experience with something like this?

I was playing heads up last year, and back then I didn't play BJ very often. But I had the same thing happen, where a bunch of Aces came out at one time. I was able to keep track of where they were in the discard box, and watched pretty intently while the dealer shuffled the cards. I then tried to cut right in front of where I felt the aces were. And like you, I was successful. I had a couple of blackjacks out of the gate. That was the only time I have ever tried any type of tracking.

Now, with the shuffle machines, I am seeing what I feel to be odd things. Like multiple shoes where 4 aces will be clumped together. On our last trip to Cherokee, 4 Qs came out in a row for 7 out of 8 shuffles. I guess I will always be old school and long for the hand shuffles.

Today at Mohegan they are watching for this. Why include the name?

Quote: AxelWolf

Today at Mohegan they are watching for this. Why include the name?

Because they have nothing to worry about at these six deck games.

When the cut card comes out at Mohegan Sun there is, on average, two decks left. Sometimes less, many times more. The first thing the dealer does is break those two decks into four stacks. Each stack is inserted into the discards beginning near the bottom and working up to near the top. The cards are then removed from the discard rack and thoroughly shuffled.

Although the stacks could each contain around 25 cards or so, they would seem to be lost in the shuffle. I know someone out there is going to say this is able to be tracked. If so I'm all ears.

1BB is exactly right -- the remaining cards in the shoe are split into 4 parts and then distributed throughout the discard rack before the shuffle. In this case, however, the aces were clumped at the very bottom of the discard rack and the dealer inserted the stacks way closer to the top. The bottom of the discard rack was completely untouched, which is why I think it worked in this case.

And yes. If you end a shoe with a ridiculously high TC at Mohegan, it doesn't matter because those cards get completely lost in the shuffle.

Quote: arcticfun

1BB is exactly right -- the remaining cards in the shoe are split into 4 parts and then distributed throughout the discard rack before the shuffle. In this case, however, the aces were clumped at the very bottom of the discard rack and the dealer inserted the stacks way closer to the top. The bottom of the discard rack was completely untouched, which is why I think it worked in this case.

And yes. If you end a shoe with a ridiculously high TC at Mohegan, it doesn't matter because those cards get completely lost in the shuffle.

So, back to Axel's question... WHY are you talking about this?

Yes, shuffle tracking can be VERY profitable. Yes, there are ways to beat even very complicated-looking shuffles. So, you first thought is to go talk about it publicly? Why not just go explain to the pit boss how it can be beaten and suggest some modifications?

Quote: AxiomOfChoice

So, back to Axel's question... WHY are you talking about this?

Yes, shuffle tracking can be VERY profitable. Yes, there are ways to beat even very complicated-looking shuffles. So, you first thought is to go talk about it publicly? Why not just go explain to the pit boss how it can be beaten and suggest some modifications?

i know he even put in the casino's name.

Eugh fair enough, point taken. Noted for next time.