Confused about the game to choose when you land at a casino? Not able to narrow down on one game when you have the option often? This is not very uncommon. It’s pretty normal to get confused at such places where the variety is more than you can afford.
One game which one can never avoid is the game of cards, Blackjack. It is one of the most popular card games played at every casino. If you have the knowledge or tricks like shuffle tracking, it’ll be a paying game to you, and if not, the dealer will make profits beyond your imagination.
Blackjack is a game of cards where you start with two cards, one face up and one face down. You will have the choice to decide whether you want to go for another card by counting the values to get as close to 21 or not. Once you are done, the other players get the same opportunity. The dealer also stands at the same position as that of you when you start with the game and gets the opportunity once the game is done around a table. Since the dealer has an upper edge over other players, he chooses to stop his hand once his value is 17 points.
Blackjack playing tricks – Shuffle tracking
The common mistake people make while playing Blackjack is they tend to work towards defeating their counter players by getting 21 or as close to 21 as possible. But the trick lies here. You don’t have to defeat the counter players in order to win a Blackjack game but the dealer to do so. To beat the dealer, you need not have the highest value of your cards, but you should aim at keeping it as low as possible and wish that the dealer goes over the board during the game reaches beyond the value of 21.
If you are familiar with the casinos or their slang, you must be aware of the term shuffle tracking. To keep track of the bunch of cards which are being shuffled is in simple language what shuffle tracking means. Since shuffle tracking closely relates to the Blackjack game of cards, it is effectively taken care of in the leads from six or eight pack shoes.
You conclude what you believe.
Shuffle tracking is primarily based on the belief that it is not impossible to predict the location of cards in a bunch. And to conclude if this belief is correct, shuffling and reshuffling of the shoes hardly matter if seen from the player’s point of view, as it would do no favour to the dealer. However, it is to be noted that, the more complex a shuffle arrangement is, the less the effect of shuffle tracking is.
Relearn your counting!
When our parents said mathematics is important, we never paid heed to it, but it’s certainly important. And not only in simple counting but in card counting as well. If you are not thorough with the card counting, it will be a nearly impossible job for you to practice shuffle tracking.
The highs and lows of your life!
For shuffle tracking in Blackjack, you need to understand the two sides of your life while in the game.
High cards: tens and the aces.
Low cards: 4,5,6
Remember they are from your point of view and have the exact opposite meaning for the dealer. If you know the high and low cards, you can predict the high to the low ratio of cards and that’s what card counting is.
Precision
To mark a cutoff point in the deck, a yellow card is placed at a 3/4th position of the shoe, to mark that the end 1/4th of the cards have no worth, as they are never useful in the Blackjack game. This is done just to confuse the card counters and lower their accuracy.
Shuffle tracking is just an improved version of card counting, and it requires immense concentration and focus.
Look for your highs!
As you should always do, in the game of Blackjack, a shuffle tracker needs to keep track of the highs, the tens and aces. During the shuffle, he has to keep an eye on these bunches and once it is completed, choose the highs.
Shuffle tracking is not an easy job and requires patience, observation and the keenness to do so. It is really helpful, but however, not helpful in every case because playing Blackjack and winning it not only requires superior skills but also an element of luck, after all, other players in the game, as well as the dealer, is in your way of winning.