Effect of Shuffle Tracker on Another Player

It is well known that a backcounter has an effect on other players at the table. Obviously, a shuffle tracker will also have an effect; but that effect is more complex. This page contains a series of Blackjack Shuffle Tracking simulations to get a sense of the effect a shuffle tracker has on the results of a card counter unaware that the shuffle tracker is present. The Blackjack rules are a fairly standard 4.5/6, S17, DAS. The shuffle tracking procedure used is the same as described at Cost of Errors when Shuffle Tracking.

The Sims

Six sims were performed. In each of the sims there are two players: a card counter and a shuffle tracker. The card counter always plays in the same manner, HiLo Illustrious 18, 1:15 spread. The shuffle tracker varies his play as follows:

• I. Standard card counting, no shuffle tracking.
• II. Bad slugs are cut to the end of the shoe. Good slugs are ignored.
• III. Good slugs are cut to the top.
• IV. Good slugs are cut to the second deck.
• V. Good cards are cut to the third deck.
• VI. Good cards are cut to the second deck and bad cards are cut to the end.

The Chart

Below you will see the SCORE for each sim:

Comments

• 1. In only one case did the tracker negatively impact the results of the counter. Sim III is slightly worse than Sim I indicating that cutting good slugs to the top has a very slight impact on the unaware counter.
• 2. Cuting good cards further into the shoe or bad slugs out can have a dramatic effect on the unaware counter. Up tp 64% SCORE improvement is seen in this particular set of sims.
• 3. Get a tracker as a friend:)
• 4. Again, this is hardly a comprehensive study. There are a huge number of variables in standard Blackjack card counting simulations. This is multiplied considerably in shuffle tracking sims. For the purposes of this sim, only one shuffle and one method of attacking the shuffle were used. Further, only one fairly tight dealer was used.