How to Use Shuffle Tracking in Blackjack

People love playing blackjack for a great number of reasons. For one, the rules of the game of blackjack are virtually no-brainers. You’d only need a minute or so, in fact, to master the rules of the game. Of course, when you start playing it in casinos or treat it as a gambling game, the rules get a bit more complex because of the bets. But hey, with bets present, it makes winning all the more lovelier, right?

Now, let’s just say that you’d like to test your luck and risk your money at the blackjack table. If you can’t call yourself a blackjack expert yet then we simply suggest that you practice playing free blackjack games online first before moving on to blackjack tables that deal with real money.

We also suggest that you play blackjack online first before moving on to the real blackjack tables because it’s easier to win at online blackjack games. If you insist on playing for real at land-based casinos however, we have just two words for you: shuffle tracking.

Shuffle tracking is one of the two most popular strategies used in blackjack. The other one is card counting. While card counting is a technique that has been used for a long time already, shuffle tracking is still a relatively new strategy, albeit highly popular, so there are still many blackjack players who are unaware of how shuffle tracking works.

Shuffle Tracking Defined

It’s hard to accurately define the theory or concept of shuffle tracking but we’ll try the best we can. Ahem – shuffle tracking is a blackjack strategy wherein you observe the card shuffling process and keeping track of certain key cards so that you may later on use or throw them out of play for your advantage.

I did say it’s a bit hard to define, didn’t I? To make shuffle tracking more understandable, let’s just illustrate by means of a situational example.

When you want to use shuffle tracking at blackjack tables, you’re immediately assuming that cards sometimes tend to bunch together in a deck (or decks) and that you can track where this cards are while the dealer shuffles the deck.

So, if a dealer uses a new shoe, you should make a mental note of what cards have shown up and divide the shoe into several sections. You should then be able to determine which sections are rich with cards that you’d love to have by also observing how the cards are positioned in the discard box.

A bit confusing, isn’t it? But don’t worry because as time passes by, you’re sure to get the hang of shuffle tracking quickly enough. Just remember: practice, practice, practice!