Originally Posted by
Alan Mendelson
MaxPen think about it for a moment. What percentage of two decks is made up of tens?
Player inserts the cut card, after the tens are clumped.
Now what is the likelihood that the clump of tens is preserved? And what is the likelihood that the clump of tens is moved to the back of the two decks so they are not dealt?
This magician would not only be able to clump the tens but would have to be a psychic to know where the player inserts the cut card.
In fact he claimed that ability. See:
I would purposely keep a "chunk" of 10s and Aces in an area that most people would cut out and wind up behind the cut card via offset shuffling. You really see this in 2 Deck games
And he did this with only two decks which gives him virtually no margin for error.
Actually the chunk of 10's and aces behind the cut card is only one of several possibilities that favors the house and would dramatically increase house edge. That happens to be the scenario this person was speaking about as he describes that under that scenario "the card counter would be betting into a false count".
But suppose the high card/ Ace clump was cut into play at the beginning of the shoe. An abundant of 10's and aces (advantage player) would come out the first couple rounds when the card counter had his minimum wager out and there would likely be some 20's pushes with the dealer. Then later in the shoe when the small cards were coming out the house would be at a huge advantage, as the dealer would be making 20, 21 hands out of what look to be bust hands (small cards coming out).
It wouldn't be AS favorable as the scenario that Nightshifter described where the card counter was "tricked" into betting heavy into a false count.....false because the high cards would never come out before the shuffle, but it would still be favorable to the house. There are a number of ways to manipulate the cards in favor of the house.