Originally Posted by kewlJ View Post
Originally Posted by Mission146 View Post
So, that's what I think they're trying to say. If it's a different chip, Shufflemaster didn't build it to be able to cheat. It would essentially be a corrupted and altered version of what they did release, not being used for its intended purpose.
WELL, then that chip or altered version is out there and becoming more readily available.

Regardless, my accusation really isn't against Shufflemaster. Where ever the chip comes from and whoever is responsible for inserting it, any casino using it knows about it and was a party to it.

I am NOT guessing at this. I was pretty sure for a while which is why I began accumulating data. But now, I now have a freaking machine in my possession that can do exactly what I suspected and quite frankly some other questionable and disturbing things.

And as bad as I feel about outing an AP play that some of my fellow AP's were exploiting, I do believe this has to be stopped now. It is cheating! and just because a few AP's are able to exploit it, the public shouldn't be unknowingly cheated like this.
Would you like to meet up with me in Vegas at some point and demonstrate this to me?

I will agree to keep quiet any details you wish for me to suppress.

I would love to blow this story up and get to the bottom of this.

From what I'm reading, and from my knowledge of embedded systems programming (which I worked in for several years prior to becoming a poker pro), I highly suspect that this particular "chip" can be removed and then one with more sinister programming could be inserted in its place.

If Shufflemasters can see the cards they're shuffling and have the ability to arrange the cards in order, then they can very possibly be rogue-programmed to do other things, such as this "clumping" you mention.

I fully agree wtih kewlJ's decision to out this, by the way. This is indeed illegal cheating, and is screwing both recreational players and APs. Only those who knew about the clumping could exploit it, but you can't fault a guy for outing something like this where everyone else is getting cheated. It's different than outing something which only benefits APs but doesn't hurt non-APs, such as misset or overcomping machines.

This clumping totally screws blackjack players in several ways.

1) It essentially removes several tens from the deck by artificially inserting a lot of ties with natural 20s.

2) It reduces the number of natural wins for the player where they don't have to draw. Drawing is a big disadvantage to the player (compared to the dealer) because the player loses if both themselves and the dealer busts. So if the player and dealer are both drawing, it's a disaster for the player odds-wise.

3) If the clump is fully or partially beyond the cut card (and thus never dealt), it confuses counters into believing they have an edge where they actually don't, and these counters are increasing their bets in -EV situations.

4) If the clump is fully or partially beyond the cut card (and thus never dealt), it screws all players (counters and recs) because undealt tens help the house big time (the entire concept of counting revolves around this).