• Csm Blackjack European
• Csm Blackjack

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Card counting has been the most-popular advantage gambling method since the 1960s. It gives virtually anybody a chance to gain an edge casino in blackjack.

A skilled card counter can beat any hand-shuffled game over time. However, you may find it impossible to beat tables that use a continuous shuffling (CSM).

Many say that games with a CSM can’t be beaten through card counting. But is this really the case?

I’m going to discuss more on continuous shuffling machines along with if there’s any possible way for you win with such games.

Why You Can Normally Beat Blackjack Through Card Counting

The “Four Horsemen”—a group of four Army engineers—became the first blackjack players to surmise that blackjack could be beaten. They developed a rudimentary card counting method to improve their chances of winning.

As smart as the Four Horsemen were, though, their system didn’t have enough refinement to overcome the house edge. It wasn’t until a few years later that another gambler took their work to another level.

A mathematician named Ed Thorp developed the Ten Count method in the early 1960s. Although still rudimentary by today’s standards, Ten Count can beat single-deck blackjack when properly employed. Thorp used this method to win profits for himself. He then popularized card counting through his book, Beat the Dealer.

This 1962 publication blew the doors open on card counting. Soon after its release, many gamblers showed up to casinos in hopes of winning profits.

Unfortunately, casinos also had access to Beat the Dealer. They reverse-engineered the advice to think of ways to thwart card counters.

They added more decks and created “shoe” games in an effort to make counting much more difficult. However, gamblers eventually figured out how to beat shoe games as well.

Using the Hi-Lo system, for example, one simply needs to convert their running count into a true count. The latter accounts for the multiple decks involved.

Gamblers also need to find games that allow enough deck penetration. The latter refers to how far a dealer goes into the shoe before shuffling. If they deal six out of eight decks, for example, they’re allowing 75%.

This is the kind of penetration that one needs to beat blackjack on a consistent basis. They’ll have more confidence in their counts towards the end of a shoe and make more money.

What Does a Continuous Shuffling Machine Do?

A CSM shuffles the cards so that a dealer doesn’t have to stop a game to do so. It includes an opening at the top that allows the dealer to insert a number of cards from the discard tray.

CSMs put cards into little slots inside of it. This random method of placing cards into slots ensures that the piles get well-shuffled.

This machine pushes its shuffled card clumps to the top. The dealer, meanwhile, can continue dealing the game with no time wasted.

The main reason why casinos love continuous shuffling machines is because they stand to earn more profits.

A CSM increases the play rate by 20% and allows casinos to better capitalize on their edge over recreational players. As I’ll cover next, casinos also appreciate the fact that these machines hamper card counters.

Why Is a Continuous Shuffling Machine Bad for Card Counters?

Again, card counters need games that offer adequate deck penetration. They can’t reasonably expect to make profits when only a quarter of the shoe is dealt.

In this situation, three-fourths of the shoe would remain. Even with a +4 true count at this point, one couldn’t have much confidence in this figure when considering how many cards are remaining.

A CSM never gives advantage players the kind of deck penetration they need to win money. Instead, dealers can simply keep inserting cards into the machine and not have to worry about shuffling.

You may wonder, though, why dealers don’t just shuffle earlier in the shoe. They could just shuffle at the halfway point, for instance, and make card-counting profits very difficult.

However, dealers would also have to stop the game many more times throughout the day. In turn, this process would cost the casino more money than card counters do on average.

Csm Blackjack European

Continuous shuffling machines solve this problem by performing the shuffling. Meanwhile, a dealer can just focus on dealing the cards.

Is There Any Way to Beat CSM Blackjack?

Csm Blackjack

Years ago, I saw a CSI-type show where a group of blackjack players figured out the innerworkings of a continuous shuffling machine.

However, this was just a fictional show. Nobody in real life has figured out how to beat a blackjack game that uses a CSM.

Again, you need enough deck penetration to maintain faith in your count. You can’t simply increase your bet 10x because you have a positive count after one out of six decks are dealt.

With so many cards remaining, your positive count isn’t as reliable. You need a game that allows at least 75% deck penetration so you can increase your bets shortly before the dealer shuffles.

Of course, you could theoretically beat a blackjack game with a CSM. This scenario would require a dealer forgetting to put discards into the machine.

They’d then need to continue dealing through the whole shoe without recognizing their mistake. However, most dealers have gone through extensive training and know better than to make such a blunder.

Knowing what you do now, you would probably avoid any table with a continuous shuffling machine anyways. So, you wouldn’t be around for this rare occurrence.

Will Continuous Shuffling Machines Destroy Card Counting?

CSMs definitely aren’t anything new. They’ve been around in the blackjack world for years.

People still continue making money through card counting. Therefore, continuous shuffling machines definitely haven’t destroyed this type of advantage gambling.

Great for Casinos, Bad for Players

Casinos would love to use these machines on every table possible. They’d increase their profits through faster games and also ruin any chance of card counting. However, some players don’t like gambling on tables with a CSM. Part of their hatred towards continuous shuffling machines comes from misconceptions. The quicker game speed causes them to lose more money on average. Therefore, they mistakenly believe that a CSM increases the house advantage (it actually lowers the house edge).

Gamblers just don’t like the idea of playing blackjack with a machine involved. They may like this game for its traditional atmosphere or feel that casinos could rig the action with a CSM.

This feeling is yet another misconception surrounding these machines. But it serves as one more reason why some casinos don’t want to rile up their customers by introducing CSMs.

Where Can You Go to Avoid CSMs?

Unfortunately, certain gambling destinations have filled their tables with continuous shuffling machines. They enjoy the previously discussed benefits of stamping out card counting and boosting their profits.

Macau is the biggest casino hotspot to roll out CSMs all over the place. Monte Carlo is yet another famous gambling spot that heavily uses these machines.

If you’ve been planning to count cards in either Monte Carlo or Macau, you should definitely take these places off your travel list. Luckily, though, you can still count on a number of other casino havens.

Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Laughlin, Reno, and several European countries (especially Poland) offer many hand-shuffled games. You can look forward to these games whenever playing at casinos in these areas.

Of course, you shouldn’t just blindly go to Las Vegas, for example, and expect every table to be hand-shuffled. Some casinos do use CSMs, especially at the lower stakes.

However, you still have enough options when looking for beatable blackjack games. You just need to do some research on the matter ahead of time.

Conclusion

Casinos initially started adding more decks in their mission to stop card counting. But players eventually figured out how to beat shoe games.

Gambling has come up with a more-final solution by introducing continuous shuffling machines. A CSM renders card counting impossible as long as the dealer remembers to keep putting discards into it (which is nearly 100% the case).

You simply can’t win long-term profits at tables that use a continuous shuffling machine. The good news, though, is that you can still find a number of tables that are hand-shuffled.

Casinos realize that a portion of their customers hate CSMs. So, they still offer hand-shuffled tables that you can beat with card counting.

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