Ever watch the dealer closely between series of hands? While most casinos these days use automatic shufflers, there are plenty that still rely on dealer shuffles to get the job done. And from close observation, many players claim some dealers are talented enough to separate certain cards like Aces from 10-value cards to lower the percentage of future blackjacks.

Is that possible? I’ve personally never seen a blackjack dealer pay close enough attention to the cards during the shuffle to even know where they are, nevermind manipulate their placement, but many regulars argue to the contrary. That puts them in somewhat of a predicament…do they call gaming authorities? You couldn’t prove it, plus you’d be a thorn in the side of the casino and a watchful eye would forever cast itself over your shoulder – pretty much eliminating any chance you’d have of trying to count in that or other nearby establishments. An unfair, but likely scenario.

Another burning question is how the dealer would do this in the first place? The likely answer is by selective shuffling. Usually easier in lower deck games, the dealer won’t have a predetermined shuffle spot. The dealer, then, is determining when to shuffle. There is typically more discretion here with one or two-deck games then in six- or eight-deck games. Also, discards are picked up by the dealer and reinserted into the stack in the same order in which they were picked up from the table. A seasoned dealer can keep that order, and therefore stack the deck, as even through a shuffle, the mechanic can avoid separating the stacked cards and work around them. Another common method of hurting the players besides separating cards is grouping middle cards together, such as sixes, sevens and eights. This gives a distinct advantage to the dealer above the already established house odds.

So back to the “what should you do” question…my advice would be if you notice something fishy in the online blackjack world, just get up and walk away, go to another table. You can slip a line for the other players if you want, something like “this dealer doesn’t feel right” or “keep an eye on this guy’s hands” under your breath, but don’t take it any further than that. It’s going to be rare that it happens to begin with, and even then it’s only if you’re watching the dealer intently for a considerable amount of time. You’d probably be better off paying attention to your hand and those of your fellow players, anyway.