Edge Sorting

There have now been three court decisions (and two appeals) in three distinct jurisdictions regarding the question of whether edge sorting at mini-baccarat is advantage play. In every case the decision came down on the side of the casino without a determination of criminal cheating.

In considering the accomplishment of Phil Ivey at Crockfords Casino (see this post), it is worth considering the full breadth of the problem of ill-designed cards and edge sorting. Phil Ivey did not get lucky by finding an especially rare card in a far-away location that could be sorted.

Let it Ride (LIR) and Mississippi Stud (MS) have a lot of design elements in common. Both games involve no competition against the dealer. Both games pay based on the final poker-value of the player’s five-card poker hand. Both games have a minimum hand that pays (a pair of Tens for LIR and a pair of Jacks for MS). They both involve an Ante bet, and raises after cards are exposed.

Edge sorting in baccarat takes place when the player can observe the back of one or more cards before making his wager (see this post for an introduction). If the player is able to sort the cards, then this knowledge allows the player to gain an edge.

An AP who wants to edge sort in baccarat is like a Sumo wrestler who wants to perform ballet: just because he wants to do it does not mean it is possible. In most baccarat games, the player doesn’t touch the cards.

And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose

My youth is bent by the same wintry fever. -- Dylan Thomas

Edge sorting is a method of advantage play that uses natural irregularities in the cut on the backs of cards to be able to identify certain groups of cards. By being able to identify critical cards, APs are able to improve their betting and playing decisions. This method of advantage play is not new; APs have been using it to beat the house for at least two decades.

As part of my duties as expert witness for Phil Ivey, I had to write an "expert report." This report was centered around answering three questions, one of which was, "Is edge sorting well-known to the casino industry?" In order to answer this, I scoured books, magazines, websites, newsletters, message boards, training manuals, card manufacturer sites and every other source I could find that men

In this blog post I explained edge sorting. For many years I have looked at the back of the playing cards Harrah's uses and wondered if it was feasible to edge sort those. Harrah's uses several different designs for their backs.

The table game Caribbean Stud (CS) used to be among the most popular of all proprietary table games in this country. In 1994, there were 167 tables of CS in Nevada.  By the year 2000, that number dropped to 97 tables. In 2009 there were only 15 tables left.

In this post, I gave details about edge sorting Mississippi Stud (MS) by considering the sort where Jacks are oriented in one direction, while non-Jacks are oriented in the opposite direction. The question arises if there is an improvement over the Jack/non-Jack sort? Can the AP do better than 39.489%?

I recently went to Gambler's General Store in Las Vegas and looked through their cards for sale. I segregated the cards by the pattern on the back-side and purchased one deck for each unique distinct design I observed. Altogether, I purchased 14 decks.

"Gambling with an Edge" is a weekly talk-radio broadcast where Michael Shackleford and Bob Dancer interview a top name in the gaming industry, usually an expert in some field of advantage play (though not necessarily a player).