New Cards at a Blackjack Table

Players are at a disadvantage when new playing cards are brought into a blackjack game. This is because new cards come in a predetermined order directly from the card manufacturer. The decks are usually arranged ace through king, king through ace and so on.

When the cards are first introduced, even after being shuffled, they will have a tendency to clump up with 10s in one part of the deck and low cards in another part. As the deck is shuffled after each round, the cards will then spread out into a normal random fashion.

A study was done some years ago that found that a single deck had to be shuffled at least seven times before it became fully random. It's suggested you wait at least 10 minutes in a single-deck game and about 30 minutes against the shoe before playing with new cards at blackjack.

Bet You Didn't Know

• In March 1965 the cruise ship Oceanic opened the first full-fledged casino afloat.
• Spain's lottery is the world's easiest to win; it spreads the prize pool among thousands of winners, with a one in six chance of winning something.
• When gambling became legal in Nevada in 1931, dealers in Las Vegas were paid in cash, about $8 a shift.
• Casinos reported a 30% increase when they first installed tote boards on the roulette tables.
• The nickname for the Dunes casino-hotel in Las Vegas when it opened in 1955 was "The Miracle in the Desert."
• In 1820 Thomas Adams, of Staten Island, New York, introduced a chewing gum called Blackjack. The flavor is essence of licorice and it is the oldest flavored chewing gum on the market today.

This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net.