Comments on: RE: ShuffleTech ShuffleTech Flush-Mounted Shuffler: Solid Base Hit

By: pdisme

pdisme — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:14:24 +0000

Patrick, are you actually able to ship these now (being a reseller)? I’ve been trying to get the one I ordered for months, have a new Stine table sitting here with a big hole cut in it, and can’t get any response on if and when my order will ever be filled.

By: Mulry

Mulry — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:49:13 +0000

I haven’t used it enough to see any marks on the cards like the ShuffleMaster makes. We used it for somewhere between 5 and 6 hours the first night and I didn’t notice any changes to the Dal Negro cards that I was using. But if you figure 30 hands an hour on average (we were getting in about 10 hands/round in the tournament and our rounds are 20 minutes long), each deck was run through the shuffler probably only 75-100 times that night, since we were using two decks (one in play, one in the shuffler).

And to clear something up, bridge sized cards do work in the shuffler, but it’s sized for poker-size cards. I didn’t notice any failures with the bridge-sized cards when I was testing the unit out. Obviously I’m biased, but if I were running a raked game (which I’m not), the auto shuffler is just a no brainer. Even if you only get 5 additional hands per hour dealt, at a $5/hand rake, that’s an additional $25/hour/table. At that rate, you pay off the unit in just the first couple of days and then it’s all gravy.

Although I didn’t mention it above, the units come with a 1-year factory warranty, and you can purchase an additional warranty from the factory for a total of 3 years of factory warranty coverage.

By: Grunkzzz

Grunkzzz — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:22:38 +0000

Does it make marks on the cards like shufflemaster does?

By: DanM

DanM — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:38:55 +0000

here're more details about how it works, jonny: they don't mention card-counts, but they do talk a lot on their website -- www.shuffletech.com -- about integrity and fairness ... so ... maybe?

By: ItsOverJonny

ItsOverJonny — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:54:42 +0000

Does this unit have any facility for counting the cards in the deck? A fairly important feature of the ShuffleMaster units is counting down the deck to prevent holding out and other shenanigans.

I definitely agree that the payback on these things is a VERY small amount of time in a raked cash game setting.

By: DanM

DanM — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:33:45 +0000

Thanks for this firsthand insight, Pat.

I am kinda surprised that they designed the thing for “poker sized” cards and not “bridge size”. Not saying that was a bad decision … in fact, I suppose that’s one of the big differences between home games and casino games — a quarter inch in the size of the cards.

However, since most underground games use bridge-size … ShuffleTech might be missing out on a market of several thousand tables where the owners of them might be more inclined to spend the $600 or so to make their games auto-shuffled.

(That’s the price you’re looking at, right? Maybe $1,000 with installation?)