Hacked shuffle machines

[CryptoNinja]

I quit playing at my local Indian casino years ago because I suspected this was happening. My theory at the time was the casino themselves had modified the code to deal inducer hands and maximize rake. What initially got me suspicious was they didn’t use shuffle machines in tournaments and would often have “early bird” bonuses where you got extra tournament chips if you played cash for a few hours before the tournament and it felt like the cards were rampant bad beats and coolers in the cash game and then seemed normal in tournaments.


ETA: There were other issues as well. I can tell you about specific hands that made me suspicious, like getting called aiotf by bottom pair, ace kicker against my top set in a cash game ($200ish each effective) and losing boat over boat to running aces (player claimed to have misread hand and thought he was open ended). One dealer was caught stealing from pots and was fired but no compensation was made to the players for that. Casino Del Sol in Tucson, AZ. I don’t have proof that they were doing something like this but I played thousands of hours there, went to Vegas for a month and my super bad luck went away, came back and it was the same weird crap and then I quit playing there. Another shady thing I remember was at a table game there where you had to bet a preset amount, I believe it was $35 and I didn’t get paid on a hand I won because the dealer counted out my chips and said it was only $30. I do not make mistakes like that. I suspected the dealer palmed a chip but didn’t say that. Floor did not rule in my favor. Saw a former poker dealer who never played and didn’t work there anymore come in and play on a random Wednesday afternoon, win a BBJ, and then never played again (that I saw, anyway). I won a BBJ there and the player who won the hand was a reg there and bet the river with quad aces, K kicker. I never understood his thinking on betting there because I might fold my KK if I thought he didn’t have the kicker (which I did think because there was a Q on the turn. JJ would also qualify and might fold). Floor even said they were “surprised” I called. It’s friggin $10K if he has AK, yeah I’m gonna call $50.

P.S. If they do this in Tucson (probably because there is basically no oversight in Arizona), they probably do this at Talking Stick as well.

P.S.2 I bought Bitcoin with my remaining poker BR when I quit in 2017. Too bad it was only $1k at the time. Had been running bad for like a year straight.

[ftpjesus]

I quit playing at my local Indian casino years ago because I suspected this was happening. My theory at the time was the casino themselves had modified the code to deal inducer hands and maximize rake. What initially got me suspicious was they didn’t use shuffle machines in tournaments and would often have “early bird” bonuses where you got extra tournament chips if you played cash for a few hours before the tournament and it felt like the cards were rampant bad beats and coolers in the cash game and then seemed normal in tournaments.


ETA: There were other issues as well. I can tell you about specific hands that made me suspicious, like getting called aiotf by bottom pair, ace kicker against my top set in a cash game ($200ish each effective) and losing boat over boat to running aces (player claimed to have misread hand and thought he was open ended). One dealer was caught stealing from pots and was fired but no compensation was made to the players for that. Casino Del Sol in Tucson, AZ. I don’t have proof that they were doing something like this but I played thousands of hours there, went to Vegas for a month and my super bad luck went away, came back and it was the same weird crap and then I quit playing there. Another shady thing I remember was at a table game there where you had to bet a preset amount, I believe it was $35 and I didn’t get paid on a hand I won because the dealer counted out my chips and said it was only $30. I do not make mistakes like that. I suspected the dealer palmed a chip but didn’t say that. Floor did not rule in my favor. Saw a former poker dealer who never played and didn’t work there anymore come in and play on a random Wednesday afternoon, win a BBJ, and then never played again (that I saw, anyway). I won a BBJ there and the player who won the hand was a reg there and bet the river with quad aces, K kicker. I never understood his thinking on betting there because I might fold my KK if I thought he didn’t have the kicker (which I did think because there was a Q on the turn. JJ would also qualify and might fold). Floor even said they were “surprised” I called. It’s friggin $10K if he has AK, yeah I’m gonna call $50.

P.S. If they do this in Tucson (probably because there is basically no oversight in Arizona), they probably do this at Talking Stick as well.

P.S.2 I bought Bitcoin with my remaining poker BR when I quit in 2017. Too bad it was only $1k at the time. Had been running bad for like a year straight.

The lack of oversight is obvious. Its because the Indians control every casino here in AZ limiting what the state can do. Theres been several stories of TSR and others denying slot payouts randomly but I will say Id almost guess TSR probably isnt willing to go uber shady like this. As the biggest card room in the entire state and some big names play their regularly like DonkeyBomber the amount of damage to their rep if they did rig the shuffle machines would be catestrophic. There had been rumors Ft McDowell had been juicing stuff but it became irrelevant when WeikoPa replaced it and there was no poker room at the new casino

[CryptoNinja]

Yeah, one would think that they’ve got a good enough thing going that they wouldn’t have to do this. Keep in mind that if they did do this they could just set the machines back to their factory settings if there was some sort of inspection. There’s pretty much no chance of getting caught as long as you are just using it to increase rake. Long story short, I suspected this was happening years ago and at the time everybody I mentioned it to thought I was crazy but now it’s clear this is possible and outside of a heavily regulated environment like Vegas, people should avoid games with shuffle machines. And if you were wondering about some super weird call someone made, like the bottom pair ace kicker that went running aces for a boat I described, you might already be a victim.

[Dan Druff]

I discussed this on radio awhile back, and also on my Vegas Casino Talk site.

Go to 1:45:58 of this broadcast (8/18/23):

https://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sh...-the-Southwest

[CryptoNinja]

I discussed this on radio awhile back, and also on my Vegas Casino Talk site.

Go to 1:45:58 of this broadcast (8/18/23):

https://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sh...-the-Southwest

I’m glad you pointed out that both the casinos themselves or the dealers unbeknownst to the casino could be doing this. I trust neither. It still sucks though that I’m 99% positive I was cheated, likely to the tune of thousands of dollars and there’s nothing I can do about it besides not playing there.

[CryptoNinja]

Apparently this involved some form of rigged shuffle machines:


https://nypost.com/2025/10/23/sports...-poker-scheme/

[v12cl]

If you can hack shuffle machines for poker, you can most definitely do so for blackjack.

[CryptoNinja]

If you can hack shuffle machines for poker, you can most definitely do so for blackjack.

100%

[CryptoNinja]

Whoever I just spoke to on the phone at the Casino Del Sol poker room just confirmed the Deckmate 2 shuffle machines are still in use in their cash games.