Field guide
Baccarat Edge Sorting
How it works
Exploiting subtle, often unintentional asymmetries in the patterning of playing card backs to identify card values before they are turned face-up. The most famous modern case involving professional gambler Phil Ivey. Some card manufacturers produce decks where the pattern on the long edges differs slightly between orientations. By convincing the casino to rotate certain cards (often by claiming superstition about luck), a player can sort the deck so high-value cards face one direction and low-value cards face another. The player then knows whether the next card is likely high or low before it’s dealt.
On the record
Phil Ivey and accomplice Kelly Sun won $9.6 million at Borgata (Atlantic City) and £7.7 million at Crockfords (London) using edge sorting between 2012-2014. Courts ruled the technique constituted cheating. Borgata successfully sued for recovery; Crockfords withheld payment and won in UK Supreme Court. The saga spanned nearly a decade of litigation.
Detection & preventionADVISORY
The paid halfHow a monitoring room catches baccarat edge sorting, and what stops it recurring, written for the desk, not the reader.
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Published as a detection reference for surveillance, compliance and gaming-operations professionals. Thresholds and tuning are set by the property. Nothing here is instruction: the method is described so it can be recognised.