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 playing partner Cheung Yin Sun, also known as Kelly, won $9.6 million at Borgata (Atlantic City) and £7.7 million at Crockfords (London) using edge sorting in 2012. The UK Supreme Court held the play was cheating. A New Jersey federal court held it breached the casino contract and rejected the fraud claims. Borgata won a 2016 judgment ordering repayment. The case settled in 2020 and the terms were not made public. Crockfords withheld payment, and that case ended in the UK Supreme Court in 2017.
Detection & preventionADVISORY
The paid halfHow a monitoring room catches baccarat edge sorting, and what stops it recurring, written for the desk, not the reader.
Detection and prevention is the paid layer. It opens on all 400 methods with the downloadable edition, or with any paid plan.
Every subscription tier carries full access to the Cheats & Scams Library, Professional upward: the detection and prevention notes on all 400 methods, plus the searchable edition as a download.
Already subscribed? Sign in and this opens.
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.