Quote Originally Posted by miadebaba View Post
thank you very much for the reply. I think your observation is very similar to the one i am experiencing. Especially group 4 as you mentioned, double my 5,5 against dealers 5, i often get another small card. But the dealer's hole card is often a small card even another 5 or 6 because of small card clumping. dealers next card would be a continuation of small card (e.g. a 2 and a 3 and another 3 to make a hand of 17 or 18) or the next card for the dealer would be the start of clumps of big cards in which case dealer would get a face card to make a hand of 20 to 21.
{2,3,4} are in a group. {7,8,9} are in a group. Ace, 5, 6 are alone in their own group. Each group has its primary card(s) mixed with different density of face cards to make Basic Strategy not working. ASM uses gravity to sort out these groups. Basically they push through a desired card from left chamber to right chamber after reading the card's edge. Because the unbalanced face cards and small cards in the five groups, there is a thin layer of tens left on the very top of the shoe on the right chamber. So if you cut at 40% of the shoe from the top, you will finish the shoe with very positive TC.

This assumes the pit boss turns on ASM clumping for the day. In my observation, they turn on clumping on both red and blue decks in holiday to increase profit margins. On weekdays, you will have one regular shoe and one clumping shoe alternated. Just play two or three shoes to see if there is the following pattern. You want to see if 7, 8, 9 are coming together, if ace are clumping together (like six aces in a span of 13 cards), if 6 are clumping together, if 2, 3, 4 are always close to each other.