Automatic Shufflers

[JJNJustin]

I hate to disturb all of you winning players sense of comfort and safety in your local B&M casino with my vague thoughts that border on mild paranoia.

I used to play Texas Hold'Em in casinos before autoshufflers were standard and like many of you continue playing in them present day with the shufflers installed.
The shufflers are supposed to speed the game, and provide security in terms of a fair and random shuffle.

However, I have a different feel about the game when I play with automatic shufflers then when I used to play with hand shuffle.

I am not a paranoid schizophrenic, do not wear a tinfoil hat, however I am manic depressive and take lithium for this condition. I do encounter mild paranoia from time to time, and everytime I get these vague feelings I try and dismiss them as part of my illness and not grounded in reality. My intellect tells me that there is no likelihood or impetus for having the shufflers predetermine the outcome of the Texas Hold'Em game. The gaming commission is too stringent. The casino will not benefit. The machines dont have the capability. Did I take my meds today?

But still, when my cognitive subconscious keeps bothering me. I feel like it is too easy for people to get quality starting cards. Before shufflers, I remember hours of boredom, praying for something decent just to call. AJ and KQ were usually very strong hands, not usually doubly dominated long term losers.

The last couple times I played, I have run into these statistical anomalities. The first hand I posted I got AA, the very next KK and someone else had AA and someone else had JJ all in the very same hand in a NL game. The next night at limit, I played 1 hr 20 min, I had AA twice, and they were shown down on the table 6 other times for a total of 8 times in 1 hr 20 min or 8 times in 400 hands. A few days later I was playing limit and the third hand I had QQ, following by QQ the very next hand, and AA a hand later in a 6 handed game. I had 12 high pocket pairs (JJ and above) dealt to me in 6 hours (180 hands). Yesterday night once again AA was shown down 6 times in an hour.

Variance. Yeah?!?

The SD formula shows that the mean for AA in 400 hands is about 1.7 +/- 5 (3xSD) for an upper boundary of 6 times (99.7% likelihood), yet the hand appeared on the table 8 times that I could account for. Did I calculate something wrong here? Is the sample size too small?

This is not an "automatic shufflers" are rigged post. The likelihood of this occurring is like zero.

I just wanted to ask if any of you who play both in casinos with auto-shufflers and without ever get a vague "sense" or "feeling" that the game is different with the shufflers, the main difference is that it seems that people catch good cards more easily, or am I just being mildly paranoid?

-J