What is Edge Sorting? The Tactic Behind the Headlines
Edge sorting is a technique that some card players have used to gain an edge over the casino in card games like baccarat. It was famously used by Phil Ivey, a legendary poker player, at a card club in London, leading to a long legal battle and drawing more attention to this method.
So, what is edge sorting, where does it apply, how does it work, and is edge sorting cards illegal?
What is Edge Sorting?
Pick up a pack of playing cards and lay them out face-down.
Do they all look the same? At first glance, they probably do, but if you look at the edges of all those cards, you may see some differences.
Sometimes, the long edges on the back of playing cards are not symmetrical. They use patterns that seem the same, but one that has been turned 180 degrees looks slightly different from one that hasn’t. It is a small difference, but it’s big enough for some eagle-eyed players to take advantage.
How Does Edge Sorting Work?
Card players use edge sorting to tell which cards are low and which are high.
They start by asking the dealer to rotate high-value cards, often using the excuse of superstition. Not thinking anything of it, the dealer happily obliges. The cards then return to the deck and remain in the same rotation. Automated shufflers aid with this, focusing on passing cards over one another without changing the rotation.
After enough cards have been rotated, the player can look at the backs of face-down cards to determine whether they are high or low.
The technique won’t work in every game, particularly those that use multiple decks and complicated shuffling, so it is often reserved for baccarat games. It also won’t work for every deck or get passed to every dealer.
If employed correctly and without resistance, however, it can create a player’s edge of around 6%, giving them a huge advantage not even delivered by standard card counting systems in blackjack.
Is Edge Sorting Illegal?
Edge sorting is not technically illegal. There are laws against marking cards and using devices to gain an advantage in casino games, but edge sorting doesn’t do either. However, the fact that it gives players such a sizeable advantage has caused controversy, and while you might think that the law would be on the player’s side, that isn’t necessarily the case.
Phil Ivey and the Edge Sorting Case
Phil Ivey and Cheung Yin Sun are the reason that the average person knows about edge sorting. Ivey, often regarded as one of the best poker players in the world, won around $11 million playing baccarat at Crockfords in London back in 2012. He used edge sorting, and when the casino refused to pay his winnings, he took them to court.
Ivey argued that he hadn’t used any device and no card was marked, but he was deemed to have used the croupier as an innocent agent in his strategy, and thus, it was regarded as cheating. He appealed the case without success and took it to the UK Supreme Court, but they upheld the decision, dismissing it based on “dishonesty”.
The same year they cleaned out Crockfords, Ivey and Son took just under $10 million from the Borgata in Atlantic City. Two years later, the casino took them to court, and in 2016, they were ordered to repay all of the money.
If you’re reading this article as an Ivey/poker fan, read some of our other guides, including our article on the lowest pocket in poker. You can also play video poker online right here and put your poker skills to the test.
What is Edge Sorting in Poker?
As noted above, edge sorting is only sometimes effective and is usually reserved for baccarat. It wouldn’t work in a game of poker for several reasons.
Firstly, many casinos and card rooms use poker cards with white and unpatterned backs. Each casino is different, but as with poker chip color values, there is some uniformity here.
Secondly, the cards are often thoroughly shuffled, and even if you could rotate them in a specific way, it would likely be undone during the shuffle. Suppose you found a poker game that used an automatic shuffler or didn’t rotate the cards in the shuffle. In that case, you’d still have to contend that many cards would be rotated as players hold or toss them across the table when they fold or complete a showdown.
Assuming you find a way past those obstacles and can sit close enough to see the minor differences on the back of the cards (very unlikely at a poker table), knowing which cards are high and which are low is a small benefit. You would only ever be able to see the top card of the deck, so you’d only know if the first card of the flop—as well as the turn and river—was high or low.
Also, if your opponent somehow obliges you by holding their cards up like a rummy hand and doesn’t just leave them on the table as any players do, you’d only know if they had high or low cards and not the value. Sure, that would be good information, but we’re making many highly unlikely assumptions for you to get anywhere near that point.
Summary: Edge Sorting Cards in Casinos
Edge sorting is technically not illegal, but that didn’t help Phil Ivey after he used the technique to win millions of dollars. It seems to exist in a grey area that hasn’t clearly been defined. Still, it usually involves slight croupier coercion and dishonesty, so the courts typically back the casino.
It’s also a rare method. Sure, it can greatly increase the player’s edge, but it won’t work in all games or for all cards, and players hoping to employ this method need several things to go their way for it to work.
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