Edge sorting

[1] The technique requires the player to trick the dealer into rotating specific, high-value cards so that they are distinguishable from lower-value ones after shuffling.

During the course of a game, the player asks the dealer to rotate high-value face-up cards, saying for example that they feel it will bring them luck.

[3][4] In 2012, poker player Phil Ivey and partner Cheung Yin Sun won US$9.6 million playing baccarat at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

[6] In 2016, a Federal Judge ruled that Ivey and Cheung Yin Sun were required to repay US$10 million to the Borgata.

[8] Ivey sued them for payment but lost in the High Court of England and Wales; it was judged that the edge sorting was "cheating for the purpose of civil law".

[9][10] It was accepted that Ivey and others genuinely considered that edge sorting was not cheating, and deemed immaterial that the casino could easily have protected itself.

A deck of cards with an asymmetrical back pattern may be susceptible to edge sorting, if the pattern is the same on every card. A card which has been rotated 180 degrees (here, the third card from the left) will become visibly distinct from one which has not.