A shoe is the dealing box that holds several decks of cards shuffled together, so the dealer can slide out one card at a time. Blackjack shoes hold up to eight 52-card decks, and punto banco baccarat uses six or eight. Fewer decks slightly favour blackjack players: Wizard of Odds rates a single deck +0.48% against eight.
A shoe holds multiple decks for dealing; a hand-held deck game is often called a pitch game.
Blackjack is played with one to eight decks, and punto banco with six or eight.
Against an eight-deck game, a six-deck shoe is worth just +0.02% to the blackjack player, and a single deck +0.48%.
Online RNG tables use a virtual shoe reshuffled every hand; live tables use real shoes.
Meaning
Dealing box holding several shuffled decks
Blackjack
1 to 8 decks
Punto banco
6 or 8 decks
Eight-deck shoe
416 cards
Single deck against eight
+0.48% to the player
What a shoe is in a casino
A shoe is a box, usually open at the front with a sloping base, that holds a stack of shuffled decks. The dealer pushes the front card out through a slot with one finger, which is quicker and harder to tamper with than dealing from the hand. Shoes became standard for games using several decks, mainly blackjack and baccarat.
Casino staff talk about 'a shoe' as a unit of play too: one shoe runs from the shuffle until the cut card appears. This glossary entry covers deck counts, how they change the maths, and how shoes work at live and RNG tables.
How many decks are in a shoe
Deck counts in common shoe games
Game
Decks in the shoe
Cards
Source
Blackjack (general)
1 to 8
52 to 416
Wizard of Odds
Punto banco baccarat
6 or 8
312 or 416
Wikipedia, Wizard of Odds
Evolution Lightning Blackjack
8, reshuffled after about 4 are dealt
416
Wizard of Odds
Evolution Power Blackjack
8 with all 9s and 10s removed
352
Evolution
Spanish 21
6 or 8 decks of 48 cards
288 or 384
Wizard of Odds
Power Blackjack's figure is simple arithmetic: eight decks of 52 is 416 cards, and removing four 9s and four 10s from each deck takes out 64, leaving 352, as Evolution's Power Blackjack page (opens in a new tab) describes. Spanish 21 removes the four tens (but not the picture cards) from each deck.
Does the number of decks in the shoe change the odds?
In blackjack, yes, a little. Wizard of Odds' rule variations (opens in a new tab) measure each deck count against an eight-deck baseline: a single deck is worth +0.48% to the player, two decks +0.19%, four decks +0.06% and six decks +0.02%. One reason is that a natural is slightly more likely with fewer decks.
Single deck: chance of an ace then a ten-value card, or the reverse, is 2 × (4/52) × (16/51) = 4.83%.
Eight decks: the same sum is 2 × (32/416) × (128/415) = 4.75%.
The gap looks tiny, but a blackjack pays 3 to 2, so small changes in how often it lands feed into the house edge.
The Wikipedia baccarat article (opens in a new tab) describes the punto banco routine. After the shuffle, the dealer burns the first card face up, then burns face down as many cards as that card's value. A cut card goes in front of the seventh card from the end, and when it comes out the next coup is the last of the shoe. At some land-based tables the shoe passes between players, who may refuse it or ask the croupier to deal. See punto banco and burn card.
Shoes online and at live tables
RNG table games have no physical shoe. Software draws from a virtual shoe that is reshuffled before each round, so earlier hands tell you nothing about later ones. Live dealer tables use real shoes: Wizard of Odds reports that Evolution's Lightning Blackjack reshuffles its eight-deck shoe after roughly four decks. That depth of play, known as penetration, is one reason live shoes defeat card counting, and some tables use continuous shuffling machines instead.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a shoe in blackjack?
A shoe is the box the dealer uses to hold several shuffled decks and deal one card at a time. Blackjack is played with one to eight decks, and games with several decks are normally dealt from a shoe. Live online tables use real shoes, while RNG games use a virtual one. Our answer on what a blackjack shoe is has more detail.
How many decks are in a blackjack shoe?
Anything from one to eight; Wizard of Odds' standard rules assume eight decks and its European rules six. An eight-deck shoe holds 416 cards. Some variants change the cards: Evolution's Power Blackjack removes all 9s and 10s, leaving 352. The game's rules page tells you the deck count. See our guide to the number of decks in blackjack.
Is a single deck better than a shoe?
For blackjack, a single deck is slightly better for the player, all else being equal: Wizard of Odds rates it +0.48% against eight decks. But single-deck tables can come with worse rules, such as 6 to 5 blackjack payouts, which cost 1.39% and wipe out the gain. Compare the full rules, not just the decks. See single-deck blackjack.
Why do casinos use a shoe?
Shoes make dealing multiple decks faster and more secure. The dealer slides cards out one at a time, which makes it harder to peek or deal from the wrong position, and more decks mean fewer reshuffles per hour. Multiple decks also make tracking cards harder. Our page on card counting explains why that matters to casinos.
How many decks are in a baccarat shoe?
Punto banco is usually dealt from a shoe of six or eight decks shuffled together. The house edge barely changes between the two: Banker is 1.06% and Player 1.24% either way, according to Wizard of Odds. A cut card near the end marks the last coup of the shoe. See our punto banco guide.
Do online casinos use a shoe?
Live dealer tables use a real shoe with physical cards, filmed in a studio. RNG games don't: software draws cards from a virtual shoe that is reshuffled before every round, so no cards carry over between hands. You can see the difference in the game's rules or help screen. Read our comparison of live and RNG games.
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