Real live blackjack dealers vs online casinos

My initial reaction towards the shufflemasters that were brought into the casinos was definitely negative - change! No one likes change, especially when it effects your favourite game. But i've grown to adapt to them and it does serve it's purpose as CL-Ed stated about eliminating the dealer as a factor in the shuffling of cards. In relation to the discussion of this thread, at least i know how many decks of cards are being shuffled and the integrity of the decks of cards and the shoe itself are maintained. Whereas I have no clue how microgaming simulates their shuffling of cards and actual game play - which brings me to ask the following questions;

How does their software simulate shuffling?
- various BJ descriptions indicate the # of decks - does the software actually simulate
shuffling with the # of decks stated?
- when does shuffling occur? after every hand or is there a shoe with a end of shoe
marker?
- does the shoe even exist? is the shoe also integrated into the BJ simulation?
- if it is, is it's integrity maintained? what i mean by this is once the shuffle is complete
and "virtually" placed in the shoe - is the order of the cards maintained throughout the
entire play of cards until the end marker is reached leading to a re-shuffle?

Through my questions, I actually describe the way I think a true BJ application should incorporate in order to give an actual simulation. A real test that eCogra should do, is not base there test on the randomness or payout reports but on the actual cards within the # of decks in each shuffle. to keep things simple i will use just one deck of cards to illustrate my point. In a true test...i should able to ask for a report that shows the order of the entire deck of cards in which it has been shuffled prior to the first card dealt and then the history of the game play to compare and verify the cards had maintained this order throughout the entire game until the next shuffle. this test should be completed in real-time by randomly choosing actual game play of members/players presently playing BJ throughout their casinos as to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the test itself. and eliminating the possiblity of tampering or sabotage.

to be quite honest..i don't think this is the way their application was programmed....but then again i could be wrong....but if i'm right..then i'm also right when i say the only thing that has actually been simulated would be the visual effect of the way the game is played.

The misconception of counting cards is that you will have such a huge edge that you can't lose. If only this were true...unfortunately card counting is highly over rated...a 5% increase to your odds of winning is not going to guarantee winning all the time. As for online BJ..other than the same rules of play...its not blackjack...its video bj ...and about looking at sessions..i can't wait until the day i video record one of my sessions and post it on youtube...slaughter after slaughter...unbelievable how the dealer magically pulls strings of 21's from fours, fives and sixes. Now that u mentioned it about checking the statistics I'm going to look into that and see if you can see why I would be so frustrated....i love playing blackjack..just not online...and now that I know how the cards are played...i don't think i'll be playing anytime soon because you are right with the house edge they don't have to cheat...they just legally rob you every time you choose to play especially if its'a new shuffle every hand. There are two accepted weapons a player has against the a casino. One is the ability to increase or decrease the amount waged per game. IIn black jack, the second would be the ability to witness and sense the flow of cards. in doing so you can make judgement call as to what to wager. this aspect you lose if the cards are shuffled each hand...you are literally going in cold every game. lol...no wonder i could never find a groove or felt comfortable playing online.

Yes I have tried playing at live dealer sites - but not enough give it a fair chance to comment on. I think I will be sticking with the slots online. The irony...before started playing online and going to land based casinos a lot I would never even put a nickel in a slot machine and would only play BJ or poker..now playing online it's the opposite,...i would only play the slots and poker...staying away from blackjack.