The art of shuffling
Playing 21 in blackjack as a black belt sensei
A one-pass stepladder describes a shuffle that is completed when the piles are gone and the final stack is offered for a player to cut. A two-pass stepladder is a shuffle where the final stack is re-broken into piles for a second stepladder action. Stepladders are time-consuming, so multi-pass stepladders are relatively rare. Multi-pass R&Rs are more common. More common still is a two-pass combo which consists of a stepladder followed by an R&R.
All R&Rs and stepladders can be performed from two or more piles. You might find a 4-pile stepladder comboed with a 2-pile R&R. Most shuffles that have more than two piles utilize a criss-cross pattern of grabs. A fairly standard criss-cross shuffle uses 4 piles in a square, with the alternating grabs drawing an x-pattern, hence the name. I will use the term criss-cross, however, to define any shuffle in which there are more than two piles, and in which the cards from one pile will be mixed with cards from more than one other pile.
A segment is any visually identifiable portion of a stack or pile. For example, you might refer to the bottom I-deck segment of the discards. A slug is another word for a segment, though slug usually refers to a segment that has been identified as containing a large portion of high cards, low cards, or aces. For instance, if during a single round of play you notice 5 aces come out, that portion of the discards where these aces are located is an ace slug.
In defining a shuffle, it's always important to note where the cutoffs (un-dealt cards taken from the shoe after the shuffle-card comes out) are placed in the discards (the cards that have already been played and deposited in the discard tray). The cutoffs may be topped, bottomed, or plugged. Topping the cutoffs is placing them on top of the discards; bottoming the cutoffs is placing them beneath the discards, and plugging the cutoffs is inserting them into the middle of the discards. Multiple plugging is breaking the cutoffs into two or more pieces, and inserting these pieces into different locations within the discards.
Some casinos also rearrange the discard stack itself by plugging. That is, grabs from the top or bottom of the discard stack may be plugged into the middle of the discards, usually in addition to cutoff plugging.
Stripping is a shuffling action performed by the dealer in which he reverses the sequence of a grab of cards. Usually, he holds the grab in one hand while pulling cards from the top of the grab (sometimes alternating with cards from the top and bottom) and dropping them onto the table. Stripping (especially thin-stripping) is time-consuming, so it's common in hand-held games but uncommon in shoe games. A thin-strip is a stripping action where cards are stripped one card at a time. (In some casinos the dealer will strip a few cards at a time.) A thick-strip is a stripping action that pulls greater amounts of cards off the top at one time.
Boxing a deck is a cutting action performed by the dealer, usually between riffles. This is generally a lopsided cut, with one thin segment (1/4 to 1/3 decks) and one thick segment. Many casinos that use the boxing action also have the dealer spin one portion of the grab 1800. For this reason, some trackers refer to boxing the deck as spinning it. Cutting is what a player does at the end of the dealer's shuffle routine.
There are a number of other less common shuffle actions (which are described in the Cookbook), but this should cover about 90% of the shuffles you'll find in real-world casinos. A good tracker can watch a house shuffle one time and describe it in detail, while the average person can't.
