Cut Card

A cut card is a solid coloured plastic card, usually the size of a playing card, used in blackjack and baccarat. After the shuffle a player is offered the card and inserts it into the stack to split it, which sets where dealing begins. The dealer then places it back into the shoe some distance from the end. When the cut card appears during play, the current round is completed and the shoe is reshuffled, so the final portion of cards is never dealt. That placement determines penetration — how much of the shoe is used before a reshuffle — and casinos generally set it conservatively, which limits how much information any player can build from the cards already seen. Beyond making the cut itself, players have no influence over where it sits.