How long is a baccarat shoe change? We timed 4,000 shuffles

2026-10-01

When a shoe ends in Evolution live baccarat at the Stake (stake.com) casino, the dealer shuffles a fresh one, and the table takes no bets in the meantime. People often ask how long that pause is, so we timed it from our own shoe records.

How we measured

At each table we took the time between the last hand of one shoe and the first hand of the next. The period is 9 to 29 September, clean shoes only: no missing records and normal gaps between hands. Pairs with more than 30 minutes between them were dropped, since those are collector pauses. That left 4,140 pairs.

Speed tables and regular tables

                 Pairs    Median      10% to 90% range
Speed tables     2,505    1m 51s      1m 28s to 5m 9s
Regular tables   1,635    2m 17s      1m 50s to 3m 37s

Half of the speed table changes finished between 1 minute 30 and 2 minutes. At about 26 seconds a hand, that is roughly four hands of waiting. Regular tables take a bit longer.

Long changes cluster at a few tables

On speed tables, 11.1% of changes went past 5 minutes; on regular tables, 6.5%. Split by table, though, they were not spread evenly. Of 76 tables with more than 30 measured changes, 8 had a median of 5 to 7 minutes. Those tables shuffle slowly every time. Without them, speed tables have a median of 1 minute 47 seconds and only 3.1% of changes past 5 minutes.

What the wait means

If you stay at one table, every shoe brings close to two minutes of dead time, and across a day of shoes it adds up. For someone betting by hand it is a break. For someone aiming at a set number of hands, it is a reason to decide whether to wait or move.

Summary

Data            4,140 clean shoe pairs (9 to 29 Sep)
Speed tables    median 1m 51s, 11.1% past 5 minutes
Regular tables  median 2m 17s, 6.5% past 5 minutes
Slow tables     8 of 76 have a median of 5 to 7 minutes
In hands        about four speed table hands

Hiddenpick is a Windows program that runs Evolution live baccarat on Stake (stake.com) for you, following the rules you set. What you can hand over to it, such as waiting out a shuffle or moving on, is in the baccarat bot guide.