diff --git a/indexer/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/indexer/DeterminePartitionsJob.java b/indexer/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/indexer/DeterminePartitionsJob.java
index d5bb8a4925a..4b4a5c8b995 100644
--- a/indexer/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/indexer/DeterminePartitionsJob.java
+++ b/indexer/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/indexer/DeterminePartitionsJob.java
@@ -500,6 +500,7 @@ public class DeterminePartitionsJob implements Jobby
   {
     private static final double SHARD_COMBINE_THRESHOLD = 0.25;
     private static final double SHARD_OVERSIZE_THRESHOLD = 1.5;
+    private static final int HIGH_CARDINALITY_THRESHOLD = 3000000;
 
     @Override
     protected void innerReduce(
@@ -634,7 +635,9 @@ public class DeterminePartitionsJob implements Jobby
 
       final int totalRows = dimPartitionss.values().iterator().next().getRows();
 
-      int maxCardinality = -1;
+      int maxCardinality = Integer.MIN_VALUE;
+      long minVariance = Long.MAX_VALUE;
+      DimPartitions minVariancePartitions = null;
       DimPartitions maxCardinalityPartitions = null;
 
       for(final DimPartitions dimPartitions : dimPartitionss.values()) {
@@ -660,10 +663,18 @@ public class DeterminePartitionsJob implements Jobby
           continue;
         }
 
-        if(dimPartitions.getCardinality() > maxCardinality) {
-          maxCardinality = dimPartitions.getCardinality();
+        final int cardinality = dimPartitions.getCardinality();
+        final long variance = dimPartitions.getVariance();
+
+        if(cardinality > maxCardinality) {
+          maxCardinality = cardinality;
           maxCardinalityPartitions = dimPartitions;
         }
+
+        if(variance < minVariance) {
+          minVariance = variance;
+          minVariancePartitions = dimPartitions;
+        }
       }
 
       if(maxCardinalityPartitions == null) {
@@ -675,8 +686,12 @@ public class DeterminePartitionsJob implements Jobby
           context, config.makeSegmentPartitionInfoPath(new Bucket(0, bucket, 0)), config.isOverwriteFiles()
       );
 
+      final DimPartitions chosenPartitions = maxCardinality > HIGH_CARDINALITY_THRESHOLD
+                                             ? maxCardinalityPartitions
+                                             : minVariancePartitions;
+
       final List<ShardSpec> chosenShardSpecs = Lists.transform(
-          maxCardinalityPartitions.partitions, new Function<DimPartition, ShardSpec>()
+          chosenPartitions.partitions, new Function<DimPartition, ShardSpec>()
       {
         @Override
         public ShardSpec apply(DimPartition dimPartition)
@@ -752,6 +767,19 @@ public class DeterminePartitionsJob implements Jobby
       return sum;
     }
 
+    public long getVariance()
+    {
+      final long meanRows = getRows() / partitions.size();
+
+      long variance = 0;
+      for(final DimPartition dimPartition : partitions) {
+        variance += (dimPartition.rows - meanRows) * (dimPartition.rows - meanRows);
+      }
+
+      variance /= partitions.size();
+      return variance;
+    }
+
     public int getRows()
     {
       int sum = 0;