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How to shuffle the casino way
Shuffling is one of those things that people often learn at a young age, when they first start playing card games. Usually, though, whenever your parents taught you how to shuffle cards, they didn’t teach you the way that the casinos use. And that’s a bad thing—most players shuffle cards in a way that threatens game integrity, by exposing cards while they shuffle or not adequately randomizing the cards. If you host regular card game nights—especially poker nights—learning to shuffle correctly is a valuable skill that will ensure that your games go smoothly.
How to shuffle
The standard casino shuffle consists of the following procedure:
- A wash (for the first hand of the game)
- Three riffle shuffles
- A strip shuffle
- One more riffle shuffle
- The cut
The wash
A wash or scramble is typically only used in a casino at the beginning of a game, when the deck of cards is still in the order it was packaged in. In a home game, you should, at the very least, perform a wash at the beginning of the game or whenever the cards have been recently verified. You should consider performing a wash more frequently when playing a game like Crazy Eights that tends to result in the cards ending up in some sort of identifiable pattern. In a game with quick hands and frequent shuffling, like poker, you should skip the wash for most shuffles to avoid bogging down the game.
The riffle shuffle
The riffle shuffle is the element of shuffling that most people are familiar with, and forms the bulk of the actual shuffling procedure. Yet it’s the element of shuffling that most people get wrong. Many people shuffle too dramatically, with exaggerated movements that unnecessarily expose cards.
The number one key to avoiding the exposure of cards is to keep the cards low to the table. The cards should never be more than an inch or so off the table. The intuitive method by which someone squares up, say, a pile of papers is to lift it off the table and tap its edges against the table. Keep yourself from falling into this habit when dealing with cards. It shows off the bottom of the pack to anyone who cares to look, and many of the other cards sticking out at odd angles will expose their indices. Develop the habit of squaring up the pack with your fingers without picking it up off the table.
The riffle shuffle begins by splitting the pack into two. Hold the bottom half of the pack in landscape orientation (long edge parallel to the edge of the table closest to you), keeping it flat against the table and secure with one hand. Then slide the top half of the pack off with your other hand, keeping it close to the other half of the pack, and pulling it in the direction of the long edges of the pack, until you have two half-decks sitting side by side next to each other.
Next, orient the two half-decks in an inverted V (the point of the V pointing away from you). Move the decks toward one another, keeping them square with your index fingers on the short edges of the deck opposite you, your thumbs on the long edges of the deck inside the V, and your other fingers on the long edges of the deck on the outside of the V. Then, perform the actual riffle by arching the corners of the cards closest to one another, bending them between your index fingers, which are moved to rest on top of the deck in the corners of the cards, and your thumbs, which remain in the same position. Gradually release the pressure from your thumbs, which will cause the cards to begin falling off the bottom of the deck, pressed past your thumbs by your index fingers. If the two packs are close enough, their corners should interleave. With practice, the cards will naturally alternate between the two packs, thoroughly intermixing the two packs.
Now, complete the shuffle by rotating the two interleaved packs so that they are parallel to one another (but still intermixed). Push the two packs together until you can square them up into one shuffled pack. Do not perform the “bridge” maneuver, where the entire pack is arched to push the two halves together, as this can unwittingly expose cards.
Perform three riffle shuffles in this manner.
The strip shuffle
The strip shuffle is, on its own, not a very powerful shuffling technique. In combination with the riffle shuffle, however, it helps to further randomize the deck by rearranging blocks of the deck, helping to break up runs of cards that remained together through the three riffles.
The strip shuffle is, essentially, the beginning of a riffle shuffle. Hold the pack in landscape orientation, then pull the top fifth or so of the deck off the top, keeping it close to the remainder of the deck, and set it down next to the pack. Then do the same with the next fifth of the deck, placing it on top of what was the top fifth, and so on, until the entire deck has been gone through in this way.
After completing the strip shuffle, do one more riffle shuffle, and then you’re ready for the cut. After that, it’s time to deal!
See also
- How to shuffle multiple decks of cards
- HowToShuffle.com, a site with more in-depth shuffling information and videos
Why two decks of cards?
Many sets of higher-end playing cards, including Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards, include two decks of cards—a red deck and a blue deck. But most card games require the use of only one 52-card deck. So why offer two decks?
The answer is simple—it makes your game more efficient! While you are using one deck to deal a hand, the next player to deal can be shuffling the other deck. That way, when the hand concludes, the next hand can be dealt immediately, without having to wait for a shuffle. The backs of the cards are in contrasting colors in case cards from the two decks get intermingled; it is obvious when a deck is incorrect.
The next time you spread a game, try keeping both decks of cards moving around the table if you don’t already. You’ll be happy with how much faster the game moves!
Incorrect and imperfect decks
Most card games rely on the fact that the exact composition of the deck is known, but the identity of any individual card may or may not be, depending on the role it is currently fulfilling in the game. Therefore, keeping the composition of the deck correct and cards indistinguishable from the back is vital to ensuring game balance and fairness to all players. Decks of cards which do not fulfill these requirements can be categorized as either incorrect or imperfect.
An incorrect deck is one with an incorrect composition for the game required. That is, if the game requires a standard 52-card deck, the deck must consist of ace through king in each of the four suits. Other games, such as Pinochle, require a different composition, which the deck must match to be considered correct. Incorrect decks are those which are either missing one or more card, or have somehow had extra cards included, usually because they were mixed in with cards from another, similar deck. Missing cards most frequently happen because they were accidentally left in the box or somehow found their way outside of the play area (e.g. by being dropped on the floor). In most games, when an incorrect deck is found to be in use, the deal is void. Collect all of the cards, correct the deck, if possible, and redeal. Any game play prior to the hand where the deck was found to be incorrect stands, however. If the deck cannot be corrected, because the missing cards have become lost, a new deck should be substituted.
An imperfect deck is a little more troublesome. That’s because imperfect decks include all other problems with a deck of cards that cannot be fixed by simply adding or removing cards. These include anything that makes the deck identifiable, such as printing defects or damage. If this is discovered in the middle of a hand, the hand continues, but for the sake of fairness, all players should be informed as to what the identifiable card is. After the hand ends, the deck is replaced.
You can avoid incorrect and imperfect decks being put into play by verifying the cards before game play starts. You can also guard against the cards becoming incorrect during game play by simply counting them to ensure the correct number is there between hands. If you use multiple decks of cards, ensure they have contrasting back designs (never use two blue decks, use one red and one blue).
Plastic cards sliding too much?
It can take time for someone who is used to handling paper cards to get used to plastic cards. One of the main problems people have when adjusting to plastic cards is managing the slipperiness of the cards. A specific problem that a lot of people encounter is squaring up the deck in a nice pile on the table. The top card will, seemingly of its own volition, try to slide off the top of the deck.
Fortunately, this is an easy problem to counteract. All you have to do is press down on the top card with your index finger as you’re setting the deck on the table. This forces the air out from between the cards, increasing friction between them. The cards will stay in a nice, neat, squared-up pack, with the top card remaining exactly where it should.
