A good shuffle is fair, fast and kind to the cards. Here are three ways to do it, from easiest to most satisfying.
The overhand shuffle
Hold the deck on its long edge in one hand. With your other hand, lift most of the deck and let small packets drop back in front of it, a few cards at a time, until you run out. Repeat. It is easy and gentle on the cards, but it mixes them slowly. Mathematicians estimate that it would take thousands of overhand shuffles to mix a deck completely, so combine it with one of the others.
The riffle shuffle
Split the deck into two halves. Hold one in each hand, short edges facing each other, with your thumbs on the inner corners. Bend the corners up slightly and let the cards fall from both thumbs so that they interleave. Push the halves together. For a neat finish, bend the combined deck into an arch and let it snap back flat; this is called the bridge.
Seven. Not three.
How many shuffles is enough?
In 1992 the mathematicians Dave Bayer and Persi Diaconis showed that about seven riffle shuffles make a 52-card deck close to perfectly random. Fewer leave clear traces of the old order; more add very little. So if the same hands keep coming round, count your riffles.
The wash
Spread the cards face down on the table and swirl them around with both hands, then gather them into a pile. It is the easiest way to mix a double deck for Canasta or Spider, and the kindest to plastic cards and small hands.
Cutting
After the shuffle, the dealer puts the deck face down and the player on the dealer’s right lifts off part of it and puts it beside the rest. The dealer then puts the bottom part on top. Cutting makes sure the dealer cannot know the bottom card.
Dealing
- Deal face down, one card at a time, starting with the player on your left and going round clockwise. (In some countries play goes anticlockwise instead.) Some games deal in groups, such as twos and threes in Euchre; the guide will say so.
- Deal yourself last.
- If a card turns face up by accident, most tables simply redeal.
- After the hand, the deal passes to the left.