Card shuffling techniques

Prin hiturile de pe tweeter am dat de un articol interesant scris de un level 5 Judge din Italia. Column-ul nu este deloc rau iar ce mi-a luat privirea in articolul acesta sunt explicatiile tehnicilor de randomizare ale cartilor.

"Today, I would like to discuss a few shuffling techniques.

Pile Shuffling

This is an ordered shuffling technique; it’s mainly used to make sure that the number of cards is correct; for example, with 5 piles you should make 12 circles in Constructed and 8 in Limited. Pile shuffling is recommended both for your deck (to be sure that you are presenting a legal deck) and for your opponent’s deck (to check if he presented a legal deck); since it’s an ordered shuffling technique, it’s forbidden to use only this technique to shuffle your own deck, because it might be a way to mana weave your deck (That means to make sure that the distribution of lands and spells is the same in every portion of the deck); on the other hand, it’s allowed as the only technique to shuffle your opponent’s deck (because the deck should have already been randomized when you received it; using an ordered shuffling technique on a randomized deck will give you a randomized deck).

Extra: If you think that your opponent stacked his deck (by making it 2spells – 1 land – 2spells – 1land…), the appropriate action is to call a judge. Even though it’s not illegal, I don’t recommend shuffling his deck with 3 piles, so that if the deck is actually stacked, you would put all the lands together, because it would be a kind of “self-administered justice”, which I don’t consider very sporting.

Riffle Shuffle

This is an almost random shuffling technique; it’s the most common way of shuffling you see at Magic and poker tournaments; I say that it’s not fully random, because the first three/four cards at the top stay at the top and the last three/four cards stay at the bottom. It’s also highly inappropriate to shuffle the deck face up (a few players have this quite bad habit).

Japanese Shuffle

I don’t recommend this random shuffling technique, because it consists in moving the central portion of the deck on top of it; this way, you are randomizing blocks of your deck, but you aren’t fully randomizing. It’s a technique I saw only used by Japanese players (the reason for the name is just this) and it’s highly recommended not to use it as your only shuffle technique; if your opponent shuffles only with this technique, I encourage you to ask him to shuffle in a different way too.

Kid Shuffle

This is the way I shuffle, because my dexterity is awful; think about a six year old kid who shuffles his first deck of cards… that’s it! It’s the first shuffling technique we learn and it’s the most used by new players; I consider it a fully random shuffling technique, as long as two conditions are met:

1. You don’t look at the deck while shuffling (differently from the other techniques, here your cards are in a vertical position and you might be able to see some of them; this is why you often see players looking to the right while shuffling this way)
2. You don’t keep the first or the last cards always on top or at the bottom.

The most important things to keep in mind: Always look at your opponent when he’s searching or shuffling and always shuffle your opponent’s deck!"

Pentru tot articolul intrati pe http://www.blackborder.com/q/node/5256