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[popsofctown]

What technique do you guys use for shuffling cards IRL?  I do the thing where I hold half the stack in each hand and throw one stack into the other.  Well good shufflers throw, I kind of mash them in, spreading the absorbing stack to have random apertures so hopefully the cards are randomly distributed.  And I do this several times.  My mother gets mad when I shuffle too much so I have to stop midturn shuffles often.

How much shuffling does it take to get full randomization?  Does riffle shuffling damage cards?  Discuss shuffling here!

[Robz888]

You are supposed to shuffle 6-7 times, I think, for full randomization.

I do the cool shuffle where I bend them into each other and it makes the click-click-click-click-click-click noise and then I bend them the other way with the bridge. And yeah, it wears down the cards.

[Galzria]

You are supposed to shuffle 6-7 times, I think, for full randomization.

I do the cool shuffle where I bend them into each other and it makes the click-click-click-click-click-click noise and then I bend them the other way with the bridge. And yeah, it wears down the cards.

I shuffle-bridge as well, and find that while it wears down the cards, it's not as destructive as throwing the sides together.

If I care about the condition of the cards long term, I will either corner shuffle-slide, or in extreme cases, do a 2, 3, 4, 5 pile distribution, setting top card down onto a random stack each time.

[HiveMindEmulator]

You are supposed to shuffle 6-7 times, I think, for full randomization.

It of course depends on the size of the deck. I think it should like like log2(decksize) shuffles.

[werothegreat]

This seems relevant: To prevent damage to cards (I'm looking at Village, as well as the Moats that had water spilt on them), is it recommended to put them in plastic sheaf thingies?  How much time does it take to sheaf a set?  Is that more or less expensive than just buying a whole new set?  Will these sheafed cards still fit in the plastic divider in the box?

[LastFootnote]

I mash the cards together sideways 7 to 10 times. Because my cards are sleeved, this seems to be the least destructive way to shuffle, and the cards slide together quite nicely.

If I had unsleeved cards, I'd riffle shuffle and bridge, but at this point I can't imagine having unsleeved Dominion cards.

[Galzria]

I mash the cards together sideways 7 to 10 times. Because my cards are sleeved, this seems to be the least destructive way to shuffle, and the cards slide together quite nicely.

If I had unsleeved cards, I'd riffle shuffle and bridge, but at this point I can't imagine having unsleeved Dominion cards.

Oh I don't bother sleeving. I just own two sets.

[popsofctown]

Thanks for the advices!

[Kirian]

This seems relevant: To prevent damage to cards (I'm looking at Village, as well as the Moats that had water spilt on them), is it recommended to put them in plastic sheaf thingies?  How much time does it take to sheaf a set?  Is that more or less expensive than just buying a whole new set?  Will these sheafed cards still fit in the plastic divider in the box?

All of my cards are sleeved.  The sleeves I use run about $2.50 per hundred, significantly less than the cost of a new box of any of the expansions.  It takes maybe an hour for 500 cards; less, of course, if you have a helper.  They don't fit in the plastic divider in the box, but, man, who wants to carry around seven boxes?  All of my cards are consolidated into two non-Dominion boxes.

[Morgrim7]

Tried getting a card shuffler?

[werothegreat]

This seems relevant: To prevent damage to cards (I'm looking at Village, as well as the Moats that had water spilt on them), is it recommended to put them in plastic sheaf thingies?  How much time does it take to sheaf a set?  Is that more or less expensive than just buying a whole new set?  Will these sheafed cards still fit in the plastic divider in the box?

All of my cards are sleeved.  The sleeves I use run about $2.50 per hundred, significantly less than the cost of a new box of any of the expansions.  It takes maybe an hour for 500 cards; less, of course, if you have a helper.  They don't fit in the plastic divider in the box, but, man, who wants to carry around seven boxes?  All of my cards are consolidated into two non-Dominion boxes.

I like the boxes.     They're pretty.  It's satisfying to carry them around and open them and such.

[toaster]

I sleeve my cards, and use a mix of overhand and faro ("mashing" two halves of the deck together, which is easy to do when they're sleeved) shuffles when the deck is small, and a mix of faro and riffle shuffles for larger decks.

[Morgrim7]

I use the boxes. It is like a badge of honor. It is much better than saying this "Oh yes, every Dominion expansion is in this plastic container."
Hmm...good poll fodder...

[Asklepios]

I let Isotropic do it for me.

Failing that I ask someone else to shuffle the cards, then cut them once or twice. I suck at shuffling!

[Rhombus]

I use a combination of riffle + bridge shuffles and overhand shuffles.  My best friend can't shuffle, so be picked up a card shuffler, but he has difficulty using it because he somehow always manages to get his cards all sticky/sweaty.  It's unfortunate, because he doesn't understand that you just don't draw your 3 golds in the same hand without +draw 3 shuffles in a row, multiple games out of a set   Every once in a while I have to enforce some mandatory runs through the shuffler.

FYI - a randomized shuffle is considered to be 7 non-perfect riffles.

Mashing cards together (unprofessional faro shuffle) is really damaging on thick cards like these.  If you have a few expansions and are playing random kingdoms, normal riffle + bridge shuffles should last you thousands of games, assuming proper card storage and safe keeping from harms other than shuffling itself.

[Qvist]

FYI - a randomized shuffle is considered to be 7 perfect riffles.

I think you mixed something up. 7 non-perfect shuffles makes every possible combination equally likely and 8 perfect riffle shuffles restores the original order.

[Rhombus]

I think you mixed something up. 7 non-perfect shuffles makes every possible combination equally likely and 8 perfect riffle shuffles restores the original order.
[/quote]

My bad - 'twas late, thanks for the correction.

[popsofctown]

So is the shuffle where you bend the cards and interlace them along the corners less damaging than mashing? 

What's an overhand shuffle?

[qmech]

What's an overhand shuffle?

You pick up the cards in your right hand, then repeatedly throw a few of the cards off the top off the right hand pile onto the top of the left hand pile.  It's functionally equivalent to picking random numbers of cards from the top of the pile and putting them on a new pile, but faster.  It's what I used to do when I played Dominion with cards.

(Switch hands if you're left-handed.)

[LastFootnote]

So is the shuffle where you bend the cards and interlace them along the corners less damaging than mashing? 

Bending your cards is going to wear them down over time whether or not they're sleeved. Mashing them together is probably more damaging if they aren't sleeved, but not damaging at all if they are. The sleeves have thin edges that naturally mesh together, you see.

[Rhombus]

So is the shuffle where you bend the cards and interlace them along the corners less damaging than mashing? 

What's an overhand shuffle?

FYI the "separate, bend, and interlace" in this case is called a riffle.  The clean up move to bend the cards the other direction is a bridge.  For the record, my cards aren't sleeved.

Overhand shuffle explained by qmech.  Some variations also include placing packets of cards not only on the top of the other packed, but in the middle (where A B C is the deck, removing C and placing between A and B as move #1, and removing A and placing below C as move #2, and randomizing in between each).  I don't personally do this.  Riffle bridge + overhand all the way.

[Morgrim7]

IMHO, the overhand is the least damaging, if exdecuted correctly.

[Willvon]

I tend to be rather particular about my games.  So before my cards were sleeved, I used a combination of overhand shuffling when the deck was small (though I modified it by putting some on top, some on the bottom as I shuffled through several times), riffle and bridge when the deck got thicker, or creating 4 or 5 little piles and sort them out onto the piles, then put them together.  Even though I tried to be careful when shuffling, the edges of the cards were still starting to show wear.  Others who played with us would sometimes mash the cards together, which would make me shiver.

Then I sleeved everything.  I now can easily slide the sleeved cards together at the lower end of the sleeves.  It is very easy to do and works very well.  And now I don't shiver when others try to mash their cards together.  I am much happier having others play with us, and I'm not always worrying about my cards getting damaged.