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TIL I had been shuffling my deck wrong for 20 years | Board Game Geeks - The Community Guide

TIL I had been shuffling my deck wrong for 20 years

I was at a game night last month at a friend's house in Portland, and someone watched me do my usual overhand shuffle and said 'you know that's not actually randomizing anything, right?' I thought I was just fine because nobody had complained before. But after they showed me how a proper riffle shuffle works, I realized I'd basically been playing every deckbuilder for two decades with cards grouped in the same order from the previous game. Has anyone else had that 'wait, I've been doing this wrong the whole time' moment with a basic game mechanic?

2 comments

2 Comments

iris_dixon915mo ago

Hold on though, I actually think the overhand shuffle is totally fine for most games. I've been doing it for years with my regular group in Seattle and nobody has ever complained about the randomness, and we play some pretty serious strategy games where people track cards. The riffle shuffle is way harder on the cards and can bend them over time, plus I have small hands so I can't even do it properly without making a mess. Unless you're playing in a tournament where people are counting cards, the slight lack of perfect randomization probably won't change the outcome of a casual game night. And honestly, even if your deck is clumped from last game, that can make things more interesting because you have to work with weird hands and think on your feet.

abby6985mo ago

@iris_dixon91 I get what you're saying about the riffle shuffle being tough on cards, but I have to respectfully disagree on the randomness thing. Overhand shuffles barely mix your deck at all, so even in casual games you're way more likely to get multiples of the same color or card type together. I saw a huge difference when I switched to riffle shuffles - my games felt way more balanced and unpredictable, which is kind of the whole point of shuffling in the first place.