The Riffle Shuffle

This is the shuffle ordinarily used by card players, but in spite of its almost universal use it is rarely done neatly or even smoothly. Nearly always the cards are bent far too much and then pushed together clumsily. 018.gif

The proper way to execute the shuffle

should be acquired at the outset, not for appearances' sake alone but because it will enable you later to apply various secret manoeuvres to the shuffle with ease and certainty. Here is the proper procedure:

1. Place the deck on the table in front of you, its sides parallel with the edge of the table. With your right hand cut off half the cards and place the packet end to end with the other packet (Fig. 14). (As seen by audience.)

2. Put your hands on the packets, your thumbs against the adjacent inner corners, your index fingers resting on the backs near these ends and your middle, ring and little fingers against the outer sides. Your hands thus assume identical positions on their respective packets.

3. Seize the packets between the thumbs and the middle and ring fingers. Raise the inner corners with the thumbs, bending the cards, very slightly against the downward pressure of the index fingers (Fig. 15).

4. Begin to release or riffle the ends of the cards of each packet so that they interweave. Regulate this release of the corners so that a card, or several cards, falls from each packet alternately.

5. When this action has been completed and all the ends of the cards are interlaced, seize the outer ends of the packets between the thumbs and the index and middle fingers and push the packets inwards, telescoping them until they are almost but not quite flush.

6. To square the deck neatly and gracefully, place the thumbs at the middle of the inner side of the deck, their tips touching one another, and the index fingers against the ends near the outer corners. Now move the thumbs outwards along the side of the deck and the index fingers inwards along the ends, and by their pressure squeeze the cards flush (Fig. 16). When the tips of the thumbs and index fingers meet at their respective inner corners, the deck will be squared perfectly.

The riffle shuffle has its greatest use when the performer is seated at a table. It can effectively be alternated with the overhand shuffle .