I just got Sheriff of Nottingham and was wondering what is the best way to shuffle a 216 card deck between games...
Edit: It seems like the best answer is to use sleeves. It’s too bad because I like the feel of actual cards, but I can’t argue with the logical benefits.
Posted Jul 8, 2021, 9:33 PM UTC · edited
I usually break the deck into sections and riffle shuffle each section. Then cut the section and add them to other cut sections to make new sections and riffle shuffle these. Repeat a few times until you feel like it's decently shuffled.
Yup
riffle shuffle will quickly wear out your cards.. if you care about that you can pretty much sleeve and replace "riffle" with "squash together"
I used to riffle shuffle my cosmic encounter and when I later mixed in the expansions it's painfully obvious which cards were from the original box 😅
Everyone gets a roughly equal portion of the deck. Shuffle your stack, cut it, pass half to your neighbor, repeat.
Sleeves are worth considering. That's how I shuffle big decks like the project cards in Terraforming Mars and the DNA cards in Dinogenics. You can easily split the deck in half, push it together, and it's basically riffled. Do that a few times with some cuts and overhands mixed in and you're sorted.
Of course, one potential problem is they make the big stack of cards even taller, and can be slippery depending on brand.
I learned my lesson on sleeves with magic the gathering, my local store had cards in sample sleeves from a few brands at different price points. There was one that felt very sleek, almost silk feel to them and had a little extra thickness and rigidity that made the cards feel extremely premium, bought enough sleeves for 5 decks in various colours. After sleeving around 350 cards I very quickly realised my mistake, the extra thickness made a 60 card deck nearly 3 inches tall and not fit in a deck box and they were slippery enough that 2 sheets of paper under one side would topple the deck.
It took a long time to resleeve them...
I feel your pain, I just resleeved my copy of Terraforming Mars. Although that was because I'd previously sleeved them in cheap sleeves which were very flimsy and loose, and I've now gotten into the habit of using better-quality (but still not super-thick) ones.
Honestly the premium sleeves I used for Dinogenics are probably too thick and rigid, but I'm not sure I can be bothered switching them now.
For those of you that don't know I found out about this lovely sleeving website.
https://www.sleeveyourgames.com/sleeves/6724/sheriff-of-nottingham
Yeah, I stumbled across that one recently. There's also a giant geeklist over on BGG for finding the right-sized sleeves.
My brain enjoys a tedious task like this, in that I will deal all cards out into 7 piles or some prime number. I'll deal all that shit out and pick up each stack at random and reassemble the deck.
It works doing this ahead of time so that when you shuffle (again) before the game you can quickly shuffle quarters of the deck together for the sake of shuffling in front of your friends. I'll tell them the deck was shuffled before too.
A bit much but my brain likes it.
Saw this answer a little bit too late... That's the best way to do this.
Players usually are annoyed at first by the process, but when they see that they no longer have three crappy hands in a row, they are less reluctant to help.
I use more stacks than just 7, like 10 or 12. If cards are dealt randomly-ish along the stacks it doesn't matter whether the chosen number of stacks is permitted prime or not. However, repeating the process at least one is very important.
Edit: typo
I do this exact same thing, also with primes. Though i normally do it once with 7 piles and then again with 5.
I was wondering why nobody mentioned this, then I saw your comment. This is the way.
If I have room I'll do a big wash. If not break it into smaller stacks and shuffle them.
Yep- I shuffle everything with a wash now. It looks stupid, but it's the least damaging to the cards, randomizes well, and takes no skill.
Also found you can do it pretty fast when you learn how to pick them up and orient them like they do in poker
Having penny sleeves really helps with shuffling. Kind of smush the cards together and they shuffle perfectly.
Smoosh shuffling is my go to almost every time. It does an excellent job randomizing a deck and breaking up card sets in set collection games. Plus it doesn't damage cards. It may seem uncouth, but it works.
This thread is the first time I've heard the term "smoosh shuffling", but somehow I still know what you mean...
I think the official term is "mash shuffle". But you get the idea either way.
That works if the cards are plastic or sleeved, but unless you mean something other than what I think you mean by “smoosh shuffling” you’ll wear out the edges of normal cards pretty quickly that way.
152 card pick-up.
My grandpa's favourite game to play with his grandkids.
sleeve cards, cut the deck in half, smush one half into the other, repeat as desired.
basically a slower riffle shuffle.
I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it
ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gniht ym tup i
ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gniht ym tup i
If you got a big deck, let me search it
The Missy Shuffle?
I just shuffle in sections, cutting and exchanging halves between sections every couple shuffles
"wash" them. You'll see this often in professional poker rooms. They often cut it out of TV coverage of poker events. https://poker.wonderhowto.com/how-to/wash-deck-playing-cards-for-poker-264560/
There are some easy ways on YouTube that I used to watch back in the day that provided great insight. I would suggest shuffling in smaller sections but it really depends on the persons choice of ease.
Somehow the first thing in my head was a dance routine on my balcony...
Anyway, while sleeves are the best looking term answer, they can also be a pain in some ways (the deck will take up more space for example). So I'd go with this take on shuffling deck halves:
Two people shuffling half the deck each. Periodically each cuts off half and trades it with the other shuffler so the halves get mixed together. When satisfied, try to shuffle the two halves together (this isn't vital - if the rest was done thoroughly either half will work as a well shuffled top of the deck).
If the deck is truly monstrous you can just as easily have 3+ each shuffling part. Just periodically cut and pass left.
Smooshing sleeved cards is the best way, but sleeves can be expensive and don't always fit in boxes.
Otherwise, "deal" the cards into 4 piles, restack, deal into 3. Repeat if desired, or split into smaller piles and have multiple shufflers. This effectively shuffles the cards without the wear and tear of normal shuffling.
Hand over hand shuffle, and use sleeves to "push" them together.
I have someone else shuffle while I "explain" the rulz.
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 5 3 4 2 6 1 5 3 4 5 6 1 6 4 3 2 6 1 5
You can give to other player their part to shuffle and then at the fusion do the MOAS.
Separate the deck into more than two piles. Probably 4 would be good. Shuffle 1+2. Split them into 2 piles and shuffle one pile into pile 3. After shuffling that, split and shuffle one pile into pile 4. That is one iteration of shuffling. You should do several iterations of this to ensure it is sufficiently shuffled. Then you can put the piles back together in any order.
Shuffle smaller decks, then chunk them together. It ain't perfect, but it's good enough.
I need to get one of those Vegas automatic shuffling machines... I hear they only cost around $15,000.
I'm not that into boardgaming... yet.
Do a few searches on r/boardgames for "automatic shuffler" or "shuffling machine" to see why that's a terrible idea.
They cost $15 on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Casino-6-Deck-Automatic-Card-Shuffler/dp/B000B6ACGA/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2BIUEHROY7OMU&dchild=1&keywords=deck+shuffler+automatic&qid=1625781219&sprefix=Deck+shuff%2Caps%2C237&sr=8-5
That just riffles the deck once, I'm talking about the legit Vegas ones that do a full shuffle.
Edit: Something like this.
Yes. But you established you cant afford one of those. Perhaps you can afford $15 and suffer the inconvenience of putting your deck through twice?
i mean, you could just run it through the $15 shuffler multiple times...
Now invent a version that has a silky touch that doesn't rip even Mayday penny sleeves, factually thinner than a single lepton, off of the cards.
We do that with the bigger Fluxx deck.