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Thursday, August 2, 2012

Thursday, 2 August 2012 - Shuffling cards

Today's activity - How to shuffle a deck of cards

Shuffling takes a LOT of practice, so you should dedicate quite a while to perfecting this skill.  First you have to choose the right deck.  It is best if you have a deck of cards that are kind of slippery when you rub them together.  If you don't have a slippery deck, a regular deck will do fine too.

Take your deck and separate it into 2 smaller piles, hopefully about half a deck each.  Hold each pile as shown below, with your thumb at one end, your middle finger at the other end, and your pointer pushing down on the middle of the stack. 

Holding a stack in each hand, move your hands close enough together so that once the cards come out of your hand, they will cross each other slightly.  Pressing with your index finger, let the cards slide  off your thumb slowly (it will be hard to regulate the speed at first, but keep practicing) (the cards will bend down in the middle, and then start coming off your thumb).  You don't have to worry about taking turns for each side; if you start them shooting off both thumbs, they will cross each other.  Keep going until all the cards have gotten on the stack

When you look at the stack, you will probably see some big chunks on one side or the other (or both!).  This is because you are just starting and shuffling takes a lot of practice.  Pick up the crossed over cards and slide them together to get one pile.  Now you are ready to cut the deck and shuffle again.  Keep shuffling!

Variation:  to get the cards back into one pile after shuffling them, you can do "The Bridge."  You have to be good at shuffling first before you try to do this.  When you shuffle the cards, you are bending them down each time, so the bridge helps to bend them back the right way.  After you have shuffled them onto the table, DON'T let go of the ends.  Pick up the stack by curling all your fingers (not your thumbs) over the free ends of the 2 stacks, and keeping both thumbs on the top of the stack.  Push in from the sides to make it look like a rainbow shape.  Then straighten out your fingers to they form a surface under the cards, and let them start shooting into your hands (if the cards are slippery, they will start shooting right away).  This will make a not-quite-perfect deck that you can cut and start shuffling again.  BE CAREFUL, if your thumbs are not right, all the cards will explode in the air like fireworks.   And if your hands are not right or the cards weren't straight, they will all slide out the sides.  THIS WILL HAPPEN TO YOU!  Just keep practicing!

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