Re: If I wanted to shuffle 8 decks of cards
One simple principle that is too-often overlooked is that it helps to start with a mixed up deck. Minor imperfections in your shuffling algorithm make a lot less difference if you start with a randomized deck than if you start with Ace of Spades 1, Ace of Hearts 2 and so on.
The theoretical calculations are typically based on whether a perfectly-informed mathematician could find any +EV bet on any card combination. In most games, it doesn't make much difference to know that the probability of 5 of clubs being in position 8 from the top of the deck is slightly more or less than 1 in 52. Moreover, it takes an astronomical number of hands for someone to be able to notice this. But it can make a lot of difference to know, and you can notice pretty fast, if, say, two Aces in a row occur with probability slightly different than 1/17.
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