For the love of God, have someone else cut the cards!

[SamIAm]

[ QUOTE ]
Wait, if you cut the deck into two piles, it's a cut, but 3 or more piles is called a "box"? Why?

[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry. I wasn't trying to be pedantic. Technically, a cut is when you take ~half the cards off the top of the deck, and move the other ~half on top. A box is when you take multiple stacks of cards off the deck, usually around 4 stacks, and reverse their order. (1234 => 4321) Some people do this by cradling the deck in their hand and shoving the piles into their other hand. Some people leave the deck on the table and remove stacks to a neighboring pile. I (of course) knew what you meant. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[ QUOTE ]
Sometimes I'll do it 1 2 3 and pick up 2 1 3 to break up the pattern.

[/ QUOTE ]I'm not a big fan of "breaking up the pattern". As far as I'm concerned, I use a valid shuffle technique that randomizes the cards. Allowing players to change their shuffle shouldn't really be necessary, and only allows some sketchy behavior to creep in. I'm for using the same "pattern" every time, if it's actually random.

-Sam