Shuffle machines

[arardor]

Is it impossible to get a card room shuffle machine Deck Mate? Or something equivalent. We would really like to speed up our home games.

[PokerBob]

Play with 2 decks. Have one guy who mucked shuffle it and have it be ready for the next hand.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
Is it impossible to get a card room shuffle machine Deck Mate? Or something equivalent. We would really like to speed up our home games.

[/ QUOTE ]

there a re lots of cheaper ones around. they have them at department stores, sporting goods stores, even toy stores. if you're looking for better ones, try ebay.

[Riddler]

I got one at Sharper Image as a present. Stores all over the mall have the a similar one. Problem is it only shuffles once so you have to keep putting the card back in. It is kind of cool at first but the novelty wears off by the end of the night

[KenProspero]

There have been a lot of threads about this -- I'll summarize

The shufflers that they use at the casinos are hideously expensive, I don't know if you can even get one for home use.

The home shufflers are all crap. Don't waste your money.

One of the 2+2ers is trying to develop a home electronic shuffling machine -- nothing new on this yet.

[SamIAm]

[ QUOTE ]
Play with 2 decks. Have one guy who mucked shuffle it and have it be ready for the next hand.

[/ QUOTE ]I agree with this, except for one note:

We have the guy who just dealt shuffle that deck. ("Shuffle Behind") It's logistically a little easier than trying to decide who should shuffle each hand. Now the shuffle rotates as the button rotates.
-Sam

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
Is it impossible to get a card room shuffle machine Deck Mate? Or something equivalent. We would really like to speed up our home games.

[/ QUOTE ]

Here's something that really speeds up the home game. I learned it from an old home tourney I used to play in every sunday night with KJS. You use 2 decks. The person to the left of the dealer shuffles for his upcoming deal while the hand is going.

Let me tell ya, it really helps speed it up while saving you several thousand dollars on a casino grade shuffle machine.

b

[SamIAm]

Bernie, man, you gotta start reading the posts before you type. Not only did you repeat a couple other comments, but shuffling AHEAD is a really bad idea. The forum (homegame especially) gets constant questions titled "I think somebody's cheating", all because they shuffle ahead.

Always remember kids, Shuffling Ahead Is Half The Battle. (Reading posts is the other half.)
-Sam

[Siegmund]

[ QUOTE ]
shuffling AHEAD is a really bad idea. The forum (homegame especially) gets constant questions titled "I think somebody's cheating", all because they shuffle ahead.


[/ QUOTE ]

Um.... could you care to fill us in on WHY 'shuffling ahead' is a bad idea? Other than that your home game has some paranoid players in it?

In the standard one-deck game, the dealer shuffles, offers it for a cut, and deals from it. In a "shuffle ahead" game that is EXACTLY what happens - each dealer just shuffles his own deck a minute ahead of time. In a "shuffle behind" game the "wrong person" shuffles - doesn't that annoy the rabbit hunting crowd? (Don't many of the dealers give the deck one more shuffle of their own when it is handed to them, rather than just dealing the way someone else prepared the deck?)

The only possible advantage I can see to 'shuffle behind' is that the cutoff is less likely to be involved in the previous deal than the small blind is. That seems a very tiny factor.

As I'm sure many of you are aware, using two decks and having one deck shuffled while the other is being dealt is standard practice in bridge games (and, in fact, this results in the odd situation that the deck East deals has been shuffled by South and then cut by North - theoretically a prime situation for cheating, but in practice not a big problem even in money games. If you're worried about this, the solution is for dealer to give the deck one more shuffle himself before he offers it for the cut - a rare precaution in money bridge, but one I can imagine being appropriate in poker.)

[SamIAm]

[ QUOTE ]
Um.... could you care to fill us in on WHY 'shuffling ahead' is a bad idea? Other than that your home game has some paranoid players in it?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, I'm happy to. Because there's no reason for the dealer to touch the deck before he deals it. Period. You think it's more efficient for one guy to collect the cards and another guy to shuffle them? It's the same amount of work, but it passes the deck.

We're arguing about largely equivalent amounts of work, except one's a tiny bit more logistics as well a bit les secure. Can you come-up with a reason Ahead is better, besides that's the way you've been doing it?

And, like I said, I'm not the paranoid one. It's the whole home game forum.