How to Shuffle Cards

At least 50 percent of amateur card fanciers make this mistake after a shuffle: They take the pack up into their hands to square it before offering it for the cut. Why, after taking such fastidious pains to conceal that bottom card, must they expose it thus to a hawk-eyed opponent? Because, make no mistake about it, the opponent will take advantage of that card. He’ll know where it is after the cut. He can cut the pack in such a way as to force it into the deal (placing it high in the pack) or keep it out. In either case, a significant percentage swings in his favor. Square the cards flat against the table.
It must be a matter of record that I’m a card manipulator by trade. I know how to shuffle, and I’m going to take the liberty of assuming you’d like to be taught by a professional. Nothing fancy about it; it won’t take much time; and while I don’t guarantee to transform you into a magician, I think that the next five minutes we spend together will insure you against ever being embarrassed by shuffling badly.
First, hold the as I show you in the illustration, Figure A. Pull about half the cards off the top of the pack with your right hand, leaving the other half in your left, then putting both halves end to end.
Second, keep your hold on the cards as in Figure B, and riffle the halves together by running your thumbs up the sides of the cards. Hold the bocks firm by setting the finger on the opposite edge of the cards.
Third, after the cards have riffled together, loosen your hold, and slide them into a single block as in Figure C. Never take the cards off the table, either for the riffle or in the act of squaring the pack.

The steps in Scarne shuffle.

Fourth get into the habit of cutting the cards just for insurance at least once during the shuffle by pulling out the bottom half and slapping it onto the top between riffles good protection against locaters.
The G.I.’s used to call this the Scarne shuffle. It’s foolproof, crookproof, and tidy as a Contract Bridge man’s tuxedo.. and it’ll save you money if you never play anything but Solitaire. it just saves wear and tear on a pack of playing cards. But a couple of last warnings against your most insidious enemy You’re not playing for paid admissions so you don’t have to expose yourself to kibitzers. If you can do so without awkwardness, try to sit with your back to a wall so as to cut down your audience. Many a hand is betrayed to an occonent by a spectator’s sigh or chuckle or sharp inhalation of breath or such a fool crack as “What a lucky pick!”
Before each game whether Stud, Draw, Gin. Pitch, cribbage, Pinochle, or any other game do your self the justice of counting the cards, just to be sure the whole pack’s there and nothing is missing by any accident. And don’t play when you’re disturbed. Most of us are convinced we play a pretty in -and -out game; we tend to be champs one day and chumps the next and we attribute it all to the run of the cards.
When you play cards, give the game all you’ve got, or get out; not only is that the one way on earth to win at cards it’s the only way you and the rest of the players can get any fun at all out of what ought to be fun. You can’t play a good hand well if your mind’s on that redhead down the street or the horses or your boss’s ulcers or your wife’s operation. When you don’t remember the last upcard your opponent picked and you throw him the like like ranked card which gives him Gin, it’s time to push back your chair and say “Boys, I just remembered I have a previous engagement.”
Do as the professionals do. When they make a few bad plays in a row, they just mutter “That’s all for today, gents ”; and they mean it. They mean today is, for certain reasons, written off; they mean they’ll be back tomorrow, which is another day. By all means, when you’re in this kind of losing streak, don’t let yourself get panicky. The more reckless you fell, the more desperate is the necessity that you get away from that table at once. An excited online poker player, a player plunging to recoup losses, is a player at his worst. Learn to recognize him. That player has been and will again be unless you learn how to deal with him your own worst enemy. And one more thing. The player who resorts to systems is just adding method to his madness he is systematically ensuring his losses. There is no such animal as an unbeatable system. Only the chump believes in one.