talkmagic.co.uk

I would like to justify some cards mixing when I do a trick and I like to tell some anecdotes (preferabily true ones) about where this way of mixing cards come from, etc, ....
Where can I fond ressources anecdotes about (history of ?) playing cards ? (and esspecialy the way they are mixed in different cultures ...

I'll sometimes say that the cards can be mixed in different ways.

"Here, in Britain, we like to most do the overhand shuffle."
"In the wild west casinos, they would often shuffle like this (doing a riffle shuffle, or Faro)."
"In the east, they would do the Hindu shuffle..."

I then sometimes make reference to the huge number permutations by saying something like:
"Did you know, there are more different ways the cards can be ordered than there are atoms in the earth?" (this bit at least, is actually true, there are far, far more. i.e. Factorial 52 for the maths people).

Nothing to do with the above, but it still fascinates me that there are more possible games of chess than there are atoms in the Universe.

John

And then there's the Russian shuffle. That's where you spring the cards and it's one card rushin' after another.

Thanks

There is also the Leicester Shuffle. You leave half the deck on the table and shuffle the rest. You say, "It is called the Leicester shuffle because there are less to shuffle" Pronounce it as "less t' shuffle"