The Mathematics Of… Shuffling
from the ain't-so-random dept
dsg writes in with a link to a great article about some researchers who were asked by casinos to look at whether or not card shuffling machines really shuffled the cards randomly. They actually determined that a card counter who understood how those machines worked could double or even triple their odds. The advantage goes away, though, if they run the cards through the machine twice, which I imagine all casinos now do.
Comments on “The Mathematics Of… Shuffling”
Wouldn't...
Wouldn’t simply cutting the deck before you place it in the machine be equally effective?
Re: Wouldn't...
This zig-zag pattern that they observed isn’t really changed by cutting the deck. You’ll find it more difficult to predict the top card, but knowing this zig-zag idea will still make prediction easier than a totally random deck.
Re: Re: Wouldn't...
cutting the cards has real effect on the ordering of cards if you know the pattern. There are loads of conjuring tricks based on this – people assume that cutting the cards is a useful thing to do. In the long run it isn’t.