There are no less than four manners of false shuffling:
1) Keeping the bottom card on the bottom. At the ideal opportunity, the cheat will glance at the bottom card, after which the cheat will deal in such a manner as to keep that card at the bottom. This can be done with the "interlocking card" shuffle where the deck is divided in two halves that are shuffled together by interlocking the cards. Ensuring that the half with the correct bottom card is brought down first, that card will remain at the bottom. This trick is useful for a cheat who anticipates bottom dealing.
2) Shuffling the bottom card to the top of the deck. At the ideal opportunity, the cheat will glance at the bottom card, after which the cheat will shuffle that card to the very top of the deck. This can be done with the "undercut" shuffle whereby the bulk of the deck is held in the left hand, with the right hand pulling out portions of cards and shuffling them off onto the top of the rest of the deck in several motions. Ensuring that the final motion consists of only one card -what was the bottom card- this card is dropped by itself onto the very top of the deck. This trick is useful for a cheat who anticipates second dealing or dealing extra cards.
3) Shuffling to keep one card or a number of cards undisturbed at the top of the deck. Either by having used the second form of false shuffling, or by having peeked at the top card, the cheat will shuffle the deck so that the top card remains at the top. This is done with the "interlocking card" shuffle where the two halves are shuffled together by interlocking the cards. Ensuring that the half with the correct top card is brought down last, that card will remain at the top. This trick is useful for a cheat who knows what the top card is, and plans to second deal or deal extra cards.
4) Stacking the deck: This maneuver requires considerably greater sleight of hand ability. It is less likely that a poker cheat who is that skilled and experienced will find himself or herself at a smaller stakes table, where the money to be made is not as great. However, a deck-stacker may just as soon sit in on such a home game. Stacking the deck is the act of manipulating the positions of cards in the deck while shuffling. Manipulated properly, they allow the dealer to deal himself or herself a specific hand. For example, the cheat shuffles the cards until all four Kings have been positioned at the top of the deck. No simple feat, but this is the easy part. The dealer then proceeds to shuffle the cards in such a way where each King is separated by a number of cards equal to the number of other players at the table. That way, the dealer performs a natural deal with all four Kings landing in his or her own hand.
In these and its other myriad forms, false shuffling allows the dealer to give the impression of mixing up the cards randomly when the cheat is actually manipulating the deck to place certain cards in certain places.
Even the cut is worthless protection if the dealer is allowed to shuffle at all after it. The cut is only effective if the dealer immediately deals after it. Any false shuffling allows the dealer to manipulate the deck.
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