How to shuffle? Seriously!


Pathfinder Adventure Card Game General Discussion


I'm sorry for the stupid question, but how in the world do I shuffle these small decks of cards? I can barely (barely!) riffle the fifteen card character decks. Trying to riffle shuffle a ten card location deck is basically impossible for me without bending the heck out of the cards. Can one of you old MtG players tell me how it's supposed to be done? Thanks!


Eric W wrote:
I'm sorry for the stupid question, but how in the world do I shuffle these small decks of cards? I can barely (barely!) riffle the fifteen card character decks. Trying to riffle shuffle a ten card location deck is basically impossible for me without bending the heck out of the cards. Can one of you old MtG players tell me how it's supposed to be done? Thanks!

I don't plan on using card sleeves so I pile shuffle the smaller stacks, just look up pile shuffle on youtube it is super easy, though slower than riffle shuffling.


Once you're familiar with it, the hindu shuffle is both very fast and a good shuffle for a small number of cards. You can make the packets 1-5 cards and shuffle through the deck ten times or so in fifteen seconds. I havent tried it with sleeved cards, but I suspect it would work fine (though possbily not if you were learning it).

Riffle shuffling a small deck is best done by breaking the deck approximately in half and then fanning the two packets slightly. If you hold them loosely and press the two semi-spread packets together, they should interleave pretty nicely. This takes a bit of time to get quick though.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I picked up 1000 card sleeves on ebay for like $16 with S/H. They work great for shuffling.


Most everyone at my table just uses the pile method. You lay out your cards into three little piles, lay the cards down in order into one of these three piles, and then pick them up in whatever order you want. Do this two or three times and you'll have a fairly randomized deck.

You can also do a "side shuffle" where you hold the cards in your palm, and pick up "a few" cards from the bottom and throw them on the top. You'll end up picking a few from the center of the deck too this way. As long as you aren't getting the exact same cards every time, you end up creating a fair amount of randomness. This way is great because it's much faster than the pile method, though not quite as "perfectly random."

I have a few friends who can't shuffle any deck no matter how big it is - they use the pile method. There are still others who don't sleeve their cards, and don't want to put much wear on them who use the pile method.

Try these out and see what works for you.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Designer

SIde shuffling is my preferred method.


I side shuffle, then randomly put the cards into 4 piles, randomly pick up the four piles, then side shuffle again.

Liberty's Edge

I do a pile shuffle first, then 4-5 side shuffles.


Myriade wrote:
I do a pile shuffle first, then 4-5 side shuffles.

Same here.


Steve Geddes wrote:
Once you're familiar with it, the hindu shuffle is both very fast and a good shuffle for a small number of cards.

This is super cool! I'm gonna practice this when I get home.


For our group we decided that the person who has to shuffle takes the location deck or whatever under the table... they mix them up by hand a bunch and then pass it to the person to the left or right to cut it then place it back on the table. That way you cannot "stack the deck" and it stays a little more fair.

The reality is that if there are two or three cards in a location deck it is very hard for the person shuffling the cards to know that the top card is not now on the top or bottom.

We went to under the table so others could not see what was going on... our group is honest... but some folks are bad at shuffling and myself and others could often see the bottom of the deck as they mixed the cards.

All of that being said, I picked up some competition sleeves used for MTG and they make mixing the cards MUCH easier. They do make it harder to store in the box so eventually I will have to move to something else for storage.


austinmonster wrote:
Steve Geddes wrote:
Once you're familiar with it, the hindu shuffle is both very fast and a good shuffle for a small number of cards.
This is super cool! I'm gonna practice this when I get home.

I used to do close up magic and learnt stacks of shuffles and fancy cuts. I found the best way to practice them was whilst watching the news each night.

It takes time to master (unfortunately the guy in that video doesn't show how quick it can be - its a great method for decks of around twenty though).


I watched a couple of other videos from the hindu shuffle link creator. I've been doing what he calls "overhand shuffle" although I let the cards fall on top or in the middle of the pile, depending how loosely I'm holding them in my left hand.

Liberty's Edge

Thazar wrote:
The reality is that if there are two or three cards in a location deck it is very hard for the person shuffling the cards to know that the top card is not now on the top or bottom.

I've the under the table shuffling for two or three cards. My problems is I'm pretty good with the "pea under 3 sheels" game, so I have to force myself to think about something to fool myself and not be able to follow the cards.


Myriade wrote:
Thazar wrote:
The reality is that if there are two or three cards in a location deck it is very hard for the person shuffling the cards to know that the top card is not now on the top or bottom.
I've the under the table shuffling for two or three cards. My problems is I'm pretty good with the "pea under 3 sheels" game, so I have to force myself to think about something to fool myself and not be able to follow the cards.

If two people do the under the table shuffle one after the other then nobody will know where the card is (this is the recommended method in Resistance/Avalon where you're often shuffling 2 or 3 cards).

And, please, no lewd replies about "two people doing the under the table shuffle"!

If you're playing solitaire I find the best thing to do is to shuffle them out of sight, then spread the cards out on the table and 'mix them up' in a messy way (with your eyes closed if desired), then do another quick in-hand shuffle.


h4ppy wrote:
Myriade wrote:
Thazar wrote:
The reality is that if there are two or three cards in a location deck it is very hard for the person shuffling the cards to know that the top card is not now on the top or bottom.
I've the under the table shuffling for two or three cards. My problems is I'm pretty good with the "pea under 3 sheels" game, so I have to force myself to think about something to fool myself and not be able to follow the cards.

If two people do the under the table shuffle one after the other then nobody will know where the card is (this is the recommended method in Resistance/Avalon where you're often shuffling 2 or 3 cards).

And, please, no lewd replies about "two people doing the under the table shuffle"!

If you're playing solitaire I find the best thing to do is to shuffle them out of sight, then spread the cards out on the table and 'mix them up' in a messy way (with your eyes closed if desired), then do another quick in-hand shuffle.

One thing to try if you are solitaire and shuffling a small number of cards, is to add say character cards which are not being used to the pile face up before shuffling. This adds more cards into the mix so that its harder to subconsciously keep track of where the real cards are. Then after shuffling take out the face up ones.


I use the "overhand" shuffle: hold the deck in one hand and grab a few cards off of the bottom and put them on top (or even weave them in) and repeat 10-15 times.

The Hindu shuffle mentioned earlier is also good. Funny enough I used to do quite a bit of card magic and that shuffle is the first way I learned how to keep one or more cards on top of the deck while shuffling. Perhaps be suspicious if somebody uses it in a competitive game :)

Liberty's Edge

tself55 wrote:
h4ppy wrote:
Myriade wrote:
Thazar wrote:
The reality is that if there are two or three cards in a location deck it is very hard for the person shuffling the cards to know that the top card is not now on the top or bottom.
I've the under the table shuffling for two or three cards. My problems is I'm pretty good with the "pea under 3 sheels" game, so I have to force myself to think about something to fool myself and not be able to follow the cards.

If two people do the under the table shuffle one after the other then nobody will know where the card is (this is the recommended method in Resistance/Avalon where you're often shuffling 2 or 3 cards).

And, please, no lewd replies about "two people doing the under the table shuffle"!

If you're playing solitaire I find the best thing to do is to shuffle them out of sight, then spread the cards out on the table and 'mix them up' in a messy way (with your eyes closed if desired), then do another quick in-hand shuffle.

One thing to try if you are solitaire and shuffling a small number of cards, is to add say character cards which are not being used to the pile face up before shuffling. This adds more cards into the mix so that its harder to subconsciously keep track of where the real cards are. Then after shuffling take out the face up ones.

That is a great tip.


tself55 wrote:


One thing to try if you are solitaire and shuffling a small number of cards, is to add say character cards which are not being used to the pile face up before shuffling. This adds more cards into the mix so that its harder to subconsciously keep track of where the real cards are. Then after shuffling take out the face up ones.

Great idea - thanks!

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