Dealer Shuffle

If you have ever played poker in a casino you’ve seen countless dealers shuffle a deck of cards. They don’t do it like the majority of use shuffle cards at home. They can’t because the observant players would be able to track specific cards throughout the deck. The way most people shuffle, they expose at least the bottom cards, but this is not acceptable for a fair game which the casinos strive for. By using the dealer shuffle, you keep people from being able to see the bottom cards or any other cards during the shuffling process.

Tutorial

Begin with a deck of cards in a single pile on the table in front of you so that the long edge is horizontal. Place your thumbs on the side of the deck nearest to your body. The pinky fingers are placed on each respective side of the card. The middle and ring ringers of each hand are placed on the final side of the deck of cards, which is opposite where you placed your thumbs. It doesn’t really matter where you put the index fingers at this point, but I like to place my right index finger on the top card so that my fingernail is touching the card. The left index finger kind of floats out above the deck.

card trick

Cut the deck of cards in half by taking the top half away with your right hand and the bottom half away with your left hand. Once the deck is split take the index fingers and put them on the side of the cards which does not have any fingers. While doing this it helps to straighten out the cards which may have shifted a bit during the cut.

card trick

Move your right thumb to the lower left corner of the right card pile and your left thumb to the lower right corner of the left pile.

card trick

Remove your index fingers from the side of the cards. Put them on top of the cards in a location that is roughly the halfway point between your thumb and middle finger.

card trick

Lift up on each card pile with your thumb and put a little bit of pressure down on the cards with the index fingers. At the same time bring the two parts of the deck closer together.

card trick

Lift the thumb across the corner of the cards so that one by one the bottom cards fall out of each half of the deck. Make sure to do this fast enough so the corners of the cards from each side mix together on the table. Only about a 1/4 to 1/2 an inch of the corners need to actually overlap.

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Once all of the cards have been released by your thumbs, move the thumbs back to the side of the cards closest to your body. Push the two halves of the deck together to form a single pile again.

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Repeat the process as necessary.

Videos

Another Runner Up

Party Poker 2nd PlaceAnother 2nd place finish in a $50+$5 on Party Poker. Those are my new favorite tournaments. The buyin attracts a little better crowd of poker players and the size seems to work well for my game. This one had 530 people and paid $3975 for 2nd place! (Click the photo for a larger view)

I didn’t get much to play throughout the tournament, so I was careful to pick my spots. AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, and AQ were a combined 22 for 23 which always helps! I was under the average chip stack during the entire tournament and even survived a big storm that rolled through the area. Lights were flickering, but my power stayed on. The player I wanted to get heads up against came through. He had me out chipped about 3-1, but I was confident I could pick a few spots and take him. I had him with 33 against K9, but a 9 on the flop ended it. All you can do is go in with the best hand in a situation like that. Once of these days I’ll win one of these tournaments, but I’m not going to complain about taking the 2nd place prize money. This surpasses the 2nd place a couple of weeks ago for my biggest cash to date.

If You Had All of the Money in the World

If you had all of the money in the world what would you do?

Before you answer, understand it’s not a question about money. The average person must work 40 hours a week to make ends meet. If you had all of the money in the world you wouldn’t have to work that much. You could do whatever you wanted. So what would you do?

Now, ask yourself, “Am I reaching out for my dreams or am I sitting back and waiting for something to happen on its own?” If not, it might be time to rethink your daily activities. Life is too short to go on wondering if you could have made it in life doing something else. Take a chance. You never know what buried treasures you might find along the way.

I'm Picking Goosen

Halfway through the Tour Championship, Retief Goosen is tied for the lead at -10 with Bart Bryant. Retief opened the tournament with a solid 64 and backed it up with a 66 yesterday. He looks to be playing well and is due for a win. Tiger Woods is in the mix only 3 strokes behind before play started today, but I don’t think this is his week. He’ll make the top 10, but come Sunday afternoon he won’t be hoisting another trophy. Why? Because he has a 5 wood in his bag instead of his trusty 2 iron!

Hitting the Large Head Drivers

This summer I bought a new driver and it was the greatest buy I made in my golf bag. I’ve never been able to hit a driver in my life and although I still have problems with the new one, it’s the best driver I’ve ever made a swing with.

Going to a large head driver (usually 460cc or similar) can cause problems for a lot of golfers because it really is a different type of club to hit. Here are some great tips I found on another blog.

  1. Tee the Ball Higher
  2. Move the Ball Forward in Your Stance
  3. Set Up to Hit the Ball on the Center of the Face
  4. Hit the Ball on the Upswing

About Golf

The article goes into a bit more detail on each point, but they are all great points to be made. I’ve had a lot of people mention that I tee the ball forward in my stance and kind of chuckle to myself. With a club head so large you really have to in order to hit the ball on your upswing.

Jack Nicklaus Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom

Next Wednesday, 14 recipients will meet with President Bush to receive Presidential Medals of Freedom, which is the nation’s highest civil award. Jack Nicklaus is the greatest golfer to have ever walked a course and it’s great to see him honored. Other athletes receiving the award will be Muhammad Ali and Frank Robinson.

Royal Hold'em Notes

I’m messing around on UB with their new game Royal Hold’em just to have some fun. What’s Royal Hold’em?

Royal Hold’em is just like Texas Hold’em but with a twist. Only the best 20 cards from the deck are used (tens, jacks, queens, kings, and aces).

I even calculated the Royal Hold’em Odds earlier.

I’m no expert by any means, so don’t take what you read here as gospel. Just a few random thoughts I’m having while playing this crazy game of poker.

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Royal Hold'em Odds

Royal Hold’em is just like Texas Hold’em but with a twist. Only the best 20 cards from the deck are used (tens, jacks, queens, kings, and aces). While messing around with the game for fun I decided to calculate the odds of hitting your outs. Use them to crush your opponents.

Outs Flop Turn
1 14 – 1 13 – 1
2 6.5 – 1 5.5 – 1
3 4 – 1 3.7 – 1
4 2.8 – 1 2.5 – 1
5 2 – 1 1.8 – 1
6 1.5 – 1 1.3 – 1
7 1.1 – 1 1 – 1