Auto-Shuffler good or bad?

[zinn0]

This sort of fits into the 'poker christmas' thread over in general poker talk, but don't want to clutter that section up. My wife got me an auto-shuffler the other day. It is neat to play around with, and my Copags haven't jammed it up, but is it really worth using in a home game?

It just seems like an awful lot of work to gather the cards and put them in the contraption, and then, not get a very good shuffle from it. It just doesn't seem very random if the top card is going to be like, the 3rd card when they come out, you know?

[Iron Butt]

Yeah, home use shufflers are useless IMO. As you note you can't just run the deck through a home shuffler once and get a good shuffle, and almost anyone can shuffle a deck two or three times by the time you can get a deck into and out of a shuffler.

The proper procedure for a good shuffle is at least shuffle, strip (a shuffle that is like a multi-layer cut), shuffle, shuffle; that'd be pretty awkward with the machine but most people who've played cards a bit can do it in under 30 seconds.

[JustinHEMI04]

A buddy of mine picked one up and man... what a POS. First... his was EXTREMELY loud and annoying. Second, if screwed up the shuffle more times than it got it right. Third, it damaged several cards each time is screwed up. Waste and time and money in my opinion.

Justin

[joe_13]

They suck. Loud, and obnoxious. Slower than hand shuffling and more awkward.
Unless you buy a shufflemaster, like the ones they use at pokerrooms.
But those go for thousands of dollars.

[lwestatbus]

Ditto to the previous posters on the lack of usefulness of the consumer card shufflers. First, you have to replace the deck in the two infeed locations for each shuffle. Again, by the time you've done this you could do four good riffle shuffles.

I had a wild hair several months ago and decided to investigate a commercial quality shuffler for my father in law who loves cards but can no longer shuffle. I searched the Internet like crazy and this forum and literally could not find where one could be purchased. Zippo, zero, nadda. I just made my annual pilgrimage to the Gambler's General Store in Vegas and they don't have them. When I posted an inquiry in this forum one or two posters indicated that they aren't even for sale, that the casinos had to rent them.

[ghoops32]

When I posted an inquiry in this forum one or two posters indicated that they aren't even for sale, that the casinos had to rent them.

That's correct. There are no commercial versions available and the casinos rent the ones they use.

[Grumbler]

On the pricey side but:

http://www.shufflemaster.com/02_eu_prod ... sd/ace.asp

[groton]

yah only about 15K

[Grumbler]

Actually, this is the one I meant to post:

http://www.shufflemaster.com/02_eu_prod ... k_mate.asp

[saper88aa]

My mom bought me one of these for my birthday, one of the cheap one, no tthe 15k ones. I also found inpractical since i can shuffle a deck in under 30 seonds. Also its to much of a hassle to take the cards in and out.

[Sid Lambert]

wow...15k...thats ridiculous...I guess its cuz only a few companies have the necessary gov't papers to sell these things...other than that, the machinery for a good shuffler couldn't possibly cost more than $200, could it?...how complex could it be?

if thats true, there must be a black market for these things somewhere...i'm looking at you china

[khduby]

I have to disagree,
I bought one even after reading these BLOG's to install in my custom table I built myself and WOW, what a difference in the number of hands we were dealt on our Saturday Night game.
Normally we would see 80 - 100 hands a night, after I installed this, 130 plus....
I even took several brand new decks and ran them through at the more aggressive shuffle setting and not one back to back consecutive/suited card appeared. Also, I have never received the same hand, suited matched, twice in a row since the purchase. One player stated he did but wasn't sure if it was of the same suit.
I bought this one for around $500.00 (ShuffleTech) which I think was well worth it to see these kinds of results. Of course we are running two decks at all times and with a full table, you'll never have to wait on the shuffler.
I flush mounted this and it is the talk of all the other games I go to in the area on a weekly basis.
I hope I don't start a BLOG war about this because really, I like having the best looking along with the most professional table in Upstate NY.
Anyone in the area want to come see, you’re more than welcome to come by for a demo. Bring your chum because we have sharks infested waters.....

[HalfSugar]

That sounds very impressive - do you have any pictures of it you could post?

[Sid Lambert]

its about time somebody made one for regular consumers...a statistical analysis for randomness would be awesome

[lwestatbus]

Is this post some kind of record for oldest resurected thread in the forum? It originated in 2005 and there was a three year gap from posts in May 2006 to Sep 2009.

It is VERY interesting to see that since then there has been an introduction of a quality consumer-level shuffler. Still too pricey for me but nice to see all the same.