How I Shuffle My Cards, and Why

I have a somewhat unusual way of shuffling tarot cards, and it's primarily because I have medical issues which prevent normal flat-to-the-table shuffling. Several years ago, my left arm suffered an injury that required physical therapy to correct. Since then, I've had difficulty shuffling even standard-sized playing cards, like Bicycle cards, the flat-to-the-table way. With an even more recent injury to my left elbow, the traditional method of shuffling is even more difficult because my left hand now lacks the strength required to hold the cards for shuffling the traditional way.




As part of figuring out an alternative method of shuffling my tarot cards, I've tried cutting the deck, setting the resultant halves corner to corner, and fanning the corners together before pushing them into each other. Basically, a standard Vegas shuffle, I guess you'd say. This doesn't work so well, however. I almost invariably abuse the edges of the cards on the very bottoms of the deck-halves in my efforts to pull the corners up to shuffle together. When I don't have this difficulty, I suffer pain and discomfort in raising the left-hand stack's corner, thanks to those aforementioned injuries.

I've also tried overhand shuffling, but I don't feel that shuffles the cards adequately, so I don't do it very often. And then there's edge-to wiggle-in shuffling, which isn't always possible depending on the thickness of the cards. A number of my decks just block against each other and scatter if I try to force them together, which means wiggling-in isn't possible either.

So, as a result, I had to develop a different way to shuffle my cards. I don't really like this method, because I suspect it will eventually wear off edging dyes and paints that are on some of my decks, but I see no other way to shuffle with a bad arm. Basically what I do is split the deck, prepare them for shuffling, and fan them together while resting their long edges on the table where I'm shuffling. This way, if the deck is especially stiff, I don't almost pull muscles in shuffling, and I don't scatter cards all over the place like I do nearly every time I try to fan them together the traditional way. Of course this means I must bend the cards dramatically, but that can't be helped. I always try to bridge the cards when I push them together, so they're more likely to be bent toward their faces, instead of their backs.

Occasionally, cards do flip off the bottom of my shuffle, but this isn't as common as it used to be—and it's never been nearly as frequent an occurrence as me scattering cards as happens when I try to do a traditional flat-to-the-table shuffle. Recently, I've been trying to angle the cards a little, so they're not all edge-to the table, but that has mixed results. Some discomfort or pain, sometimes scattering of cards. It's an experimental thing at this point.

However, I'm willing to try other methods anyone may suggest. I don't care if it's a totally different method of shuffling, or if it involves a slight alteration of what I do now. Having a shuffling method that won't ruin my decks is important to me.