Shuffles
Does the shuffle matter and which is more accurate in terms of shuffling cards in online poker or real life? It’s a question I was reading about recently and I thought for a while about it and came to a rather startling psychological conclusion.
Now I don’t advocate superstition such as placing your cards in a certain position in the muck, but I do advocate the psychological effects it brings the online poker player. Some players feel that they can change outcomes of hands if they fold a certain way or muck a certain way. Well this is true, but not in the sense they think.
In the sense of changing things, it empowers them. It gives them confidence, and with confidence, comes better play. A good player playing with confidence will play better than a good player playing unsure of his skill. So if you think that doing something like mucking a certain way will help you play better, but all means do it. Since it will, though not in the sense of your cards being better, but in the sense of your demeanor being better, and possibly your perceptiveness being better.
Now to answer the initial question of which is more accurate in terms of randomness, the answer is probably online. Since the cards are shuffled by a mathematical algorithm that is based to give randomness more so than a dealer who is simply shuffling cards based on the industry standard for shuffling. And humans are imperfect. In any event, maybe the shuffle does have something do to with it. But only psychologically. Remember this when you play poker online.
