Shuffling was composed of two different procedures a pre-shuffle and a programmed shuffle. The pre-shuffle consisted of three riffle shuffles to ensure that the cards were dispersed throughout the deck. A riffle shuffle consisted of separating the deck in half. Each stack was held so that the cards faced each other, away from the palm of the hands. Each stack was held lengthwise, so the tip of the thumb hooked around one end, and the tips of the pinkie, ring finger, and middle finger hooked around the other. The index finger remained idle. The stacks were held about one inch (2.5 centimeters) off the tabletop with the two shortest sides aligned with each other and face down, and with the thumb knuckles almost touching. With the index fingers, the backside of each stack was pressed, squeezing each stack and pulling the bottom edges slightly in and up, while the thumbs pulled the top edges slightly up, and at the same time the index fingers pressed downward so that the thumb and the index fingers pinched together with the stacks between them. …
