False shuffles, also known as "Blind Shuffles", are sleight-of-hand methods of apparently shuffling the deck without really mixing cards around. Some false shuffles are 100% blind, meaning that not a single card changes position, others retain just certain cards at the desired place, while mixing the rest of the deck.

There are many different ways to falsely shuffle a deck. All of these false shuffles try to mimic different types of true shuffles. There are three main kinds of false shuffles which are: "in the hands false riffle shuffle", "on the table false riffle shuffle" and "false overhand shuffle".

The main use of the false shuffles are: 1. retain the top stock of deck, 2. retain the bottom stock of deck (combine with bottom dealing technique) and 3. retain the whole stock of deck. Yes, it is not difficult to retain the whole deck order while shuffling, a practised card shark can retain the whole deck order and did not notice by others.

Some example of Blind Shuffles:

In the hands false riffle shuffles: Kif's riffle shuffle and Guy Hollingworth false shuffle (from his Drawing room deceptions book)

On the table false riffle shuffle: Zarrow shuffle and push through shuffle

False overhand shuffle: G.W. Hunter false shuffle


There are also ways of arranging desired cards in a desired order while apparently shuffling. The shuffles used to achieve this would also be considered false shuffles, however the technical term for this type of manipulation is "stacking the deck".

The main purpose of stacking the deck is to arrange a winning hand to the shark or the shark's partners, it is possible for a skilled cheater to arrange a winning hand to himself although more than 2 players are in the game (possible up to seven players). Stacking two hands at once is called "the double duke". The method of stacking is very simple and easy to understand but extremely difficult to execute perfectly, so it requires hours and hours of practice, but once the technique is mastered, it is definitely an unbeatable tools for cheaters.

There are four main type of stacking the deck which are: "in the hand riffle stacking", "on the table riffle stacking", "overhand stacking" and "faro stacking".

Some example of Stacking the deck:

In the hand riffle stacking: Interlace riffle shuffle

On the table riffle stacking: Darwin's Bottom Run-up System (from Darwin Ortiz At The Card Table book)

Overhand stacking: Erdnase system of stacking shuffling (from expert at the card table book)

Faro stacking: In the hands perfect faro and table faro