The
Random Shuffle of Internet Poker
If you've always wanted to see a random shuffle, Internet
poker is about as close as you're likely to come to finding
it.
Visualize a casino shuffle done by a live dealer: He first
"scrambles" the deck by spreading the cards face
down in a thin heap covering several square feet of table
space, whereupon he vigorously mixes them with a physical
movement remarkably similar to kneading bread.
After pulling the cards back together in a neat stack, he
divides the deck into two approximately equal portions.
Then, competently and quickly, he interlaces the two sections
by lifting their corners at an angle with his thumbs, simultaneously
forcing the two stacks into such close proximity that the
cards interlock as they fall. This process is repeated a
number of times before he cuts the deck and places his opaque
"cut card" on the bottom of the final stack to
prevent players from seeing the bottom card as he deals.
This, then, is the shuffle as done in a brick and mortar
card club.
Rarely does anyone question the randomness of this procedure
when executed at the card table by an experienced dealer.
It all looks so smooth and professional - and it is. But
does this activity produce a one hundred percent random
outcome? Is it a perfect shuffle?
Answer: No. There's no way it can be. Both dealer and cards
are subject to a variety of physical limitations precluding
a perfectly random card mix.
First, the deck itself may be flawed. Cards often stick
or clump together due to humidity, drinks spilled at the
table, or static electricity. When this happens, two or
more cards move through the shuffling process joined like
Siamese twins, destroying any chance of a truly random outcome.
Alternatively, the deck may be slippery and difficult to
grip, resulting in a sloppier shuffle. New decks are especially
prone to this flaw, but used decks may contain cards that
are bent, warped or bowed just enough to hamper a random
shuffle (though not enough to be readily spotted).
And on rare occasions - though staff members try hard to
prevent such occurrences - a deck may even be short, or
a card duplicated. Though "set-ups" of two decks
are carefully prepared before they arrive on the felt, and
dealers generally count down the deck with each dealer rotation,
mistakes do occasionally happen. A card may fall to the
floor unnoticed, or a player may deliberately or inadvertently
retain one or more cards from the previous deal. A player
upset by losing a gigantic pot might even quit the games
and stalk away clutching his hand - it's been known to happen!
So we know problems with cards can cause a less than perfect
deal-even if dealers were perfect. But dealers aren't perfect.
They may be tired or distracted, and some are more dexterous
with the deck than others. Fingers can slip or falter, allowing
part of the deck to pass without interlocking as it falls.
Then there's the pressure of time constraints. Dealers often
feel the need to "hurry up and deal" to please
impatient players as well as clock a requisite number of
raked hands per hour to satisfy management. Time pressure
works against a random shuffle: The more times a dealer
executes the shuffle movement, the better the mix, but too
many passes of the deck slow down the games.
Good dealers find a sweet spot between the extremes of over-diligence
and indifference, keeping everyone happy, but when it comes
to achieving a one hundred percent random shuffle - as opposed
to a competent, acceptably random shuffle - even the best
human dealer falls short.
But 21st century computers don't fall short. They have,
in fact, achieved the near-perfect distribution of totally
random cards - something elusive to humans since cards were
invented. The marriage of poker with computer technology
allows a one hundred percent random shuffle through use
of (Pseudo) Random Number Generators (RNGs).
A properly implemented RNG is actually software that produces
a sequence of numbers which are as near to random as possible.
These random numbers, in turn, are used to shuffle the deck
of cards much more thoroughly than even the most conscientious
dealer is able to manage.
We know, there's something psychologically reassuring in
anticipating the traditional shuffle while sitting across
the felt from a live dealer. It's familiar, readily understandable
and easily seen. And, though it's not perfect, it's human.
We feel - in a word - comfortable.
But while most of us know and accept computers in banking,
taxes. medicine, and many other things of vital importance
to our lives, it's somehow harder to take on faith that
a computer can do a better job with a complex manual task,
especially one designed to ensure fair play when our money's
at risk.
Online, that whirring, breezy, unmistakable sound of shuffling
cards means nothing: It's totally irrelevant to the deal.
Like Peanuts' blanket, it's just a warm fuzzy - a concession
to our human need for familiar visual and aural cues. Computer
technology has simply converted the manual task of shuffling
into a cybernetic one, making online card distribution far
more dependable and random than a manual shuffle.
Even so, while playing Internet poker or reading RGP, you'll
come across disgruntled players making accusations of fixed
games. They say the shuffle of online games is anything
but random, and some go so far as to surmise that it's somehow
designed to work against them while rewarding mysterious
"others." In our opinion, the vast majority of
these detractors are perennial losers, while a few are merely
enduring a protracted losing streak. Our advice: Take their
testimony with a grain of salt, and -after taking reasonable
precautions - define your own Internet poker experience.
Remember: Just as it's easier - though irrational and irresponsible
- to blame bad cards or bad beats on a live dealer than
to acknowledge bad luck or flaws in one's own play, it's
easier to question the randomness of card distribution and
general fairness of online games than to simply accept the
vicissitudes of poker. Bad luck happens online and offline.
It's just that simple.
Concerns about online cheating fall into four categories:
collusion; hacking; all-in abuse; and conspiracies involving
a roster of ruses by site owners and operators up to and
including outright theft of client funds. Let's look at
these one at a time:
