After playing a long drawn out heads up game with a guy tonight, I’ve decided to purchase an automatic card shuffler. Has anyone ever used one of these? I’ve heard the battery operated ones aren’t that great. The guy could have been talking about the ones I’ve seen that are operated by “AA” bateries, but I’ve also seen the ones powered by “C” batteies.
Thanks for any suggestions…
On second though, I guess this should go in IMHO… I’ll put it there.
A friend had one, back in the old days (late '80s). It worked plausibly, but it did have a habit of lightly mangling the cards. You usually had to put the deck through twice to get a good shuffle. Personally I thought it was a hassle to use, although I could see the utility of it–I have occasionally seen them for sale in hospital gift shops. Shuffling cards by hand can be a painful proposition for someone with arthritis.
Now, my late grandfather had something very cool–a hand-cranked card shuffler. It, too, lightly mangled the cards…but, still, how cool is that?
We have an automatic card shuffler but don’t use it very often. It’s really only good if you’re playing a game that requires more than one deck of cards. If you’re only using one deck, just shuffle by hand because those automatic shufflers are loud!! Ours is battery operated (AA’s I think) and it works fine… doesn’t mangle the cards or anything.
Ah, I think I should have mentioned…the cards only get mangled a little if the gears are out of sync. So, really, they should be OK.
Personally, if I had Unlimited Wealth, I would want one of those shufflers that they use in casinos. Those things can shuffle eight decks of cards without making a sound.
I definitely don’t want the cards to get mangeled. I already go thruogh a pack almost every week, sometimes I manage to get two weeks out of them.
It would be really nice for our large tournaments as well as a small game. We could have alternating decks ready to go. I understand that sometimes you need to put the deck through more than once.
Well, the things are under 20 bucks for the ones with "C"s, so maybe I’ll take a stab at it.