Card Washing in Casinos
In card games, in order to make sure that the distribution of cards is as random as possible it is often necessary to shuffle the cards before dealing them. Popular casino card games like poker, blackjack, and solitaire all require that the cards be random. In group games, where players are pitted against one another in a test of both luck and skill -such as with Texas Hold'em poker- a dealer would normally shuffle the cards after every hand.
In a newly opened pack of cards, these cards are usually arranged in a particular sequence. With normal shuffling, it is still likely that the cards' sequence will be rearranged, but still remain consistent. One way to make sure that the cards in a deck are completely random when they are being dealt is to "wash" the cards. Card washing is a special shuffling technique where the croupier -or dealer- spreads out all of the cards face-down on the table, and then mixes them around with their hands using circular, "washing" or "wiping" motions. Afterwards, all of the cards are gathered, and then they are shuffled again, before they are dealt out to the players. There are a lot of different card games being played in casinos, and card washing is a common sight in these establishments.
In a game of poker, cards are "washed" after every hand and then shuffled again, using the more conventional shuffling techniques. In baccarat and blackjack, the cards are washed when a new deck is brought out. Shuffling is important because regardless of whether or not the card game in question is one of skill, there will always be the element of chance involved. This requires that the hand dealt for every player -or the cards that the gamer must draw- must be random. While it is true that a hand in a deck of cards can only have a limited number of permutations, there are enough of them so that accurately being able to make out just which one of those permutations a person might get would be virtually impossible to calculate without a computer.
In a game of Texas Hold'em, for example, while skill and sound decision-making can play a large part in whether or not a person wins in a game, would still be impossible to top even a beginner if they should happen to draw and use a hand that turns out to be a royal flush. Randomness always offers up the possibility for unlikely victory, and it is this possibility that often makes card games so exciting.
