How to do the riffle shuffle (in the hands) with bridge ending

This is a great way to shuffle cards. While this shuffle looks impressive, it’s actually far easier than you might think. Yes, I’ll admit it does take some getting used to, but once you have a feel for the cards it’ll be second nature.

The Handling

1. The start position is this. The thumb of the left hand goes on the top edge. The middle and ring fingers support the bottom edge. The little finger can be placed on the back edge and the first finger can either go on the front edge or bent ontop of the deck to lend support.
2. The thumb now riffles have the deck away. The first finger can lend support here by bending in behind (i.e. on top of the deck).
3. The riffled packet can now fall onto the the middle and ring fingers of the right hand. The index finger of the right hand should come to the front edge and the little finger on the other edge.
4. Both packets should now be firmly gripped in the position shown. The use of the index and little fingers should lend support here.
5. The fingers are supporting the deck with the two thumbs on the top edge of the deck.
6. The hands are turned over whilst keeping a good grip of the cards. Because of the solid grip, the cards should not fall.
7. The thumbs now riffle the deck together. The thumbs should just move slowly up the edge of the cards. The cards will riffle together.
8. The solid grip of the cards supports them as they riffle together. Some people are in the habit of using their knee or a table. With a solid grip it isn’t necessary.
9. The cards should now shuffled together an inch or so. You can either push the two packets together and square up….or…
10. You can perform the cascade finish. Simply bend the cards whilst keeping your thumbs on the top. This will stop them from going everywhere.
11. Now just gently release the pressure from your thumbs and the cards should cascade.
12. Square up the deck and shuffle again if necessary.

Important Points / Tips

• Some people are in the habit of doing this against their knee or against the table. It is not really necessary to do that as long as you’ve got a good grip on the cards.
• If you’re having trouble getting the cards to shuffle together then just experiment with the distance between the cards and the position of your hands.
• You do not have to perform the cascade finish with this shuffle. You can just push the two packs together. However the cascade finish looks really nice and it’s the easiest part of the shuffle. It is basically self working.

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