First, we've built a patented automated system that scrambles, shuffles and deals real decks of cards. We then create a video and data record capture of every deal that can be used to perform a third party post game audit. The results are then digitized and delivered through our proprietary reshuffling sequencer to deliver the scalability needed and dealt in an online environment. We can deliver as many hands of online poker that are currently being dealt today.
Do we need 10,000 machines? No. So how do we do it?
First let's examine what it means to have a random deck of cards...
If you meet with your friends to play some poker, you will first start with verifying that the deck of cards you are about to use contains all 52 cards, and is comprised of Ace through King in all four suits. Then you will turn the cards face down and perform a wash, (or scramble) of the cards to mix them up, followed by a shuffle, and finally a cut of the deck. Then you have a completely random deck of cards, no one knows the order of those cards, and now you are ready for a fair game of poker.
Follow me here...
Now let's say you have that 52 card random deck of cards in your hand, and laid them out face down on a glass table without revealing the values of the cards, but had a video camera under the table to record the values and their positions in order from 1 to 52. Then you resequenced the order of each card but remembered the original order they were in... Still with me?
Meaning for example, you took the 34th card in your originally shuffled "Master Deck" and put it in position 1 to start the creation of another deck. Then you took card number 45 from your original shuffled deck and placed it as number 2 in that second deck you started to create. Followed by the 41st card now holding position 3 in your new resequenced deck, and continued this until you have a completed deck of all 52 cards, but still did not know the face values of any of the cards...
OK, I'm sure you are scratching your head saying "huh"...but let me try to clarify...
So you started with a randomly shuffled deck of cards, and put them in completely different order from one of the 80 duovigintillion (link back to the explanation of 80 duovigintillion) and again, still never knowing the face value of the cards, and it all tracks back to the originally shuffled deck.
You can now reveal the face value of your master deck through the video and digital file, thus revealing the values of the "Child Deck" you've created. So you have one physical shuffle of a verified 52 card deck and one digital shuffle of that same deck.
Now here is where we use computers for what they are good at... computing.
As explained on the Why We Do It page, the total number of possible combinations of a deck of cards is a huge number. 52! (that's 52 factorial, or 52x51x50x49...), and as such, it is safe to bet that in the history of time since cards were invented in the 1500's, a deck of cards that have been randomly shuffled, has never been dealt the same way twice.
That being said, we take several thousand of the 80 duovigintillion possible combinations in our digital re-shuffler for each master deck physically shuffled deck in our Cut N Shuffle® system to create as many child decks as needed.
A couple of things worth noting. The master deck is never delivered to a table, only the digitally shuffled decks. No table is ever dealt two hands from the same Master Deck / set of Child Decks.
In order to replicate exactly what happens in a live poker environment, in addition to the cut function, the system employes the use of burn cards.
