Just like ordinary playing cards, except these have a thin, pre-printed film. Each layer is guaranteed to be a randomly shuffled full deck (i.e. 52 cards + 2 Jokers).
The first time a card is dealt (or picked up); the recipient must peal-off the next sheet to reveal the card to be played. (At the end of play, a pile of films / and clashing cards provide proof of fairplay.)
If a card pealed reveals a Joker, say, and Jokers aren't in play, the card is simply discarded, and a new card dealt/picked up.-- Dub, Jan 19 2011 Magic Erasable Whiteboard A1 25 sheets White http://www.ryman.co...1-25-sheets/ProductA a dry-wipe marker whiteboard on any wall. Static-cling sheets [Dub, Jan 19 2011] Best Riffle Shuffle-based idea *Ever* Bread_20and_20Chees...20Shuffle_20MachineSorry. [Jinbish, Jan 19 2011] Riffle Shuffle maths http://mathworld.wo.../RiffleShuffle.html [Jinbish, Jan 19 2011] So hold on - let me restate this differently to make sure I've got it - so there's a pack of cards, all wrapped up and sealed, like a normal pack of cards. This pack of cards is even ordered* (see next bit) like a normal pack of cards.
BUT
Each card is normal, in that it has a suit and a value (or is a joker etc) it's just that in addition to this base-value, it also has a peel-offable film covering its base-value with a (pseudo)randomly printed "face" value. The order of these face values is ordered randomly in the pack - (and here's where I get confused) or is it the other way around?
Or, is the film blank, not giving away the details of the card underneath? In which case, how can you check, before playing, whether your pack contains all the cards?
If the peelable film does contain a suit/value, then maybe each pack could have multiple film layers, allowing for multiple peals-per-card? Not sure that helps though - it might make for a profitable way to sell playing cards (as the films are peeled off, the cards have a limited number of 'goes' before someone has to go and buy another pack)
Also, a Quite Interesting fact - Did you know that if you riffle-shuffle a pack of cards *exactly* (i.e. do the riffle shuffle perfectly) eight times, they will reorder themselves back into the same order they were in at the beginning?-- zen_tom, Jan 19 2011 In my mind's eye, Top Layer - (Layer 1), say, might contain a normal deck of cards in a normal Ace-King of Spades, Clubs, Hearts, Diamonds sequence - so that they could be used in exactly the normal way - i.e. you'd have to shuffle them by hand. The next layer (Layer 2) might contain another complete set *but* in random order (i.e. what was Ace Clubs becomes 8 Hearts, what was thr duce of clubs is the 7 Spades, say).The key is that at any given time, the cards in play all have the same layer-n showing. I imagined the layers would be of a similar material to the static-cling whiteboard sheets you can get{linky}. So the entire sheet (opaque), with card suit, and number is replaced for each layer. Re: QI, No. But I would have said 6 times.(2^6=64>54)-- Dub, Jan 19 2011 Hmmm, you may be right - will have to double check on that - I have a java simulation of a pack of cards that does different types of shuffling, will run that scenario and get back to you!-- zen_tom, Jan 19 2011 //But I would have said 6 times.(2^6=64>54)// Seems to me that the first perfect shuffle (if the cards are labeled 1 to 52), would be 1, 27, 2...and then the job is just to calculate how long card 27 takes to get back in position 27. Using X's to fill in for other cards-- (1) 1, 27 [position 2] (2) 1, X, 27 [3] (3) 1, X, X, X, 27 [5] (4) 1, 7X, 27 [9] (5) 1, 15X, 27 [17] (6) 1, 31X, 27 [33] Now card 27 is in the second half of the deck, in position 7, and thus ends up in position 14 of the full deck on the next shuffle-- (7) 1, 12X, 27 [14] Now it's back in the first half so that-- (8) 1, 25X, 27 [27] So we're back with the original sequence, so long as we start with 52 cards. If we start with 54 (2 jokers), then it works the same way until shuffle 7, which puts card 28 in position 6 of the second half of the deck-- (7) 1, 10X, 28 [12] (8) 1, 21X, 28 [23] And it doesn't work. Card 28 is in position 23.-- ldischler, Jan 19 2011 A deck of 52 cards is returned to order after 8 perfect riffle out-shuffles or 52 perfect in-shuffles.-- Jinbish, Jan 19 2011 Also, if you shuffle completely terribly 8 times in a row (or any even number of times), the pack is returned to its original order.-- phundug, Jan 19 2011 //I have a java simulation of a pack of cards that does different types of shuffling//
Here's the output from JavaCardsConsole (JCCON) a sort of text adventure for people who want all the excitement of playing cards with themselves in a command-line environment. It's a bit buggy in places, but produced the following results...
JCCON> show hands ReturnMessage:Dealer'sHand S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 S9 ST SJ SQ SK D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 D9 DT DJ DQ DK C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 CT CJ CQ CK H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 H9 HQ HK JCCON> dealer shuffle dealer'shand S1 C1 S2 C2 S3 C3 S4 C4 S5 C5 S6 C6 S7 C7 S8 C8 S9 C9 ST CT SJ CJ SQ CQ SK CK D1 H1 D2 H2 D3 H3 D4 H4 D5 H5 D6 H6 D7 H7 D8 H8 D9 H9 DT HT DJ HJ DK HK JCCON> dealer shuffle dealer'shand S1 D1 C1 H1 S2 D2 C2 H2 S3 D3 C3 H3 S4 D4 C4 H4 S5 D5 C5 H5 S6 D6 C6 H6 S7 D7 C7 H7 S8 D8 C8 H8 S9 D9 C9 H9 ST DT CT HT SJ DJ CJ HJ SQ DQ CQ HQ CK HK JCCON> dealer shuffle dealer'shand S1 C7 D1 H7 C1 S8 H1 D8 S2 C8 D2 H8 C2 S9 H2 D9 S3 C9 D3 H9 C3 ST H3 DT S4 CT D4 HT C4 SJ H4 DJ S5 CJ D5 HJ C5 SQ H5 DQ S6 CQ D6 HQ C6 SK H6 DK D7 HK JCCON> dealer shuffle dealer'shand S1 D4 C7 HT D1 C4 H7 SJ C1 H4 S8 DJ H1 S5 D8 CJ S2 D5 C8 HJ D2 C5 H8 SQ C2 H5 S9 DQ H2 S6 D9 CQ S3 D6 C9 HQ D3 C6 H9 SK C3 H6 ST DK H3 S7 DT CK CT HK JCCON> dealer shuffle dealer'shand S1 S9 D4 DQ C7 H2 HT S6 D1 D9 C4 CQ H7 S3 SJ D6 C1 C9 H4 HQ S8 D3 DJ C6 H1 H9 S5 SK D8 C3 CJ H6 S2 ST D5 DK C8 H3 HJ S7 D2 DT C5 CK H8 S4 SQ D7 H5 HK JCCON> dealer shuffle dealer'shand S1 S5 S9 SK D4 D8 DQ C3 C7 CJ H2 H6 HT S2 S6 ST D1 D5 D9 DK C4 C8 CQ H3 H7 HJ S3 S7 SJ D2 D6 DT C1 C5 C9 CK H4 H8 HQ S4 S8 SQ D3 D7 DJ C2 C6 CT H9 HK JCCON> dealer shuffle dealer'shand S1 S3 S5 S7 S9 SJ SK D2 D4 D6 D8 DT DQ C1 C3 C5 C7 C9 CJ CK H2 H4 H6 H8 HT HQ S2 S4 S6 S8 ST SQ D1 D3 D5 D7 D9 DJ DK C2 C4 C6 C8 CT CQ H1 H3 H5 HJ HK JCCON> dealer shuffle dealer'shand S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 S9 ST SJ SQ SK D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 D9 DT DJ DQ DK C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 CT CJ CQ CK H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 H9 HQ HK JCCON>
I never realised before, but it always leaves the Ace of Spades (S1) as the first card, presumably this is the difference between an in-shuffle, or an out-shuffle. I guess from this that one should alternate between in and out-shuffles when trying to mix things up - but not tried that one out before.-- zen_tom, Jan 19 2011 //presumably this is the difference between an in-shuffle, or an out-shuffle// That's right.-- Jinbish, Jan 19 2011 I just love this place! Just an odd thought on a full moon, and this is what I get! Magic!-- Dub, Jan 20 2011 [zen] - your Java shuffle would work better if combined with a random 'cut' before the shuffle wouldn't it?-- hippo, Jan 20 2011 Yes, it would - and for proper card games, it does just that - the riffleCombine method works by splitting the pack into two ordered stacks of cards and riffleCombining them to merge them back into a single ordered stack. How you form the two stacks can either be done by doing a perfect cut operation on an exact half-and-half basis, or by performing an unbalanced cut - at some random point in the pack.
There is a third shuffling method implemented which is to perform a series of random cuts, over and over again, the way my Granny does.
Thinking about it, I wonder if it's (humanly) possible to do a 3-riffle, where three stacks of cards are interleaved (interpolated?) 123123123 - and then further out into a n-riffles, what is the biggest number, n of sub-packs that can be riffle-combined into a single, shuffled pack?
On the idea of peel-off card-fronts/backs - this innovation could be good within some of those specialised games - like Pokemon or Magic (The Gathering) for example, where each card represents a monster, or action and is owned and collected by the player, it might be cool to be able to perform a one-way action on your cards, providing a pay-off dilemma that would be otherwise difficult to provide using gameplay rules.-- zen_tom, Jan 20 2011 //what is the biggest number, n of sub-packs that can be riffle-combined into a single, shuffled pack?// 54-- pocmloc, Jan 20 2011 You really have too much time on your hands.-- RayfordSteele, Jan 20 2011 random, halfbakery