Monday, January 3, 2011

How to Shuffle for a Team Game

I feel a need to reiterate one of my pet peeves. When boards are made and have yet to be played, they should be placed right-side up, not upside-down. Many boards allow you to see the bottom card (or at least part of it) when it is turned over. You may not see this as a bad thing but I may happen to remember that east has a red face card on board 13 or something like that. In a pair game, I don't mind as much when people turn the played boards upside-down, but it still doesn't make sense to do that because it's really easier to just put the top one on the bottom - they stay in order and stay and nearly stacked (the boards with interlocking notches don't stack well when some are upside down). I mean, it's not like you need that to remember which boards you've played.

The ACBL has no set procedure for how to shuffle before a team match but I suggest the following:

The first person to take a board to shuffle for a swiss team match or KO match shall turn all boards upside down or turn a card up in all of the boards.
Starting with the highest numbered board, shuffle the cards 7 times and deal them in a circular manner (don't go side to side so that the end hands always get 2 cards in a row).
Place the dealer's cards (the hand with the last card dealt) in the dealer position on the highest numbered board that is empty
Place the board face up on the table mat
If you have the last board (the lowest numbered board and therefor the first board to be played), hand the cards directly to the players.

Thank you for your cooperation.

1 comment:

  1. It seems to me that you are being fastidious about the trivial.

    ReplyDelete