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In this expository article, we highlight the direct connection between card shuffling and the functions known as $P$-partitions that come from algebraic combinatorics. While many (but not all) of the results we discuss are known, we give a…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-04-28 Jason Fulman , T. Kyle Petersen

Consider the following method of card shuffling. Start with a deck of $N$ cards numbered 1 through N. Fix a parameter $p$ between 0 and 1. In this model a ``shuffle'' consists of uniformly selecting a pair of adjacent cards and then…

Probability · Mathematics 2007-05-23 Itai Benjamini , Noam Berger , Christopher Hoffman , Elchanan Mossel

In each step of the overlapping cycles shuffle on $n$ cards, a fair coin is flipped which determines whether the $m$th card or the $n$th card is moved to the top of the deck. Angel, Peres, and Wilson showed the following interesting fact:…

Probability · Mathematics 2024-04-09 Olena Blumberg , Ben Morris , Hans Oberschelp

Various card tricks involve under-down dealing, where alternatively one card is placed under the deck and the next card is dealt. We study how the cards need to be prepared in the deck to be dealt in order. The order in which the $N$ cards…

In Texas hold'em, after an all-in bet is made and called before the flop, the turn, or the river, the two players sometimes agree to run it $n$ times, meaning that the remaining five, two, or one cards are dealt out not just once but $n$…

Probability · Mathematics 2024-09-20 Stewart N. Ethier

In the game of Scrabble, letter tiles are drawn uniformly at random from a bag. The variability of possible draws as the game progresses is a source of variation that makes it more likely for an inferior player to win a head-to-head match…

Applications · Statistics 2011-11-02 Andrew C. Thomas

The overhand shuffle is one of the ``real'' card shuffling methods in the sense that some people actually use it to mix a deck of cards. A mathematical model was constructed and analyzed by Pemantle [J. Theoret. Probab. 2 (1989) 37--49] who…

Probability · Mathematics 2007-05-23 Johan Jonasson

In card-based cryptography, a deck of physical cards is used to achieve secure computation. A shuffle, which randomly permutes a card-sequence along with some probability distribution, ensures the security of a card-based protocol. The…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2023-03-22 Kazumasa Shinagawa , Kengo Miyamoto

Consider a permutation $\sigma\in S_n$ as a deck of cards numbered from 1 to $n$ and laid out in a row, where $\sigma_j$ denotes the number of the card that is in the $j$-th position from the left.\rm\ We define two cyclic to random…

Probability · Mathematics 2012-04-11 Ross G. Pinsky

The Hummer Principle was born from the mind of Bob Hummer in 1946, which consists of performing card shuffles with an even number of cards while leaving some properties of the deck intact. In this document, we will present a generalization…

History and Overview · Mathematics 2023-12-14 Sergio Fernandez de soto Guerrero

In trick-taking card games, a two-step process of state sampling and evaluation is widely used to approximate move values. While the evaluation component is vital, the accuracy of move value estimates is also fundamentally linked to how…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2019-09-12 Christopher Solinas , Douglas Rebstock , Michael Buro

How many shuffles are needed to mix up a deck of cards? This question may be answered in the language of a random walk on the symmetric group, $S_{52}$. This generalises neatly to the study of random walks on finite groups, themselves a…

Probability · Mathematics 2015-04-22 J. P. McCarthy

In a well-shuffled deck of cards, what is the probability that somewhere in the deck there are adjacent cards of the same rank? What is the average number of adjacent matches? What is the probability distribution for the number of matches?…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-01-15 Kent E. Morrison

A deck of $n$ cards are shuffled by repeatedly taking off the top card, flipping it with probability $1/2$, and inserting it back into the deck at a random position. This process can be considered as a Markov chain on the group $B_n$ of…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-03-15 Fumihiko Nakano , Taizo Sadahiro , Tetsuya Sakurai

In this paper we study random orderings of the integers with a certain invariance property. We describe all such orders in a simple way. We define and represent random shuffles of a countable set of labels and then give an interpretation of…

Probability · Mathematics 2007-05-23 Saul Jacka , Jon Warren

The game of memory is played with a deck of n pairs of cards. The cards in each pair are identical. The deck is shuffled and the cards laid face down. A move consists of flipping over first one card then another. The cards are removed from…

Probability · Mathematics 2012-08-27 Daniel J. Velleman , Gregory S. Warrington

Inspired by a common technique for shuffling a deck of cards on a table without riffling, we formalize the pile shuffle and investigate its capabilities as a sorting device. Our study is novel in that we consider pile shuffle in three…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-06-03 Kyle B. Treleaven

We examine the complexity of the ``Texas Hold'em'' variant of poker from a topological perspective. We show that there exists a natural simplicial complex governing the multi-way winning probabilities between various hands, and that this…

Algebraic Topology · Mathematics 2025-10-14 Laurent Bartholdi , Roman Mikhailov

To keep card sorting with a lot of cards concise, a common strategy for gauging mental models involves presenting participants with fewer randomly selected cards instead of the full set. This is a decades-old practice, but its effects…

Human-Computer Interaction · Computer Science 2026-01-12 Eduard Kuric , Peter Demcak , Matus Krajcovic

Poker is a family of card games that includes many variations. We hypothesize that most poker games can be solved as a pattern matching problem, and propose creating a strong poker playing system based on a unified poker representation. Our…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2015-09-23 Nikolai Yakovenko , Liangliang Cao , Colin Raffel , James Fan