Shuffling too hard with extra small hands

Freyja of V

I have very small hands and I have a very difficult time shuffling tarot cards the size of, say, Druidcraft and even Nigel Jackson. I have tried many methods.

Insertion, which is good but not for the card edges. Monge does work but needs to be done a good number of times before you get a good mix and is time consuming. The push method is not easy for me, even holding the short side and because I cannot really control the number of cards I am pushing, it does not result in a thorough mix and I cannot do the riffle method just on the side/corners.

The only other one I really can do and mixes well, is the scrambling method. However, because I am still fairly new to reading (only for myself at this point), I would like to stay away from reversed cards until I have more practice. Therefore, I have resorted to riffling, which I prefer, with my Hanson-Roberts deck (which fits perfectly in my hands). I then pull the cards, place them in the correct spread positions and then switch the cards out with other decks, like the Druidcraft, so I may practice with that deck.

Is this so bad? It is only for myself. What do you think?
And does anyone have any other shuffling ideas for small hands?
Thank you!!
 

Emma313

I too have small hands and big cards, I just try a shuffle or two, give up, then mix them up and just pick, what's the difference? However you mix and pick? As long as you do a good one? IE mix and or pick
Is it written anywhere that your pick of cards is invalidated if you don't shuffle or mix "properly"!
 

Krakken

Freyja of V said:
I have very small hands and I have a very difficult time shuffling tarot cards the size of, say, Druidcraft and even Nigel Jackson. I have tried many methods.

Insertion, which is good but not for the card edges. Monge does work but needs to be done a good number of times before you get a good mix and is time consuming. The push method is not easy for me, even holding the short side and because I cannot really control the number of cards I am pushing, it does not result in a thorough mix and I cannot do the riffle method just on the side/corners.

The only other one I really can do and mixes well, is the scrambling method. However, because I am still fairly new to reading (only for myself at this point), I would like to stay away from reversed cards until I have more practice. Therefore, I have resorted to riffling, which I prefer, with my Hanson-Roberts deck (which fits perfectly in my hands). I then pull the cards, place them in the correct spread positions and then switch the cards out with other decks, like the Druidcraft, so I may practice with that deck.

Is this so bad? It is only for myself. What do you think?
And does anyone have any other shuffling ideas for small hands?
Thank you!!
Click to expand...


Do 3 piles ... pick one and do 3 more, and so on. I do this when i feel my deck "caothic".
 

The Happy Squirrel

I have small hands too. With large cards I either drop-shuffle them by their shorter side. Or, split them in two piles and drop cards alternately sometimes I only manage to do so on the one corner because I don't read reversals so they all have to be the right way up and this is the only way that can work for me :)
 

toober

I'll agree with the shuffle of smaller piles. The insertion doesn't harm the edges if the cards are sleeved.
 

Yelell

For my giant deck, which I also want to avoid reversals with, this is what I do: I cut the cards and take maybe 6 cards off the top, placing them on the table to start piles. I cut the cards again, place several cards randomly on the piles, cut somewhere again, and keep going until I run out of cards. Then I just stack the piles up however.
 

nisaba

Freyja of V said:
Is this so bad? It is only for myself. What do you think?
And does anyone have any other shuffling ideas for small hands?
Thank you!!
Click to expand...

I have tiny hands and stumpy little fingers. And I use decks *much* bigger than the Druidcraft, a number of the Viscontis.

I do overhand shuffling, but instead of holding the deck by the top and bottom, I hold it by the sides, and use a longer, slower arm-motion.

In fact, I do that with every deck except the minis.
 

LindaMechele

Have you tried the faro shuffle? It does the same thing as riffle shuffling, but you hold the cards differently, and I think it might work better for smaller hands. It takes some practice ... okay, a lot of practice ... but it shuffles them quickly.
 

Freyja of V

Emma313 said:
I too have small hands and big cards, I just try a shuffle or two, give up, then mix them up and just pick, what's the difference? However you mix and pick? As long as you do a good one? IE mix and or pick
Is it written anywhere that your pick of cards is invalidated if you don't shuffle or mix "properly"!
Click to expand...

No, it's not invalidated. However, the difference is, when I am first shuffling cards that were in order from Major to Minor, shuffling and getting a good mix can be challenging. After that, I don't mind the mix I get. Thanks for your post
 

Freyja of V

Thank you all

Thank you for your shuffling ideas.

What do any of you think about what I said about shuffling with one deck and then after I pull the cards for a reading, I then switch them out with the equivalent cards from other decks. So I can practice with other decks. Would this be considered a no, no?
 
Im not sure how my tarot deck feels about me.... "Accurate" "experienced" readers