Mini decks -- shuffling

I haven't used a mini deck before, but I'm considering getting one. My primary concern, other than my eyes crapping out on me, is shuffling.

Do you find that the small size of the cards creates any shuffling difficulties? How does it compare to shuffling poker size decks?

Thanks!

I prefer shuffling with minis!!.... in fact I will only buy minis these days as they are brilliant for GT's and taking out and about using in cafes and bars etc.

I'm a huge fan of minis because they're so tidy for large layouts or small spaces. I have no problems with shuffling because I just do a simple overhand shuffle which isn't much different for minis vs poker or bridge sizes. If you're a riffle shuffler, though, you'll probably have to adjust to something else!

kalliope said:

I'm a huge fan of minis because they're so tidy for large layouts or small spaces. I have no problems with shuffling because I just do a simple overhand shuffle which isn't much different for minis vs poker or bridge sizes. If you're a riffle shuffler, though, you'll probably have to adjust to something else!

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I have a lot of trouble with overhand shuffling, but not with riffling, for some reason.

So, riffling/bridging is difficult with minis?

Aster Breo said:

I have a lot of trouble with overhand shuffling, but not with riffling, for some reason.

So, riffling/bridging is difficult with minis?

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Well, depending on the card stock, their size may mean they don't have a lot of give to riffle smoothly. I don't know if bridging is even possible! The only time their very small size feels awkward to me is when I try manhandling them for riffling, but it may be because I'm not an expert at it. And cardstock really does matter.

But overhand is the one you have trouble with but you're a good riffler? Interesting! Are we talking about the same thing? My simple overhand is just picking up around half the deck and letting it fall in chunks onto the rest of the deck in your other cupped hand. I always think of it as requiring very little coordination in comparison! You don't have to use the thumb on the catching hand in a fancy way like some videos online show, and you don't have to go super fast.

Yeah, I know it's weird, but I'm really good at riffling and bridging (riffling: where you divide the deck in half, hold half in each hand, and flex the cards so they fan together really quickly; bridging: reversing the flex to arch the cards, then letting them sort of relax back together into a single pile again), but I struggle with overhand shuffling (as you described it). I can't seem to get the hang of holding the cards loosely enough so they don't fall in large chunks from my top hand into my bottom hand.

Might be because I learned the riffling method really young, and I thought it was cool, so that's what I practiced. ;-)

But I should probably learn overhand, anyway. And I can always riffle but not bridge.

You just sort of cup your hands, hunch up and think of doll's houses. That's what I do.

Doll's houses??

I am a riffler and don't find it hard to riffle the minis. Bridging is another story -- they are just too little for that but they slide together easily. I have been riffling and bridging since I was a kid so it didn't take me long to adjust to the minis.

I have past the age of reading without glasses and prefer the cards that are simple and without much scenery, like the Game of Hope, McLoughlin Mystic Cards of Fortune and a couple of others that have stark, easy to recognize symbols.