Marlo's riffle shuffle systems and best wishes for 2016
My later days of 2015 were spent re-reading Marlo's riffle shuffle systems.
Riffle work is normally associated with card cheating such as complex stacking procedures which are impossible to perform successfully without hefty and constant practice. Table workers can benefit immensely from riffle shuffle techniques but, for some reason, overhand shuffle procedures are normally preferred.
Common sense dictates that performers should use the same shuffling style for the sake of consistency. However, hindu, overhand and tabled shuffles are used indiscriminately so it is not rare to see all these different techniques used in the same effect for no particular reason. I think that the logic behind these mix and match shuffling choices is at least argueable.
Marlo's work shows the vast possibilities of riffle shuffle methods. Table workers would not find too difficult to remove all overhand/hindu shuffles and rely only on the riffle shuffle. In addition, Marlo demonstrates that strip outs combined with the top, middle and bottom transfers can create miracles. These techniques do not disturb the order of the deck they could put into great use be mnemonic deck practitioners (a job title I have just made up).
Marlo also describes an interesting method for culling/stacking cards using the strip out. Interestingly, Ernest Earick uses the same underlying idea in "The Case of the Inconstant Player" (although using zarrow shuffles) to adjust a five player stack if up to 3 players leave or 2 arrive - a problem that was already raised by Karl Fulves in "The Restacking Problem".
My best wishes for 2016. Another year is gone but an exciting new year lies ahead of us.