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The math of shuffling cards almost brought down an online poker empire

(www.scientificamerican.com)
97 points indigodaddy | 1 comments | 05 Sep 25 22:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.236s | source
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mmmpetrichor ◴[07 Sep 25 02:52 UTC] No.45154978[source]▶
This became a hot discussion issue in magic the gathering online (MTGO). I always felt my shuffles in MTGO felt different somehow than my offline paper shuffles. It's hard to know for sure when its all closed source. I know a lot of people were suspicious though.
replies(2): >>45155501 #>>45155564 #
Fezzik ◴[07 Sep 25 05:08 UTC] No.45155564[source]▶
MTGA uses a method called ‘smoothing’ for initial hand selection: https://mtgazone.com/mtg-arenas-opening-hand-algorithm-and-s...

I assume MTGO uses something similar and I swear I had a great analytical article bookmarked regarding MTGO shuffles but I can’t find it.

replies(1): >>45157433 #
1. malnourish ◴[07 Sep 25 12:02 UTC] No.45157433[source]▶
Modo uses FY and fits not smooth draws. Arena only smooths in best of 1 matches.