POKER LIFESTYLE

Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Buy an Automatic Shuffler for Your Home Game

Whether you’re hosting a poker home game for a bunch of friends or have a more professional approach where you charge rake, you want things to be as good as they can be. It’s important for people to feel happy and comfortable, so they keep coming back and the game continues.

Now, if you’ve ever tried running a home game, you probably know that it’s much harder than it seems. Someone will always complain about something, be it cards you use, chips in play, or the fact there is (or isn’t) smoking allowed.

It’s pretty much impossible to meet everyone’s demands and expectations, but there are always things you can improve. One idea that’s likely to improve the overall experience for your players is getting an automatic card shuffler.

It’s one of the simplest and fastest ways to take your home game to a whole new level and once you introduce the automatic shuffler, you’ll never want to go back. With that said, if you’re not really sold on the idea and don’t want to take my word for it, here’s a list of 10 reasons that I believe will probably change your mind.

ST1000 Shuffler Shuffle Tech

1. It’s Better Than Having a Dealer (No Tips Required)

While most home games tend to be self-dealt, if your home game features a designated dealer, you probably have to pay them in some way. Whether it’s an amount of money agreed upon beforehand or they get to keep the tips (usually a mix of both), it’s money out of your and other players’ pockets.

An automatic shuffler does the most tedious part of the dealing, which is shuffling cards. You’ll still need to have someone to handle the other stuff (dealing cards out, picking up chips, etc.), but with an automatic shuffler in place, this becomes much easier.

2. The Price Is More Affordable Than You Might Think

Most people never consider buying an automatic shuffler for their game because they think these machines are way too expensive. If you run a small weekly Hold’em game, you don’t want to spend a few grand on something, no matter the benefits.

The truth is, you can get a very simple card shuffler for as little as $15. Of course, the machines in this price range probably won’t cut it as they’re not very good.

But for a slightly larger investment, you can get a very decent automatic shuffler that will more than do the trick for your home game. Spending what amounts to not a huge sum of money will end up paying off handsomely over time.

3. You and Your Poker Buddies Can All Chip In

If it’s a friendly home game where no one is making profit from organizing the games, then you can all chip in for a shuffler and get a really nice model without anyone taking too much of a financial hurt in the process.

Since these machines are highly portable, you can easily rotate them between different hosts and always have a shuffling machine available, regardless of who’s hosting the game.

4. Speedier Transition Between Hands (More Hands Per Hour)

One of the most annoying things in a home game is the time spent waiting between hands. This is especially true later in the session as some players just want to move things along and get the next hand dealt.

With a card shuffler, you’re going to significantly cut down the waiting time between hands as there will always be a shuffled deck ready to be dealt out. As soon as one pot is over, a new hand can begin, while the shuffler does the work in the background, preparing things for the next hand.

5. It Will Take Your Home Game to the Next Level

If you’ve been running a home game for some time now, you and your buddies have probably invested some money into decent quality playing cards and nice chips. The experience matters, and the experience is much better when you get proper chips and cards instead of cheap stuff.

Introducing an automatic card shuffler will take things to a whole new level. It will help create a casino- or cardroom-like experience that everyone’s going to enjoy. This will help the game last for months and even years to come as players will keep coming back, plus it’s a great “tool” for recruiting new players into the game if/when needed.

6. A Card Shuffler Ensures There’s No Funny Business

If your home game consists of a bunch of friends who have known each other for years, there are probably no trust issues. But if you have new players coming in every now and again, they might be worried about getting cheated. You and your friends might be great pals, but the matter of fact is that some private games are rigged and ran by scammers and newcomers will want assurance that everything is above board.

The presence of an automatic shuffler helps do away with most of these concerns. Since it’s the machine doing all the shuffling, new players don’t have to worry about any funny business. Since none of the players are shuffling the cards, they can’t stack the deck.

7. It’s a Long-term Investment

Even if you spend a few hundred on a good, sturdy automatic shuffler, you should look at it as an investment. You probably plan to keep on playing poker for a long time to come, and a good machine will serve you well for years. With every new session you play, you’re getting additional return on your investment as games are more enjoyable and you get to see more hands every time you play.

8. It Doesn’t Exhaust One Guy Doing All the Shuffling

If you don’t have a designated dealer, someone will have to do the hard work, i.e., shuffle the cards. You can either have one or two guys do it all the night, which isn’t all the fun to do, or you’ll have to rotate the deck between the players every few hands.

Either way, it’s a bit of a mess and reduces precious poker time. Since everyone came to play, the time wasted shuffling can become a real nuisance. An automatic shuffler will completely remove this problem the moment you put it to work.

9.  It’s Uniquely Satisfying to See a Precision Machine at Work

While not everyone will feel this way, to me it’s really satisfying to watch the precision machine do the work of shuffling the cards, getting them ready for the next hand. It’s almost mesmerizing, and if you feel this way, you’re going to enjoy the games featuring an automatic shuffler so much more.

10. We’re Giving You an Exclusive Discount on a ShuffleTech Machine

If this list has made you realize what you’ve been missing out on and why you do need an automatic shuffler for your home game, we have some great news. Cardplayer Lifestyle gives you a special, exclusive discount on a ShuffleTech machine. Be in touch for details.

Thanks to this deal, you can get a top-quality automatic shuffler much cheaper and give your home game the kind of upgrade you and your friends need and deserve!

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Written By.

Robbie Strazynski

Robbie founded Cardplayerlifestyle.com in 2009. A veteran member of the poker media corps, in addition to writing and video presenting, Robbie has hosted multiple poker podcasts over the years, including Top Pair, the Red Chip Poker Podcast, The Orbit, and the CardsChat Podcast. In 2019, Robbie translated the autobiography of Poker Hall of Famer Eli […]

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