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Faro Shuffle
The Faro Shuffle is a technique of shuffling in which every other card is perfectly interlaced that is easier to learn than it seems.
A perfect Faro Shuffle starts out with the magician splitting the deck into equal halves, holding one in each hand. The inner corners are pressed together until the built-up pressure forces them to spring together and interweave.
If the shuffle is done perfectly, each stack will contain 26 cards and there will be no two cards from the same packet next to each other. This means that if you separated the blacks cards from the reds, and shuffled them in a perfect faro, there would be no two cards of the same color next each other.
Eight perfect "Out Faro" Shuffles will return the deck to the same order in which it started. This seems impossible, but mathematics makes it work and create the illusion of a thoroughly shuffled when in fact nothing has been changed at all. And 52 perfect "In Faro" shuffles will return the deck to the same order in which it started.
There is a huge amount of literature in the magic world related to tricks with the Faro Shuffle. Some tricks require only one shuffle, such as Paul LePaul's "Gymnastic Aces" and Ken Krenzel's "Bullet Trick." Other tricks require several. Few require more than three or four. Alex Elmsley, Edward Marlo, Harry Lorayne, and Harry Riser are among those who have published a great deal of information and tricks using the Faro Shuffle.
