[helene_t]

For clumsy people like me who can't riffle, a lot can be gained by dealing in a better way. The traditional
S-W-N-E-
S-W-N-E-
S-W-N-E-
etc
is almost the worst possible way of dealing (arguably SSSSSSSSSSSSS-WWWWWWWWWWWWW-NN.. is worse).

I did some simulations similarly to what Gerben describes. In 20000 hands, I got 2148 4333-hands by honest shuffling. Using the traditional dealing method and starting with SHDCSHDCSHDC... sorted cards, I got, for (1,2,3... riffles)
313 738 1162 1462 1731 1760 1900 1937 1988 2070
4333-hand. Using the 5-pile-method, I got
1592 1640 1682 1744 1884 1940 1942 1989 2048 2001

If instead I started with cards sorted by suit, I got
10772 6765 4960 4234 3463 3187 2920 2700 2735 2500
and
8088 5112 4021 3506 3088 2839 2742 2517 2478 2458

The 5-pile method has a serious flaw, namely that the convergence rate differs between the four hands. There are some other dealing methods that give even better convergence and which don't have that problem.

Of course, in real life the statistics are much less skewed than these numbers suggest because one doesn't start sorted cards.

[barmar]

mrdct, on Feb 18 2008, 04:26 AM, said:

I'm finding it hard to believe that any remotely serious bridge is played with hand-dealt boards in this day and age.

Believe it. In the US, most club games are hand-dealt. And team games at tournaments are hand-dealt, except for the late rounds of national events.

How large national team games in Australia? At our regional and national tournaments, there can easily be 100-200 tables in team games. Do they pre-duplicate boards for all of them?

[Cascade]

I played in the Summer Festival of Bridge in January in Canberra, Australia.

There were 14 rounds of 20 boards in the Swiss qualifying with around 200 teams playing at two different venues.

All boards were predealt.

In the past there have been more teams. The Gold Coast Congress next week may well be bigger in terms of number of teams but is a shorter event. They will have predealt boards.

It takes me about 10 minutes to deal a set of 24-26 boards with a dealing machine. Maybe the full time dealers for these big events deal even more quickly.

At the Summer Festival they share 20 boards between six tables. But it is possible to share twelve boards between six tables - I played an event at the weekend that did exactly that.

At these rates there doesnt seem to be a good reason why predealt cards are not always available at any decent event.

[helene_t]

We use hand dealt cards at the club. We do have bridgemates though so that we get detailed, personalized score sheets instantly.

In the Netherlands, most pairs tournaments use computer dealt cards, even more social things like the "kroegetochten" (pub races?) where you play four boards in each of six-seven pubs.