A rule of thumb for riffle shuffling

Authors
Assaf, Sami Diaconis, Persi Soundararajan, K.
Citation
Assaf, Sami et al., A rule of thumb for riffle shuffling, Annals of applied probability , 21(1), 2011, pp. 843-875
Journal title
Annals of applied probability → ACNP
ISSN journal
10505164
Volume
21
Issue
1
Year of publication
2011
Pages
843 - 875
Database
ACNP
SICI code
Abstract
We study how many riffle shuffles are required to mix n cards if only certain features of the deck are of interest, for example, suits disregarded or only the colors of interest. For these features the number of shuffles drops from (3/2).log2.n to log2.n. We derive closed formulae and an asymptotic .rule of thumb. formula which is remarkably accurate.