Cut
Once a deck of cards has been shuffled thoroughly by the dealer, the deck is handed out to a player, usually the one sitting to the dealer’s right, who then proceeds to cut the cards. After shuffling, the deck is placed in front of the player on the right who picks out a random number of cards off of the top of the deck, in one go.
The dealer takes the remaining cards and deals them out after squaring them; while the deck that was cut from the pack and kept aside, remains on the table, face down.
A variation of the cut, called the Scarne cut, was developed by John Scarne during the Second World War to prevent cheating dealers from stacking a deck beforehand. The cut involved picking out a middle section of the cards and then placing them on the top, and then cutting the cards in the normal manner thereby effectively cutting a middle portion of the deck.
There is a proper etiquette for making a cut that is followed in casinos and poker tables across the world. The process begins with the dealer shuffling the cards as required, and offering them to the player on the right to cut. The player follows the standard etiquettes and cuts more than 6 cards (at least) from the deck and places them closer to the player cutting the cards, than the original deck.
The dealer then goes onto place the pile closest to her/him, on top of the cut pile and then deals the cards out to the players.
Although it is not mandatory for dealers to cut the cards, if there is a request from one of the players to cut them, then the dealer has to oblige. In cases where the players are playing with a cut being a mandatory part of the game, the player designated to make a cut can refuse to do so and the cards will be dealt out without any changes to the deck.
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