TV: I will literally die if I don't get this off my chest. (Not literally.)

Nat Gertler recently (and by recently, I mean over three weeks ago; I'm a little slow on this one) posted the following on his fine TV blog, Nat's TV:

As I prepare for friends to gather here for a poker night, I am reminded of the worst advice I've seen on TV lately.

On Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, one of the Fab Five recommended that people holding a poker night keep a second deck pre-shuffled, so it's ready to play.

Trust me, any poker player willing to play with a "pre-shuffled" [deck] will be willing to let you hold his wallet, and will take your word for it that you aren't bluffing...

Since he doesn't have comments on his blog, I must respond here. No, really, I must. This bothers me so much, I feel an actual physical compulsion to reply.

Pre-shuffling doesn't mean someone brings a deck from home that he has carefully arranged in order to cheat with, and then deals a hand without letting anyone cut or otherwise touch the cards. Pre-shuffling is a very simple and expeditious practice that happens right at the table and continues all throughout the night.

You have two decks. Player one, the dealer, deals a game with deck one. Player two, who will be the dealer next, shuffles deck two during this game. When the game is over, player two (after player one cuts the deck) is instantly ready to deal a game with deck two, and deck one goes to player three to shuffle in preparation for the following game. Makes the games move much more efficiently, and it's all done right there at the table, so no one has to worry about cheating.

Possibly Nat already knows this, and was pretending not to, for the sake of a joke. In which case, that's a faulty comedy premise (as defined by Andy Kindler), and my objection stands.

Let me wrap up with a little friendly advice: Nat, if you play poker with people whom you actually believe would cheat, if only given the opportunity, then perhaps you should not play poker with those people anymore.