Shuffling Cards and Stopping Times
David Aldous, Persi W. Diaconis · American Mathematical Monthly · 1986
1. Introduction. How many times must a deck of cards be shuffled until it is close to random? There is an elementary technique which often yields sharp estimates in such problems. The method is best understood through a simple example. EXAMPLE1. Top in at random shuffle. Consider the following method of mixing a deck of cards: the top card is removed and inserted into the deck at a random position. This procedure is