[bav]

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I had been under the impression that once the dealer starts to shuffle, the hand has started. In another post, a poster said I was in error.

1) Is he right?
2) If that is the case, then if a player asks for a deck change during a shuffle, there is no reason for the dealer not to do so immediately. Bummer.

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Hopefully no dealer on the planet will accede to a request to change the deck and hold up the game once they've started shuffling. That's just common sense. Hopefully the dealer will not hold up the game while waiting for a new deck to arrive after a player asks for a deck change at any time. You say you want a new setup, fine, if the house allows it the dealer can call for it and by golly they should keep right on mixing and shuffling and dealing--don't hold the game up waiting for a setup. I don't think you need a definition of when a hand begins to deal with this, it's just setting policies on when setups can be requested and how the dealers do it.