card handling

When I usually handle cards, my index is placed on the right side and not in front. I've fixed this, but it pops up consistently in moves like the pinky count, cardini (not sure if that's the right name) and top shot. Will this restrict me from improving and make my sleights sloppy? Is this...

In the many guides to breaking in a new deck of cards, they usually say that we should riffle shuffle the deck or faro shuffle the deck (amongst other shuffles, fans and other methods); but not both. What shuffle would you recommend? The pros of the riffle shuffle is that you can do it with a...