I've been into poker most of my life. When I was in my teens, about 14, my friend and I would occasionally get a few other people together to play dealer's choice poker with $.05 antes (we didn't play hold'em much back then). Anyway, for kicks we learned a few ways to do a false shuffle or deal from the bottom. Most the time either he would deal me a winner or I'd deal him a winner. Never once was anyone even sort of suspicious. Without a cut card dealing from the bottom is easy, even for a complete amature. I'd just collect the previous hand and arrange aces on the bottom of the deck then shuffle the deck without involving the few cards on the bottom, then do a false cut (split the deck, but then put the top portion back on the top). Then it was just a matter of dealing fast enough that the other players couldn't see that cards to my buddy were coming off the bottom of the deck.
During breaks we'd arrange the deck while the other players were away. Do a false shuffle, a false cut and deal out exactly the hand we wanted, the victim would have a flush or something and my buddy would get a full house, for example.
Anyway, based on my experience with that and how shockingly easy it was I'm all for taking the basic measures to prevent that type of cheating. A cut card is the simplest and most effective way, having one person shuffle and another person cut (by using one hand to pick up the top of the deck and place it on the cut card) is also essential to protect your game.