Thanks for reminding me that I wanted to buy a deck of playing cards. Since I'm super lazy I just placed an order on amazon. Should have them at my door (free Amazon prime for students!) on Tuesday. Hooray internet.
http://www.amazon.ca/Bicycle-1020181-Deck-Guardians/dp/B001J1KJBO
I know you said practice aside, but really that's the only way you're going to be able to do it.
Additionally the quality of the decks makes a big difference in the way the cards handle. Higher quality cards are made from heavier paper which will require more force to tear. The difference between these, and a 50 cent pack from the dollar store is going to be very noticeable.
Finally cards require some break in before they riffle easily. If it's a new deck you're working with try this. Palm the whole deck and alternate gentle flexing both concave and convex. You'll find the more you do this the easier they will be to bend. The riffle requires a bend in the cards to make them shorter before they are brought together, and then they expand together when they flatten out. Therefore the easier you can bend the easier you can get your riffle set up, executed, and hear that awesome sound.
They gotta be clean af. Take These cards for example. They got a white border, and that is almost always ugly