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Drey
Straight Flush
Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 696
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 Gift of secrets! |
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These forums seem horribly dead lately and I've decided to give away a whole pile of secrets, maybe it will raise them from the dead, and maybe it will benefit someone, enjoy!
Some of this material may not make a lot of sense since it isn't presented in light of complex background theory, you're welcome to ask questions, but hopefully they won't be necessary, I'll include a huge range of material, sadly without photographs, of most of the best techniques available.
Overhand Shuffle Breaks
In order to increase deceptiveness, I played around with a lot of variatons, breaks, jogs, steps, patterns, steals, drops etc. for overhand shuffles. By changing to an unconventional technique you're able to avoid detection by those who are familiar with the old techniques.
Here are a few of them...
- Direct forefinger (left hand) break during an overhand shuffle as an alternative to a jog
- Direct pinky (left hand) break during an overhand shuffle
- Direct middle or ring finger (left hand) break during an overhand shuffle
You can also combine various breaks in order to provide greater control (hold multiple breaks more effectively).
- Overhand shuffle pinky break as described in “Forcing Elegance” under “Overhand Timing Force”, this method can also be used for performing packet-pick-ups
- Right hand forefinger break (tip of the forefinger and also base of the forefinger)
You can combine the three methods of performing overhand shuffle breaks to great effect.
Some other thoughts:
- Marlo break and jog refinements (see Marlo Magazine Volume 6)
- Marlo Snap crimp (Marlo Magazine Volume 6)
- Count’s methods of inserting a crimp during overhand shuffling (crimp corner) (You can do this by jogging slightly and then pinching either in a downward motion of the right hand or with the left hand forefinger or pinky depending on a front or back jog)
- Count’s methods for performing angle jogs during a shuffle and along with pick-ups onto the back of the deck
- Overhand shuffle control, holding a break and returning cards to the center of the deck (break) during the shuffle (try jogging a card, then using the left pinky to pivot it away from the packet and directing it into the break)
- Center dropping, dropping packets from the center of the deck during an overhand shuffle (also, momentarily back jog the top/forward jog the bottom and peel cards directly from the center via the step)
- Count’s overhand faro alternative (undercut on every card)
- No breaks (uses a jog instead) packet pick-up for a Hindu shuffle and possibly an overhand shuffle…use the concept from the cancellation shuffle)
Blind Block Shuffling
For an explanation of what a block shuffle is and what blind shuffles are see "Inquisition of Shuffling and Dealing":
Broken Mirror shuffle
- Cut a center portion out of the deck and maintain a jog, break or step between the top and bottom portions. Shuffle off the center cut out in a predictable manner so you’ll be able to reverse it. Jog the first card when you do so. Now pick up all the cards above the bottom packet and maintain a break between the middle packet and top packet. Shuffle off the middle section, reversing it back and toss the top section on top. Alternatively, pick up all three sections and maintain two breaks, shuffle off the middle section, toss the top section on top and then toss the bottom section on the bottom.
Cycled Mirror Shuffle
- Remove the bottom half of the deck and shuffle it onto the top half in a predictable manner (for example, 2, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2 etc.) so you know how you’ve changed. Be sure you jog the first card. Pick up the bottom half and repeat the process. Now, shuffle off the top half, reversing the former action and toss the bottom half on top. Pick up the whole deck and shuffle off the top half, reversing the action involved, then toss the remaining half on top
Table Circulation shuffle
- Effectively an up the ladder cut with slightly more elegance
Bottom deal style Hindu shuffle
- This is one of my favorites, it looks like a tabled Hindu shuffle but the hands cover as you rapidly pull the packets from the bottom rather than the top and blend the action effectively into a highly deceptive action and flows logically as in a traditional stripping of the deck following a riffle shuffle.
- Hindu shuffling, maintain top and bottom stock by pulling off the whole bottom packet under cover of the top pack, maintaining a break and perform a packet pick-up to maintain the top stock. Consider a blind shuffle by performing continual packet pick-ups.
- Hindu Mirror shuffle by drawing off packets of four cards
- Depth illusion Hindu shuffle (where you only ever take the top card and only cycle the top few, but this is concealed by the fast action, the angles and the shadows created by proper handling)
Weave Shuffling
- Ribbon Spread Weave shuffle (for spectators who can’t riffle shuffle, it accomplishes the same effect, Paul Curry idea as far as I know)
Universal Shuffle (a method of riffle shuffling that facilitates all your shuffling, false shuffling, culling, and stacking actions without any changes in technique)
- Weave together only corners of the deck with the packets at roughly a ninety degree angle to one another
- Cover the front side as you push the packets together so blocks due to a Zarrow, or large blocks from blocking off or stacking don’t show
- Hand positions cover the front corners initially allowing for a Zarrow re-weave
- Hand positions are consistent with a strip-out shuffle
- Angled packets allow for simultaneous peeking on both sides as well as the feather peek and advance stacking
- Deck is never overly obstructed so as to seem concealed, but relevant points of potential concern are never exposed (ends of the deck, point at which the cards weave, areas where blocks might flash)
- Charlier Bridge Shuffle
- One-Handed Weave Shuffle Full Bridge
Weave Shuffle Controls
These are just a general outline of ideas to save space, I can expand on them I suppose.
Preserving only part of the deck
o Introducing Block Transfer
- Block Transfer was covered very briefly in “Inquisition of Shuffling and Dealing” in a very simple manner, with the principle of top card cover, it applies to both strip-out and Zarrow shuffles, it solves the problem with riffle shuffles where cards cannot move as they do in a overhand shuffle
o Block Transfer Top Stock control (Marlo)
§ Strip-out method
§ Zarrow method
o Block Transfer Bottom Stock control (Marlo)
§ Strip-out method
§ Zarrow method
o Simultaneous Top & Bottom Block Transfer and Control
§ Strip-out method
§ Zarrow method
o Block Transfer with top card slip cut
o Partial strip-outs (Marlo inspired)
- Preserving Half the Deck
§ Perform a half Zarrow to preserve only the bottom portion of the deck
§ Possibly perform a Zarrow spade shuffle or partial Zarrow spade shuffle for half deck preservation (begin this with “Refining the Spade shuffle, introducing, the Zarrow Spade shuffle”)
§ Idea of using a running cut with the final portion to avoid preserving the one half (see Marlo’s comments in “The Riffle Shuffle Systems”)
- Center Block Transfers
§ Strip-out method
§ Limitations of the Zarrow method
§ Applications of a center block transfer
§ Applications of the Zarrow method
o Complex Block Transfer Full suit control
§ Drop blocks 6-6-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4, then cut 22 cards down, drop blocks 6-4-6-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4, transfer every second packet to the other side, perform your strip-out and thereby retain an entire suit
- Controlling Cards as in an overhand shuffle with a riffle shuffle and block transfer
- In the hands riffle shuffle block transfer (Guy Hollingworth method, mention Byzantine shuffle as well)
Count’s Deceptive Block Transfer
- As per a top stock control, hold back a specific number of cards on the first shuffle, then possibly repeat the process burying the cards further. On the third shuffle, block off below the cards in question (say  , but allow a couple cards from the right hand packet above the block to weave with the top eight cards creating the illusion of a better shuffle and also covering the former top card with a card from the right side once again. Now perform a block transfer of all the cards above the block, thereby restoring the top stock.
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| Sat Aug 11, 2007 7:19 pm |
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Drey
Straight Flush
Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 696
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Blind Weave Shuffles
This is an outline of thoughts on the subject without complete description:
Treatise on strip-out shuffle
o Examine the purpose of the strip-out shuffle, the advantages, the uses, the disadvantages, and most importantly, the anatomy. First, the riffling action, then the push-through or other method of maintaining a jog, then the strip out action itself. Discuss the concept of making a shuffle convincing and the work the likes of Marlo went through to do so, then mention that really the only time you will ever need this is when working with magicians, since lay people don’t know about false shuffles and in a gambling situation if there’s any question about it, you shouldn’t do it.
o Also mention that the convincing shuffles, though convincing, tend not to be natural, they loose some of the casual approach.
o Brief size (technical limit is about a quarter of the border width, typically half the border width is about the way to go, which equates to a grip size of the full border width due to the fact that you have this width on each side)
o Get used to cutting the bottom to the left and do so regularly, that way, when you want to maintain the bottom stock, you cut the top to the left and use the regular pattern, but the consistency of the past makes this more deceptive. (In other words, they are used to seeing you riffle off the bottom of the right side first, because that is the top half, thus not preserving the bottom stock. When you change your cut, but you riffle off the right side first it makes the shuffle and bottom stock preservation more deceptive. You could also use Zarrow principles of unweaving to achieve the same thing more deceptively).
o Multiple shuffles in a row
- Strip-out Shuffle Ideas and Combinations
o Tips and instructions based on Riffle Shuffle System ideas
o When performing strip-out, learn the value of applying pressure to the edges in a horizontal rather than vertical manner
o Perform the strip-out in a level manner, keeping the packets parallel to decrease resistance (also to keep the “separated” nature of the cards from flaring)
o Moving both hands for better economy of motion
o Moving just one hand and not pinching with the stationary hand, merely using the fingers as posts
o Perform an uppercut rather than an undercut so the top block, as it is stripped out provides shadowing cover of the bottom packet, this also makes it easier because the block you’ll cut out is elevated and thus easier to grab
o Overlap the hands at the front during the beginning of the strip-out, don’t show any of the front edge
o Keep the strip-out tight, moving only as far forward as necessary so you don’t really expose any of the front side of the deck
o Keep the end of the deck tight up against the side of the finger that is stationary so there is no window to the back packet between the finger cover on the front and the cover afforded by the packet you’re stripping out
o Use the overlapping finger cover to almost complete the strip-out prior to revealing anything when separating for the next shuffle
o Strip-out at an angle into a right angle positioning allowing you to shift the finger cover and cover the action better
o Dropping a block of cards at both the bottom and top of the deck to make the strip-out appear more like a cut
o Lifting upwards on the front edge of the top packet as you perform the strip-out to create the illusion that there’s more depth blow the packet than there actually is and to compress divided cards into what is apparently a proper packet
o Simpler vs. the more deceptive riffling of cards (which cards you begin riffling off first to make the block easier to pick up, or to make the retention of the bottom cards seem less likely)
o Telescoping the packets together with half the deck forward jogged so you can clearly show the ends as square, then compressing to show the front square while controlling the packets.
o Angling the packet, and squaring along one side with your forefinger from the front to the back, while the right thumb forms a square, the left thumb runs along the back side from the right to the left, pulling through the cards, this all creates the illusion that you’ve genuinely squared the side
o Strip-out towards you (Richard Turner)
o The problem with a strip-out shuffle typically doesn’t occur while you are stripping the cards out if you block the packets reasonably well and maintain coherence, nor should the “collapse” be a problem as Marlo mentioned, rather, the height difference is the largest tip off, the bottom of the top packet is visibly lower than the top of the bottom packet
- Push back through for the strip-out
- Guy Hollingworth’s in the hands false shuffle (plus swivel cut strip-out)
- Invisible Strip-outs (Float Pass, Riffle Pass, Lateral Palm Shift, Pivot Passes, Gambler’s pass (and variants) etc.)
- Tabled Invisible Strip-outs
o Performing a Guy Hollingworth style broad side separation of cards during a cascade but on a table and using this concept as well as the archaic shuffle to examine invisible strip-outs
o Slug shuffle set up for palm steals and some replacements
- Delayed strip-outs
Treatise on Zarrow shuffle (See Gary Plants book for list of tip offs, especially cover the subject of lifting the one block, how it raises the cover card, how this is a tip off, and later, how to avoid it.) (multiple shuffles in a row)
- Further examination of the Zarrow shuffle
o Use forward canopy cover provided by riding block rather than jogging it back or using the top cover card or cards
o Avoid lifting the canopy card too much by holding the initial weave height, but letting the cards below the cover card fall, and maintaining the elevation of the riding block, by pulling up the bottom and compressing the packet so it fits into the natural hole
o Deceptive center cut out cutting too many cards right, then cutting the top portion back to balance the packs and maintaining a break
o Another center cut out alternative, perform a bottom retention pass of the desired block bringing it to the top or bottom and perform a fair cut
o Zarrow shuffle with tabled bridge as a throw off and convincer (See Bueno shuffle)
o Ideas for making the Zarrow shuffle look clean like a real shuffle, especially using finger cover (closed clean Zarrow)
o Open clean Zarrow (spider finger cover, with forefingers and middle fingers at point where the packets intersect)
o Perfect Zarrow (combining the open and closed, starting with the closed cover
o Mention Gary Plants work with the Zarrow shuffle
o Sleeper Zarrow shuffle (do the center cut out after the shuffle rather than before) (also examine using a triply cut to achieve the center cut out and thus appear more deceptive)
- Curry Shuffle (Spread the two packets and have them pushed together or push them together as per the Curry riffle shuffle simulation, but spread the second just barely on top of the first so they go together on top of each other instead of interlacing and it thus becomes a false shuffle)
- Real Green Shuffle plus the Count’s variations and refinements
- Heinstein False Shuffle
- Bueno Shuffle (Tabled Heinstein False Shuffle)
- One-Handed Blind shuffle with Strip-out
- Blind Charlier Bridge Shuffle
- Byzantine Shuffle (Ideal in the hands riffle shuffle)
o Objectives of the Byzantine shuffle: an in the hands false riffle shuffle using a cascade, without a strip-out, cascade must appear genuine unlike the “Real Green Shuffle” and “Heinstein Shuffle”
o Second concept Byzantine shuffle, in the hands riffle shuffle where the cards separate mostly as an exaggerated version of Guy Hollingworth’s in the hands riffle shuffle. As you push the cards together, you unweave all the cards below the top card and perform a broad side Zarrow push together thus avoiding a strip-out.
o First concept Byzantine shuffle, a further exaggerated version of the Guy Hollingworth move where the packets physically separate during the cascade.
- Shadow Shuffle
o One-handed shuffle, cards are pulled apart as you turn your hand over to spring the cards together. Then you spring the one packet between your forefinger and thumb and allow the other to fall on top, making it a cut instead of a shuffle.
- Spectator false shuffles
Chaos Shuffling
- A thorough examination of the chaos shuffling theory, movement of the cards, movement with respect to pairs of cards, colors, suits, sets, key cards etc.
- Improving chaos shuffles
- Chaos shuffle controls
- Blind Chaos shuffling
- Kaleidoscope shuffle
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| Sat Aug 11, 2007 7:27 pm |
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Drey
Straight Flush
Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 696
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Stories
- Playing ten hands of poker and coming up with four royal flushes
- Dealing a royal flush to myself thereby beating Kevin, he dealt and it was fine, then I culled another royal flush he insisted I cut the deck. I did so willingly and performed a pass I then dealt the royal flush to him. He didn’t trust me and immediately switched his hand for mine, which was just fine because I’d anticipated as much. The look on his face when he picked up “my” hand and saw it contained nothing was priceless, but not as good as when I turned over “his” hand to reveal, I again had a royal flush.
- When I started to get better at culling and dealing I felt bad always giving myself the winning hand so I dealt Kevin four of a kind. Upon seeing the hand he folded because he figured I must have performed double duke on him, little did he know I was just being nice.
- I would experience frustration when I first started to gain proficiency in culling and dealing because I’d go to all the trouble of dealing myself a winning hand, but my opponent would have nothing and fold immediate, making all my efforts a waste, it was then I decided I needed to learn to perform a double duke.
- I was in a hotel room with a fellow employee who was learning about playing poker, he commented that he had picked up one of my decks and dealt himself a hand and ended up with four aces so he figured I must have been practicing with him. I then gave him a demonstration gave the deck a couple of shuffles and dealt four aces to the fifth player in a game, the smile on his face when I turned over the cards and revealed the winning hand was very satisfying.
- Cheating at war, is relatively harmless, and when you’re playing cards with someone who knows you cheat at poker, war seems like a harmless game to play, in fact I was even told “you can’t cheat at this, because whatever card comes up, comes up”. He was in for a surprise, the game started innocently enough, but I hate games that are purely chance, so I soon began combining peeks with stud second deals to influence the odds a little, which was fine, but the game is decidedly boring and was dragging on, so I decided to switch things up. I began performing one-handed deals instead of two-handed deals just to add to the challenge. He couldn’t see anything, but he knew something was up when I dropped three aces in a row on him at the critical moments. I must say, the beauty of it, was that I explained the technique to him and told him what I was going to do in advance and even when he was looking at my hands he couldn’t see me perform the one handed stud bottoms.
- One of the more amusing experiences I’ve had has to revolve around a game of Texas Hold’em I played. I was visiting a friend, and as it happened someone decided playing cards would be fun. Now my friends refuse to play cards with me, in fact the general rule is “he doesn’t touch the cards”, but the individual in question didn’t know me so we started to play…I was even playing fair at first. It was amusing when my friend walked in, took one look at us and said “you aren’t playing cards with him are you? Don’t let him touch the cards, don’t play with him, he’ll have you owing you his shirt, he can shuffle the deck a couple times and give himself a winning hand”. The guy found this amusing but insisted that things were fine. After a period of play I started using some very subtle cheating techniques, nothing elaborate, but techniques that are essentially undetectable and afforded me a slight edge. It was with a smile then that I heard the following comments. My friend returned and commented again about the cheating, to which my opponent said “no, this guy’s ok, he doesn’t cheat”, then a few moments later he looked at me and said “remember, I’m brown so if you do cheat me I’ll kill you”, I laughed at the joke and went back to cheating him.
Overhand Stacking and Culling
Again, more of an outline of ideas rather than posting full descriptions, with ocassional, brief summaries
Stacking
o Other Methods including Erdnase method and methods from Marlo Magazine Volume 6
o Carpenter Overhand stack (This process seems longer than a milk build, what about a double duke? I fail to see how much better a break is than an undercut, and how tossing cards onto the bottom of the deck is natural.)
o Pick-up overhand stack (Start with four aces on the top of the deck, run three cards, then perform a packet pick-up, run one ace, plus the number of cards you want to place between the aces (say five) and perform another packet pick-up, shuffle off the rest of the deck and toss the cards you picked up on top. Run two cards, perform a packet pick-up, then run twelve and perform another packet pick-up, shuffle off the rest of the deck and toss the packet on top. Run one card, perform a packet pick-up, run eighteen cards and perform another pick-up, then shuffle off the rest of the deck and toss the packet on top. Run off twenty-four cards and perform a packet pick-up, then shuffle off the rest of the deck and toss the packet on top. Naturally, you can re-arrange indifferent cards within the run so long as you don’t mess up the stacked cards. You can cut down the number of shuffles by one by starting out by breaking off five cards at the bottom, running three, then performing the pick-up, then running six, then performing another pick-up, shuffling off and tossing the packet on top. Now run six and perform a pick-up, then run one and perform a pick-up, then run twelve and perform a pick-up, shuffle off and toss the packet on top. Finally, run twenty-four and perform a pick-up, shuffle off and toss the remainder on top. You can further cut the number of shuffles down to only two by breaking off ten cards instead of five, running three cards and performing a pick-up, then running six and performing another pick-up, shuffling off and tossing the packet on top. Then, running five cards, performing a pick-up, running six cards, performing another pick-up, running twelve cards, performing another pick-up, shuffling off the rest of the deck and tossing the packet on top.) **develop a method effective for any number of cards, any number of players, stacking a double duke and preferably in very few shuffles
Culling
- Discard culling as a means of knowing the location of various cards
- - Watch what cards are in what positions of what hands, then when you pick them up in order keep track and count down to that point then cull the card, for example, fourth card in the second hand in draw poker is the ninth card from the top, so rather than peeking you can just shuffle off to it
- - Using this method you can know the whole top or bottom of the deck and only peek at half or so of the deck while shuffling, which expedites the process
- - Describe how to use various culls when you know the location of the cards to cull them effectively without losing such information as you progress
- Grab the jog cull (jog card in question, then perform a variation on the packet pick-up to steal the card onto the back of the deck)
- Jimmy Molinari cull
- Other methods from “Card College Volume 4”
- Marlo overhand stack and cull systems from Marlo Magazine volume 6
- Double and Triple Dukes
- Mention that the MB cull was released after the writing of “The Inquisition of Shuffling and Dealing” and refers to culling using punched cards
- Overhand cull stack method (Begin shuffling, when you locate the desired card, jog it, then proceed to shuffle off the desired number of cards for the stack also in a jogged condition so you have a block of cards jogged. Now continue shuffling until you reach the next card you wish to cull, jog it followed by the correct number of cards for the stack and then shuffle normally. Continue this process until you’ve culled and stacked all the cards you want. Next, perform a strip-out of all the jogged cards and place them on the top of the deck. This procedure is on the basis that the culled cards will fall to the dealer. However, if you wish to position the cards for any other player, proceed as usual for all the cards except the last card you intend to cull and on this one, simply place the number of cards that bring the card to the player in question. For example, if you wish for the third player in a five-hand game to receive the cards you’d normally place four jogged cards on each culled card, but when you reach the last card, you’ll only place two on top. Unfortunately, this isn’t good for a double duke and can cause problems if you end up with cull cards located too close to one another. You can compensate somewhat by peeling off numerous cards as one if you reach another cull card pre-maturely. For example, say you were culling threes and reached the first one, jogged it and were going to place four cards on top, but reached the next three on the third card. You could compensate by peeling three cards together as one and then running off the cards necessary to stack the second three. Of course, the percentages aren’t perfect in this case, but still quite good.)
- Other methods of stacking while culling
- Count’s Day and Night System (restore any deck to new deck order, or any complete deck stack, in 6 shuffles)
Outline of topics for Riffle Shuffle Techniques Treatise
Treatise on riffle techniques
- Cutting (along with problems and tip offs)
- Locating and culling (along with problems, tip offs and speed)
- Stacking (along with problems, tip offs and speed). Shuffle timing, fast shuffle is 1 second, you can get away with 4 seconds, but generally not, don’t go for less than 3 seconds, try for two, Fulves recommends 1 second riffles. As for the riffling process, Jack Carpenter suggests merely allowing the cards to fall off without pressure, but this makes peeking much more difficult as the angle of the cards isn’t sufficient and thus bending the cards and applying pressure works better.
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| Sat Aug 11, 2007 7:39 pm |
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Drey
Straight Flush
Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 696
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Conventional Riffle Systems
Huge array of valuable material
Pre-Peeking
- Using a shuffle to assist in a pre-peek (glance very quickly at the indexes (1 second shuffles) so you have some idea where the cards in question are located so you can pre-peek more quickly between shuffles)
- Using pre-peeking to assist in shuffling (aside from determining the cut location you can get a good idea of where the cards you’re going to want to watch for are located and make blocking off etc. easier
- Subtleties for pre-peeking, making it less obvious, concealing what cards you’ve stopped at etc.
- Where possible, take advantage of existing top or bottom cards to expedite the cull
Cutting
- Always use a double or triple cut to move a small packet of cards
- Tips on counting cards in order to determine a cut location rather than using a break of some kind (riffling up the deck counting card in order to cut accurately)
Culling
Culling and stacking tip-offs
- Thumb movement
- Wrist position when peeking
- Blocks, jogs, steps (minimize each)
- Lifting the back edge of the cards while obtaining a break for the next cut
- Hesitation and calculation
- Burning the deck
- Speed
- Sound
- Long or calculated get ready
- Blocks of cards when pushing the packets together rather than an even riffle
- - Create such blocks naturally
- - Cover such blocks
Details and techniques on how to peek while shuffling
- Open shuffles
- Closed shuffles
- Universal shuffle
- Sit back further and extend your arms fully while shuffling in order to decrease the required viewing angle. Also, bend the packets slightly rather than merely lifting them. Slouch in your chair to decrease the viewing angle, along with using a higher table if possible and sitting at a lower chair. If peeking only one side of the deck bend the corner up to further create the illusion that the packet wasn’t raised high. With a closed shuffle peek, cover the cards further with the hands to help reduce the visible rise in the cards. By crossing the hands over you can actually obstruct the deck if you so desire. (If you obstruct the deck simply do so very briefly).
- Position of the wrists allowing a peek of both sides (angle the packets rather than placing them parallel to one another as it makes it easier to peek both sides at once) (as per the universal shuffle)
- Where to look at the packets and how to look at the packets when peeking at both sides so you aren’t glancing back and forth
- Briefly examine the peeking shuffle
Blocking off
Marlo approach to culling
- Count’s notes on improvement: Hold back one card at the end allowing you to locate a second card or at least to make the shuffle more deceptive
Steven’s control (focus on a natural process of squaring the deck so there are no unnatural motions in forming the step)
- Push the packets together and strike the separated portion (based on controlling the card to the top), naturally, you can block off below the card in question rather than above it, but this means you have to act more quickly, which is undesirable
- As an alternatively to blocking off below the card as a means of controlling it to the bottom, combine a similar method with some method of jogging the card then picking up below it
- Use the same method to pull out a block from the center
- Examine using the method on both sides (right and left packets)
- Learn to push the packets together, obtain your break and cut by feel rather than needing to look
Scarne control
- Place part of the deck over the table’s edge so you can push down in order to obtain your break and make it look more natural. Work on other methods of solving this issue such as my method of forming a step at the end of the deck via a sort of block transfer move and then pushing the top packet over so the break forms naturally on the thumb on top of the step
Alternative methods of pushing the packets together
- Obtaining a jog, why or why not
- Forming the step immediately, why or why not
“X” control
- Push the packets together in an “X” formation from the beginning and obtain the break as you square the packets so there is no unusual activity at the end of the
Count’s control
- Much like the Steven’s control but with a push-through of half the packet to form a step on the other side, you never obtain a break until the cut and the packets remain organized throughout. Also, examine how this method is useful in conjunction with estimation blocking off and how you can control the cards to the top or bottom.
Estimation blocking off
- Don’t stop at the card in question, but rather drop the block as soon as you see the card, possibly one or two after it, then estimate how much you missed by and cut accordingly
- Instead of stopping during the riffle and thereby dropping a block, alter the speed of the other hand and naturally create a block seamlessly. When you are releasing the cards normally, they should be coming off largely due to light pressure applied by the forefinger as well as a slight release by the thumb. When you want to block off, don’t stop riffling with either thumb, instead, roll the thumb upward, allowing it to release a considerable block very quickly (The Roll Drop or Thumb Rolling).
Stepping
- With the left hand use a counter clockwise wrist turn, a clockwise wrist turn with the right hand
- Strike the corner with the pinky to achieve the action
- Examine forming a step from the perspective of various peeks and shuffle styles
- Examine the view from the front and view from the back
- Compare with blocking off, advantages and disadvantages (no break in the shuffling action)
- Methods of pushing the packets together, maintaining the step or transferring it to a jog, concealing the step or jog, the mock square up, controlling the card to the top or controlling it to the bottom
- Estimation stepping
Focus Control
- Instead of blocking off, watch as the card falls and stare at it as you finish the shuffle, allowing you to visually pick up at the card as you push the packets together
- Alternatively, you can count either above or below the selection, then either estimate, or riffle up the one side as you push the packets together to locate the selection
- Not needing to block off does in theory improve the speed, but it also requires focusing on the location (unless you count) and does require a different sort of reaction, namely the shift of focus to the card you’re dropping
- An alternative method involves glimpsing the cards and estimating the location of the selection. Then cutting to, or just below, the selection, riffling off to locate a new card but in the process determining how far the original selection is from the bottom (two or three cards at most hopefully), then cutting the cards below it to the top or using them as part of a stack later on
Bridge Control
- Control methods for cascading the cards together
Estimation Peeking
- After you’ve blocked off or stepped, continue to look for additional cards and estimate their location (possibly even use the Focus control and obtain a break) in order to make peeking during the next shuffle easier and to locate the cards faster. Ideally, you can obtain a break on that particular side and peek on the other side, or even estimate the location of each card in the first shuffle and make the process much simpler later on.
- You can use this method over a series of shuffles using blind shuffles, locating all the cards, and controlling just one, but improving the estimation with each shuffle so as to speed up the shuffle, possibly allowing you to obtain breaks.
Completion Illusion
- Finishing the shuffle immediately (advantages and disadvantages) (apparent increase in speed)
Direct Culling
- Use the completion illusion, but instead of blocking off at all, once you reach the selected card, simply press down on the top of both packets and hold a break with your thumb
Using pre-peeking to maintain a break into the following shuffle and thereby avoid looking at your hands (do the same with multiple breaks)
Verification Peek
- Pivot the card out slightly and bend the index corner upwards under cover of the deck to verify the identity of the card in question
- This method works well with the Focus control
Verification Split
- When you split the deck for a riffle shuffle, lift the back end first allowing you to subtly glimpse the index of the card. If you don’t have the right card, you can lightly release a card or two from the bottom of the packet to obtain the one or two above it.
- Cover the split on both sides with each hand
- It helps to tilt the whole back of the deck up slightly as you split the deck to facilitate this process
- This is useful for a Scarne ace cutting demonstration
Block Transfer Culling and strip out Shuffles
- Retain deck order and use a systemized peek as a means of speeding up the process
- System for peeking
- The block transfer move
- Combining these with the various aforementioned controls
Discard culling as a means of speeding up the culling process
- You can keep track of what cards players have in their hands, whether they have any cards you want, then by placing them back into the deck in order you can know the location of those particular cards and only peek at half of the deck
- This is particularly effective with systemized peeking
- Also, hold breaks or jogs based on the discard to avoid pre-peeking and increase accuracy
Spade shuffle peeking and culling, allows effective peeking because you watch one side at a time and includes automatic blocking off
Distribution issues
- Corrective shuffles
- Center cut outs (block slip cuts)
- Corrective cuts
- Using the cards as part of a stack
- Bottom retention passes and cover passes
- Hindu shuffles (running cuts)
- Double center cut (multiple shift of a block of cards)
- Using a side steal
Misses
- Taking advantage of the relative location
- Using the card as part of a stack
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| Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:23 pm |
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Drey
Straight Flush
Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 696
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Stacking
Continuing with a rough break down, feel free to ask questions as an expansion on the whole thing would be a massive book (estimated length for the stacking and culling material alone is 1000 pages).
Breaks and Steps
- Anatomy of breaks and steps, holding them and concealing them, transferring from a break to a step
- Obtaining a break just prior to the shuffle
- Obtaining a break while pre-peeking
- Obtaining a break while separating the deck
- Obtaining a break during the previous shuffle (Steven’s control applied to creating breaks or steps for stacking in the next shuffle)
- Using these methods to obtain multiple breaks or steps (for example three packets of four cards)
- Holding two breaks with one thumb during riffle stacking (Marlo)
- Using steps instead of breaks for stacking
- - Using angled steps for stacking and culling as well as covering those steps using a closed riffle shuffle and using multiple such steps with each hand, details on obtaining those steps, covering them, etc.
By Feel
- Spreading cards to help with the feel
- Use crimps to give you some sense of feeling at the point you wish to hold back cards
- Jogs
- - Jog a card or two to riffle by feel without breaks, it will automatically stop at the jogged card
- Practicing and learning to operate by feel
- - Holding ever increasing packets of cards steady and feeling the difference between them
- - Riffling off by sight and building the muscle memory and sensation to determine how many cards you are holding
By Sight
- Using edge marks, crimps and jogs
- Peeking and using a trigger card instead of a break for stacking
- - Riffle through the cards as you would normally holding a break and riffling off the number of cards necessary for the stack (say hold a break below 16 cards). But instead of holding a break, glance at the bottom card of the packet below which you would normally obtain the break and remember it (also perhaps the one or two below it), then release the break and cut accordingly
- - Now, when you’re shuffling, just watch for the trigger card and using it, you’ll know that you have the right number of cards held back, you can operate by feel at that point, and it’s quite quick to riffle through looking for that single card
More on counting to hold back cards
Combining methods
Estimation
Marlo’s approach (estimation)
- Count’s variant, use a kill card to accurately eliminate the excess top stock (Hold back more than enough cards with the right hand and the correct number plus the top kill card (4 aces would mean holding back 5) Now, stack the cards, using the kill card to divide the remaining cards. Perform a block transfer of the cards you wanted stacked, but jog the kill card and use it to transfer the entire top block back, and then perform a strip-out, cutting the stack to the top. You can also use a kill card to cut the top packet to the bottom.)
- Alternatively you cut the additional cards to the top at the end
- Possibly use a false deal, pass or side steal to ad on or remove cards
- How to estimate effectively
- How to convincingly riffle the packets at such an uneven pace
More on Faros
- Use faros at a later point, for example, stack the cards as every third card, then use a faro to stack them as every 6th
- Counting to perform compensating faros instead of peeking
- Using incomplete faros
- Using faros in estimation and riffling by feel and by sight
Tips on holding back cards and riffling cards together accurately
- Obtain a step on top easily by beveling the deck as per a feather peek, feeling the correct number of cards, and then pivoting the packet
Alex Emsley idea for stacking 1 plus 1/3 cards when stacking for four cards
- This has the advantage that you are always holding back the same number of cards with each shuffle and reduces the shuffles by one, it also divides the stack much more nicely
- Hold back your four cards (aces) on one side (left), on the other hold back the number you need plus one third of a hand (well assume three plus one for a total of four (four handed game)). Now drop one of the aces followed by three on the other hand, followed by the other three aces and then a final card on top. Next shuffle the right left hand again holds back four as does the left, in fact the shuffle sequence is identical in each case.
Tips on Speeding Up Shuffling
- Always place one of the cards you wish to stack on the bottom of the deck if you’re stacking cards for yourself, because you don’t have to stack that card at all, you can merely cut it, along with the correct sized block to the top at the end
- Using a thumb roll (roll drop) in stacking to speed up the process
- Advantage of conventional stacking over foundation stacking seems to be speed (though no such advantage exists using advanced stacking (see Count’s Advanced Riffle Systems)
Using a closed shuffle to cover delays while stacking
Block slip cuts and top card cover passes and side steals/control to stack or correct stacks
Block Transfer in order to divide a stack more evenly (Also double block transfer) (Marlo)
Block Transfer stacking (Marlo)
Block Transfer cull stack (Marlo Riffle Shuffle Systems)
Correcting a stacking problem by using the Zarrow process of unweaving
Carpenter “Running Load” technique
Stacking and Culling Simultaneously
Block Transfer cull stack, culling and stacking a flush in one shuffle and two cuts
- Start by cutting the bottom half of the deck right, you may wish to cut a little less than half of the deck, say 20 cards. Now start riffling off the left hand section watching for a card of the correct suit, say hearts. When you reach the heart, let it fall and then release the correct number of cards needed for the stack with the right hand, for example, to stack the flush as every fifth card, release four cards with your right hand. Now continue riffling with your left hand until you find another heart, then repeat the right hand procedure, do this till you have located all five hearts. Then, release all the remaining left hand cards on top of the right hand stack cards, followed by the remaining right hand cards. Now angle jog the top card of each of the bottom 5 left hand blocks and push the angle jogged cards through to the right hand packet. Set up for a strip-out and as you strip out the right hand packet along with the angle jogged cards, cutting the packet to the bottom, obtain a break above the entire stack and then cut the stack to the top.
Applications of the Count's Riffle Stacking System
- Culling and stacking a random four of a kind and random straight flush (Three shuffles)
- Culling and stacking two random three of a kind hands and one random four of a kind (Three shuffles)
- Other stacking instead of discard stacking to allow a bottom deal
- Two double dukes in two parts of the deck
- Cutting to all four aces off one shuffle
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| Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:33 pm |
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Drey
Straight Flush
Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 696
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Thanks to Zarrow and Two Block Culling
Locating cards by preserving the deck order and using block transfer
- Essentially, the ideal is you are only looking at one quarter of the deck per shuffle because you examine it systematically. Locate the first card (assuming it’s in the first bottom corner), then transfer the cards so on the next shuffle you are examining totally different cards (say the first half of the other half). Then combine the two completed halves together and shuffle again so you are examining the first half of the two remaining halves, followed by, on the last shuffle, the last quarter. (This is assuming four of a kind with even distribution; you would modify it accordingly). Each time, the quarter you are examining is moved to the bottom of the left hand packet because that is the easiest to peek at and looking at the deck initially is more natural than at the end. Because you only have to peek at one quarter you can drastically increase the speed (typically by one third) and make the shuffle much more natural. Effectively allowing you to perform the one-second riffles for at least two of the four shuffles, and possibly all four depending on your aptitude and ability.
Fixing culling problems after the shuffle by unweaving and reweaving certain cards
Zarrow concept to cull
- In addition to the basic Zarrow concept, use the blind shuffles to systematically peek and thus make the shuffles much quicker (See above, goal, one second riffles)
- Combine this with discard culling where you know the location of certain cards to begin with, cull them using a blind shuffle, thereby maintaining the location of the others, and further limiting the need for peeking (if you know a card is twentieth down it’s easier to peek and locate it quickly)
Two-Block Culling
- Cutting packet from the middle of the deck with one card on the top and one on the bottom, then shuffling to bring those cards to the top and the bottom from which point they can be brought together with a cut or stacked separately
- Marking and correcting for two block culling. Shuffle through the deck peeking for one of the two desired cards, when you find the first, release all the right hand cards except one below it to mark it. Then, riffle off with the left hand till you find the second, when you do, release it followed by the last right hand card to mark it. If the cards aren’t far enough apart for an even cut, unweave the lower of the desired cards as you would for a Zarrow shuffle, but only with that one card, then relocate it further down, either in or below the right hand block you dropped earlier, then proceed as normal.
- One advantage of the center cut out is that you don’t need to worry about cards close to the top or bottom of the deck where a cut would seem unnatural
- Using Zarrow principles to even out the distribution. (For example, if you find the block of cards above the second card is too great, you can pull some of the block out and relocate it to below the card, or if the block above it is too few, you can pull some out from below it and relocate them to above it.)
- Instead of performing a center cut out, you can use another Zarrow shuffle to achieve the same result under the guise of legitimate shuffles. Cut at the bottom of the two, but retain the top break and shuffle off, retaining the bottom cards together but this time controlling the top most cards together into the former break, allowing for a legitimate cut in the next shuffle, bringing them to the bottom. (See variants thereof).
- Estimation Two Block culling (cut a little too high and a little too low, then get rid of the extra cards or use them in a stack) (If you’re going to use them in a stack then using a block transfer strip-out works well. Otherwise, a running cut (tabled Hindu shuffle), will eliminate both the top and bottom blocks. You could however cut the deck, bringing the excess cards together and then control them out via some other method.
Zarrow Stacking
- Basic Zarrow block transfer stacking
- Perform a tabled faro then unweave and relocated groups of cards as needed in order to stack as you push the packets together
-Relocation Culling, Culling cards while pushing the packets together
Pull them out slightly, push the cards below the desired card together, then work the desired card under those cards and push the deck together
- Pivoting the cards to make this process more effective and cover more easily under the hands
Palming cards out of the deck in this manner
- Blocking off above and below a card (alternatively, it is especially effective with edge marking)
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| Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:38 pm |
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Drey
Straight Flush
Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 696
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Count’s Advanced Riffle Systems
This is really a combination of all the great ideas with some others added in for good measure to maximize the efficiency of the system, it results in the best concepts I'm familiar with and the best I believe exist for riffle culling and stacking.
Better methods of locating cards in a random order deck
- Pre-peeking the top and bottom cards
- Separation peek (riffle up the corner of a tabled deck to reach the cut location)
- - Cover the deck with both hands during this process, over reaching to the left side with the right hand to perform the action while the left hand is simultaneously positioned to form breaks, steps and provide extra cover
- Peeking ahead with the left hand using a slight fan (Feather peek)
- Using a feather peek for pre-peeking such as the Vegas style peek as a means of speeding up the process and accuracy
- Egyptian Peek
- - “Building the pyramid” – pull the cards against your thumbs so they ride up and you can peek their indexes prior to the shuffle, use a closed shuffle, use the fingers in succession to view as many cards as possible, then obtain a break at the correct point
- - Buckle the cards and allow them fly up to avoid the need to spider the cards and ensure you’re able to see them all
- - Peeking within a fan is better than a riffle because you can view numerous cards at once and thus don’t need to flash they past you so quickly (in principle)
- Overhead sighting
- - Use edge marked cards and shuffle with the deck directly beneath your face resulting in a situation where it is impossible to peek. Under these conditions, fan the card slightly prior to shuffling as per the feather peek in order to locate the edge marks and cull cards accordingly.
Peek top several and bottom several cards for integration into a cull stack
Better methods for creating breaks and cutting to a desired location
- Blocking off and pushing packets together in “X” formation, then grabbing block point at the end for a cleaner square up and cut
- Shuffle crimps and edge nicks
Creating breaks during the peek in order to cull multiple cards (possibly marking to achieve the same effect)
Using steps instead of breaks with collective culling
Maintaining the use of blocks, jogs and steps while still cascading the packets together (also, the same principle when cascading the cards together in the hands)
Using a tabled Hindu shuffle as an alternative to a center cut out, particularly with two block culling
Advanced Culling (Third cull in addition to two block culling)
Using two center cut outs to combine two block culling and collective culling for greater benefit
Estimation procedure (especially with two block culling and collective culling)
Combining collective culling with advanced culling, cull and stack 8 cards in two shuffles and a cut
You can use a center cut out as a means of collective culling, but I see no advantage to that
Using Zarrow principles to facilitate collective culling and speed it up
- Block off at one card, then block off at another on the other side, then unweave the one card when pushing the packets together and relocate it to next to the other card (allows you to block off above instead of below and decreases the need for reaction time)
Culling Within A Stack Margin
- If for example you are culling aces, and you have one ace three cards from another in the center of the deck, rather than attempting to cull them separately, cull all five cards and use the three cards in-between as a part of your stack at the end in order to decrease the number of shuffles
- Likewise, if you have a card two or three from the top of the deck that is desirable, cut it to the bottom along with those other cards and use those as part of your stack, unless of course the distance between the cards is too great
Dropping Blocks of Cards Instead of Single Cards When Stacking
- Use jogs so all the cards in-between the jogged cards fall with the jogged cards
Stacking the top and bottom simultaneously
Coordinating top and bottom stacks
Using side steals in stacking (add or remove cards from the top or bottom when stacking top and bottom simultaneously)
Advance stacking to create the illusion of an extremely fast foundation stack
- Using a closed riffle shuffle, you can actually stack the first card or two before you begin the “official” riffling action, simply by riffling off the cards from each hand lightly as you lift the packets and cover the fact, causing people to believe you haven’t started yet, while in fact you could be nearly finished the stack itself.
- This is particularly effective using two block culling, stacking the top and bottom in say, a game of Texas Hold’em and especially when dropping blocks. This is simply because, you can have the flop, turn card and the river on the top of the deck (minimal stacking required) and can stack the pocket cards before you begin the riffle, making the stacking procedure extremely easy and consequently very fast).
- Using the top cards as a screen to prevent exposing what’s occurring, use this for stacking and culling
- Use a similar concept on the top of the deck where you place the covering card or covering block overtop of all the other cards meaning it has to fall last, also move another block into position under this to further perform the stacking in advance
Use Feather Peeking to form an advance weave and thus expedite the stacking process
Expediting foundation stacking by not stacking on top of the last card during the riffle but rather riffling off the correct number of cards when performing the cut; as well as, not stacking below the bottom card since it will automatically be addressed by the cut
Back jog cards (move bottom few cards outwards so they aren’t involved in the weave and thereby make the shuffling easier, quicker, less controlled or involved, but also don’t offer the tip off of leaving some of the cards on the table (discuss methods of achieving this and concealing it)
Estimation and automatic stacking for advanced stacking
- Cut the deck so there are the number of cards you desire to stack above the top card more in the one packet than the other. For example, say you want to stack the cards in the right hand packet as 7th from the top; you’d cut twenty-three cards to the right and twenty-nine to the left. Now, you can simply push the block of cards from the left hand side over those on the right hand side (it will automatically equal the six you wish to hold back) and riffle off as per a regular advance stacking procedure for the top, leaving that block on top and stacking the card for the seventh position.
- This process mainly works for an even number of cards (due to the even number of cards in the deck), however, an adjustment of one card up or down is easily made.
- If you wish to do this for two cards (three is too complicated), you can secure the full block, weaving both of the top cards under the block and pulling up the top card the requisite number to complete the stack, making the shuffle, in a sense, a fake. (Obviously, for two cards you will always use an even number which eliminates corrections up or down as in the earlier case).
- In terms of the estimation, you can riffle up the back of the deck to make it accurate, or cut to twenty six and modify the packet size with slight riffling from there.
- Alternatively, to correct the estimation, you can cut to twenty-six and then do a bottom block transfer before the shuffling ever starts in order to give the proper block sizes
Further Source of Information
- Major D'Alby Brag Stack by Jerry Sadowitz in issue #15 of “The Crimp”
- Paul R. Wilson published two variations of the Sadowitz method in “MAGIC” but without photographs
- The DVD “Unreal Work” includes some thoughts mostly by Jason England on the subject, in particular some Zarrow work which is much the same as the material in “Thanks to Zarrow” and was originally published in a Derek Dingle work, it may be found in “The Complete Works of Derek Dingle”, I’m not entirely sure
- Vernon’s “More Inner Secrets of Card Magic” has a basic description of the Steven’s cull at the end of chapter 7
- Andrew Wimhurst’s “Down Under Deals” includes a brief description of the Steven’s cull on page 13
- Fulves Manuscripts on Riffle Shuffle Work: “Riffle and Faro Technique”, “Gambler’s Third Lesson”, “Riffle Shuffle Control”, “Riffle Shuffle Controls Part 2: Blocking Off”, “Riffle Shuffle Methods”, “Riffle Shuffle Set-ups”, “Riffle Shuffle Technique Part 1”, “Riffle Shuffle Technique Part 2”, “Riffle Shuffle Technique Part 3”, “Riffle Shuffle Technique – Preliminary Notes on Part 1”, “Riffle Shuffle Technique – Preliminary Notes on Part 2”, “Setting Up Exercises”
- Marlo Manuscripts on Riffle Shuffle Work: “Riffle Shuffle Systems”, “Patented Shuffle”, “Riffle Shuffle Finale”, “The Shank Shuffle”, “Faro Controlled Miracles”, “Marlo’s Magazine Volume 5”, “Marlo’s Magazine Volume 6”, “The Faro Shuffle”, “Faro Notes”, “Peek and Shuffle Control” (not sure about this one, check it out)
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| Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:52 pm |
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Drey
Straight Flush
Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 696
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Oddities
A lot of assorted random pieces to help.
- Using the box shuffle for culling and stacking
- Automatic collective culling (positioning cards at the correct positions within packets so that you can simply faro the cards as a means of performing collective culling)
- Using top card cover passes for stacking, but also for culling (also use side steals, bottom retention passes and multiple shifts)
Block Transfer alternative for two block culling (not terribly deceptive or effective, mentioned mostly as a novelty)
- Riffle off with the right hand packet watching for the first card, when it falls, drop a block from the left on it and continue riffling evenly till you see the next card in the right, drop it and drop the remaining card from the left on top of it. Jog the two desired card, bottom card first by using the block, but relocate the top card above the top block, then push the packets together and perform a block transfer of the two cards. Perform a strip-out and then perform the next shuffle, controlling them to the top and bottom of the deck
Block Transfer Collective Culling
- Perform a block transfer of all the cards in-between two desired cards, thus bringing the two together. In theory, this same method applies for more than two cards, but is quite similar to the idea of the third cull or a strip-out method, of course you can use a Zarrow method to achieve this, but I’m not sure how much of an advantage it offers
Using marked cards
- Mark the corners, then when you block off, you can check whether you have the correct position by pivoting the packets to glance at the corners
- Demonstrate the concept visually using face up cards
Different Stacking and Culling Styles (Oddities)
- Making use of the Satan Shuffle style
- Making use of the tabled faro style
- Making use of the Greek shuffle style
- Making use of a Hindu shuffle, particularly with edge marking (mention Sam’s strip stacking method)
- Spread style shuffle (use the Paul Curry method of spreading the packets and pushing the cards together to simulate a riffle shuffle, the weave concept, but by using marked cards you can effectively cull and stack in this manner)
One-handed deck stacking
- Culling
- Stacking
- Variations, difficulties and subtleties
Reversing a stack? (Whatever can be done in a shuffle can be undone in a shuffle)
- Overhand Shuffle
- Riffle Shuffle
Total Deck Control (using the Count’s Riffle Stacking System to reverse a deck of cards to new deck order)
Ideas based on the theme “Total Deck Control”
Stacking as a method of culling
Shuffle cuts
Blind Shuffle Stacking
Stacking problems such as if the deck is already stacked and one player leaves or another player arrives (Fixing the deck)
Fixing Culling and Stacking mistakes (If you get an extra card in there while culling it is easiest just to stack it in, if necessary use a block transfer)
Ten hand poker stack ideas
- One shuffle using second and third deals to compensate, stack 5 cards, an ace, 4 cards, an ace, 5 cards, an ace, 4 cards, an ace, deal 5 tops, 4 seconds, 1 top, 5 seconds, 4 thirds, 1 top, 9 thirds, 1 top, 9 seconds, 1 top
- Cut down 36 cards, aces on bottom of 16 card packet, stack from bottom up 1 ace, 9 cards, 1 ace, 9 cards, 1 ace, 9 cards, 1 ace, 9 cards, mark location and cut off remaining top cards
- Cut down 27 cards
Extensive uses of crimps, edge marks etc.
- Crimp and edge mark combinations crimping for example the index corners on one suit and the non-index corners on another, then nail nicking in different positions corresponding to the values in question
- Pinch crimp (take the card by the corner between the forefinger and middle finger on the one side and the thumb on the other and simply squeeze in order to put a crimp in the corner, it works by far the best with new cards)
- Putting in crimps and edge work
Riffle Systems by feel (Crimps, natural breaks, shorts, longs etc.)
Strip-out culling (Either a tabled multiple shift of jogged cards, or repeated slip cuts, or probably bottom slip cuts or possibly block transfer, or as misdirection a multiple shift cut removing the bottom half of the deck while moving the jogged cards to the bottom, then Hindu shuffling the bottom half of the deck onto the top, application with edge marked cards.)
Strip-out stacking systems (Designed for few shuffles)
Automatic Stacking Ideas
Automatic Culling Ideas
Count’s method of performing the Scarne Ace cutting demonstration
- Evolution of the idea over time, starting with crimps, then nail marks
- Alternative method for performing the Scarne Ace cutting, comes from Sam (machinator) on the 21ace forum, crimp the bottom card and perform a Zarrow shuffle controlling all the cards from the right hand portion (bottom portion) on top of the selection
- Bend the corner of the cards harshly during the shuffle to form a shuffle crimp as per Steve Forte’s Gambling Protection Series
- Use a relocation cull to get the ace to the bottom of the deck, then cut the deck with one perfect cut (26 cards), leaving the ace 26th from the top and allowing you to cut to it later (Riffling and counting instead of estimating for Scarne ace cutting, also use this method in a pure estimation style situation without relocating the card)
- Use a method of peeking to locate and cut to the card
- Actually dead cull using estimation, possibly use the focus control
- Use the Scarne control with half the deck over the edge of the table to push down crimping the bottom half of the deck in a bridge
Complete Culling and stacking in practice (accounting for discard culling and other variables)
- The bottom cards are from the bottom up: 7C and 8C. Top cards from the top down are: KH, 8C. On the table I threw down seven random cards to simulate a game of Holdem: 4D, AC, 9S, 8H, JH, QC, 7H, QD. So I start off with a full house, sevens and eights, based on this I don’t even need to locate a single card because I already have three eights and two sevens, thus it’s just a matter of arranging and stacking them. But look closer, I have to shuffle so I might as well do something, how can I set my opponent up? Beautifully, there are already two queens and two fours on the table; if I add just one four or one queen to the mix I have a second full house. I can cull the last card in a single shuffle, then it’s just a matter of arranging and stacking. Maybe I should do a little more, we have a king of hearts, a jack of hearts, a nine of spades and a ace of clubs left. What can we do with that? We could deal someone pocket cards of an ace and king combination without any real work. We could also try culling another ace, or just giving them some other combination etc. We’ll say in this case that we just give them the ace king combination, enough to get them betting but not enough to concern us over the long term. Now, there is a problem with this, you can’t set up six cards in Hold’em, you have only five to work with, so we’d have to assume we were playing stud or draw or something similar on the next hand. This is fine, in fact, our odds would only improve if we were playing something like that, because rather than having nine cards to work with, we’d have ten. A note here, stud poker generally means you have more cards to work with because everyone is dealt most of their cards face up, while in draw you only get to see the cards of those who don’t throw their hand in before its over. Also, it helps not to stay in the game the hand before your deal comes up because it gives you more time to get your moves figured out for when you start taking in the cards etc.
That's all for today, hope you enjoy, hope someone actually still visits here, and I hope someone gets some benefit from it.
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| Sat Aug 11, 2007 10:03 pm |
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jonjo
Straight Flush
Joined: 14 Feb 2005
Posts: 679
Location: London UK |
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Absolutely awesome post drey.
Thank you for such a significant conrtibution!
Jonjo
_________________
A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.
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| Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:12 am |
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Drey
Straight Flush
Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 696
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Thanks, I'm off to Vegas for the week, but I'll post more when I'm back.
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| Mon Aug 13, 2007 12:13 am |
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expertmagician
Straight Flush
Joined: 26 Jul 2004
Posts: 447
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| Mon Aug 13, 2007 7:20 am |
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Shadow
Forum Administrator
Joined: 19 Dec 2003
Posts: 1606
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Great post, Drey. When I finished reading it for the first time I was very surprised that it is so dark outside 
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| Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:36 am |
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Drey
Straight Flush
Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 696
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Thanks, feel free to comment or ask questions, most of the material and descriptions are pretty vague, I'll probably follow up with another similar post on dealing in another thread, then possibly do one on mucking, perhaps another on forcing, one on the pass...we'll see.
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| Fri Aug 17, 2007 12:54 pm |
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