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WRITTEN BY DENNIS LOOMIS

For the December 2004 issue of Smoke and Mirrors

Mary Mowder’s Memorized Deck Solitaire

Despite the title, this is not a game that you play just for fun. (Although you can do that.) It is a technique for practicing your mastery of a memorized deck stack. And, when you’re finished, you’ll have your deck in memorized deck order.

Begin by shuffling your deck. You are going to deal out a layout for the “standard” game of Solitaire. Since there are so many forms of solitaire, I’ll explain. First deal a row of seven down cards on the table. Then turn one card from the deck up and place it onto the face-down card at the left end of the row. Then deal a face-face-down card onto the other six face-face-down piles. Now deal a face-up card onto the second pile from the left, and deal five cards face-down onto the face-down piles. Continue this until you have seven piles of cards and each one has a face-up card on the top.

In standard Solitaire, you can only play a single face-up card or a stack of face-up cards onto the top of one of the piles. (The normal procedure is that the card played has to be one lower in value and the opposite color of the card on the pile. For example, if you have a Three of Spades

showing on top of a pile, you can place either of the red twos onto the Three.) In Mary’s game, you can play a face-up card or a stack of face-up cards either on top of the face-up card(s) or UNDER the face-up card(s) on any pile. As in regular Solitaire, when you move a face-up card or a stack of face-up cards onto a different pile, you then turn up the face-down top card of the pile from which you removed the card(s).

We’ll going to run through a sample game and give you a few examples of the procedure as it progresses. These values are for the Aronson Stack. But the same game can be done with virtually any full deck stack in which you can determine the card before and the card after a given card. After the initial deal, the following face-up cards show. From left to right: 3H, 7S, 5H, KH, KS, 3D, and JD.

The first step is to see if there are any plays that can be made in the layout before you start to turn cards face-up in the remaining part of the deck (talon). Look at each card in turn to see what card could be played onto it, or under it. First consider the Three of Hearts. Its stack number is 7, the card before it in Aronson Stack order is the AS, and the card after it is the 6C. Scanning the face-up cards, neither of those cards is visible. Go on to the 7S. It’s the 19^th card. The card before it is the AD, and the card after it is the 5S. Neither of those cards is visible either. In this

particular example, there are no plays possible in the initial layout. By determining that, you’ve drilled yourself on the stack numbers and the cards before and after for each of these seven cards.

Now turn up the top card of the talon. In this example it’s the 9H. That’s the 42^nd card and it follows the 2S. Scanning the cards, there is no 2 of spades present. The card that follows the 9H is the KS and that card happens to be visible on top of the 5^th pile. Since the 9H is one card lower in the stack it is played under the KS. (But on top of the face-down card in that pile.) Arrange those two cards in overlapped fashion as in typical in Solitaire. As play progresses and these stacks of face-up cards get longer and longer, it is only necessary that you can see the top and bottom cards of the face-up row.

It is now possible that the new card among the visible cards could play onto another face-up card. So, recall that the card before the 9H in Aronson Stack order is the 2S, and look for it.

Since that card is not visible another play cannot be made. But, if the 2S had been the top card of any pile, you would have moved both the 9H AND the KS on top of the 2S. That would have exposed the face-down card under the 9H and you would have turned it face-up and it would be available for play as well.

In this case, the top card of the talon is turned up; it’s the AS. Since this is the sixth card, it can be played under the 3H (#4). Lift the 3H, and place the face-up AS on top of the face-down single card. The AS is then placed face-up onto that card and the 3H is placed on top of both, overlapped so that the indexes of each are visible.

Play continues in this fashion, following the “rules” of Solitaire. But, feel free to change the rules to suit yourself. The basic idea is to practice your memorized deck skills. One thing that’s helpful is to complete each game. This assures that you get some drill on all of the cards. Unless you

“cheat,” this won’t happen often. When you’ve gotten to the point where no more plays seem possible, remove one of the stacks of face-down cards from under one of the face-up stacks, and add those cards to the deck. And, don’t place any limit on the number of times the deck can be run through. To randomize the drill, shuffle the deck before each new run through. If you get stuck, remove another stack of face-down cards from under another stack. In this way, you’ll ultimately end up with all of the cards in one full stack. (If you end up with two stacks that cannot be assembled “properly” it means that somewhere along the way you’ve made a mistake in playing a card.) Your assembled stack will probably have to be cut between the 9D and the JS to return it to original Aronson stack order.

This game can be done with any memorized deck, but also with the Si Stebbins, Eight Kings, or Hungry Jackass orders. It can even be done with the Osterlind Breakthrough System, although you will have to develop facility working both forwards and backwards in it.

For our second topic, let’s take a look at Simon Aronson’s wonderful effect: Shuffled Bored.

Despite the title, I doubt if your audiences will find this “boring.” The routine is described in the final section of Simon’s great book: “Bound to Please.” I like to use Paul Green’s presentation which is based on the TV game show “Jeopardy.” You’ll find this routine on Paul’s DVD: “In the Trenches.” Of course, the trick requires a special full deck stack. But, Alain Nu came to the rescue and discovered a way to do this remarkable effect using a deck stacked in Aronson Stack Order. You’ll find the complete write up for it, with Simon’s suggestions, on Simon’s Web Site:

www.simonaronson.com

I would like to suggest an alternative procedure to the slip cut process described by Simon and Alain on the Web Site. So, if you’re interested in learning this, take a deck stacked in Aronson order in hand, and follow along. While toying with the deck after your preceding effect, hold it in dealing position in your left hand. With your right hand, cut 36 cards (or as close to it as you can manage) and just separate the deck slightly at that point. By tipping the left side of the deck upward, you can peek down into the break and see where you’re at. As soon as you see the card, you can adjust cards either way so that you can get a break between the Jack of Diamonds and the Four of Spades. As you tip the deck back down to horizontal, transfer the break to the left little finger.

If possible, allow some time to elapse as you begin the introduction into the effect. When you’re ready to cut the deck as required for the beginning phase of Shuffle-Bored, you first do what appears to be a straight cut. It’s not. Begin by swivel cutting all of the cards above the break into your left hand. As you place the remaining cards in the right hand on top of the cards in the left hand, you do the Kelly Bottom Placement. This brings the Nine of Diamonds to the bottom of the deck. Just above it is the Jack of Diamonds, and you are ready to begin the Shuffle Bored procedure by turning the deck face-up and spreading to the Six of Clubs. (It’s easy to find because it’s just three cards to the left of center.) Cut the deck between the Six of Clubs and the Eight of Diamonds, giving the slightly smaller group to the spectator and you continue with the standard Shuffle-Bored Effect. When you finish the trick, the deck is no longer in Aronson Stack order. But it is still in a sort of “Divided Deck” condition. Simon explains how you might take advantage of this on his web site.

Finally, in his brilliant book “Mnemonica” Juan Tamariz includes a procedure he calls the Anti-Faro. It was originally published in his book “Sonata.” There are several variations of this procedure. And we’re going to focus on the “Out-Anti-Faro 4” from page 322 of “Mnemonica.”

All of the procedures are designed to nullify the effects of one or more Faro Shuffles. I particularly like his ideas for justifying these procedures which appear on page 323 of

“Mnemonica.” Briefly, he claims that this is the surest way of completely mixing up a deck of cards and that’s why it’s used in the casinos in Monte Carlo. As he’s explaining this, he deals the deck out into 16 piles of cards and then reassembles them in what appears to be a very haphazard manner. In fact, it’s all carefully worked out to nullify a series of 4 out Faros he’s done before.

I think that this would be an excellent way to introduce a deck of cards and convince the

audience that it’s truly mixed up. Since it’s worked out to produce the same results every time, it can become what amounts to a very effective false shuffle. Not that it doesn’t change the order of the cards. It certainly does, but if we could calculate the proper starting position, then we could end up with the deck in any order we like.

I’ve done that for the Aronson Stack. Here it is for your use:

From the top down: 9D, JD, 5S, 2H, 6H, 8S, 3H, 9H, QH, AC, 4C, 4H, 2D, QS, 10D, 8C, 2C, 10C, 7S, 5C, 10H, AH, AS, 2S, 7H, 8D, 6S, 7C, 5H, 9C, 4D, 7D, QC, JH, AD, KC, 4S, QD, 9S, 3C, 3D, 6C, KS, 5D, 10S, 8H, KH, KD, 6D, JC, 3S, JS

With your deck preset in this order, you can introduce the cards, spread them to show they are fairly well mixed up, but then claim, as Tamariz does, that you are going to mix them in the surest manner possible, as done by the casinos in Monte Carlo. You then quickly deal the cards singly into 16 piles, and do either the one handed or two handed pickup explain by Tamariz on page 322 of Mnemonica.

One interesting feature of this stack is that several cards are already in their Aronson Stack positions. For example, the Ace of Clubs is at the tenth position, and the Two of Diamonds is at the 13^th position. This is fortuitous. It gives us a way to secretly introduce this deck into play.

Assume that this deck is in one of your pockets and you’re working with a second deck. Spot and then force either the Ace of Clubs of the Two of Diamonds. Either of these cards is in position to be spelled in the Aronson Stack, a feature that Simon built into the six cards from positions 10 to 15 in his stack. Once the card has been forced, it can be returned to the deck in any manner you like, and a spectator can shuffle the deck. Then, you place the deck into your pocket. For the first time, you ask the spectator to name his card. When he does, you reach into your pocket and pull out cards one at a time. You spell one letter of the card’s name with each card you remove. A-C-E-O-F-C-L-U-B-S, or T-W-O-OF-D-I-A-M-O-N-D-S. You put the first card face-up onto the table and place each card onto it. There appears to be no particular order to the cards. (Even to users of the Aronson Stack.) But, on the final letter, you bring out the chosen card itself. You then remove the rest of the deck and place it face-up on top of the tabled pile. The cards were removed from your stacked deck, of course, and at the conclusion of the trick you’ve switched in the stacked deck. You’re now ready to do the Tamariz Anti-Out-Faro 4 procedure and your deck will be in Aronson Stack order.

For those of you that have heard the buzz about the Loomis/Riser Micro Chop Cups for the past 2 years, be warned that Jim Riser will be producing the last of these during December of 2004.

After that, no more will be made and when the inventory is gone they will not be produced again.