Photo 1
Continue taking cards, alternating from the top and bottom of the deck, counting them silently as you do. Be sure to always take the cards under the growing packet. Stop when you have twenty cards in the right hand and drop the packet on top of the deck.
Put a Nail Crimp (see notes) into the bottom card of the deck and then move it to the top. Bring the deck into view, remarking that you’re experiencing some difficulty. Give the deck four or five straight cuts and hand it to Rowena. (Remember to keep your eyes closed the entire time!)
Ask her to spread through the deck with the cards facing her. She is to cut the cards so her card is on top of the deck when it is turned face down. Tell her to mentally count “one.” Now, very quietly, she is to move cards one a time from the bottom of the deck, counting them (starting with “two” until she reaches her mentally selected number. This procedure again places her card at its original position in the deck—she may spread the cards and look to verify that this is the case if she wants.
Once accomplished, take the deck from her and immediately bring it under the table again. Again, ask Rowena to concentrate. Turn the deck face up. Rub your right fingertips across the center
of the face card (photo 3). You’re feeling for the crimp. If you don’t feel it, take the card in the crotch of the right hand (photo 4) as you mentally count, “One.” Continue this procedure until you feel the crimped card. In our example, it would be the seventh card. Whatever the number is, it is Rowena’s mentally selected number! It is also the position from the top of the deck where her card now lies! Replace the right hand cards on the face of the deck and turn the deck face down. Spread down to the seventh card (photo 5) and bring it to the top (photo 6). (It’s important that you spread the cards rather than deal them. If you dealt them, Rowena could hear, and she’d realize that you know her number, which would spoil the climax.)
Here is the only time you open your eyes during the entire effect, and it is only for a moment. You need to get a glimpse of the card. Tilt your head forward slightly. Open only one eye just enough that you can see downward (if blindfolded, do the well-known peek down the side of the nose). As you bring the deck into view, do a bubble peek (see notes) to ascertain the identity of the card. As soon as you glimpse the card, close your eye and relax your grip.
“I asked you to concentrate, but I just realized I wasn’t specific enough. Were you concentrating on your number or on your card?” Whatever her answer, say you were trying to “receive the
Photo 3
Photo 4
Photo 5
other. If she says she was concentrating on both, explain that this is what caused the problem—her attention was split. “Let’s start
over. I’ll mix the cards and ask you to concentrate only on your chosen number.”
With your eyes still closed bring the deck above the table and do the following overhand jog shuffle (page 56) sequence: run six singly on top of the QC, injog one and shuffle off. As you grasp the deck for a second shuffle, get a right thumb break below the jogged card. Shuffle fairly to the break and then throw the remainder on top. The QC is now the seventh card from the top. Tell Rowena that you are going to deal cards one at a time, and she is to think, “Stop!” when you reach her number. Begin dealing off the top of the deck, counting aloud as you do. Start to take the eighth card. Pause as if uncertain and then put the eighth card back on the deck. “I felt something there, like I was
supposed to stop. Was your number seven?”
She admits it was. “Great! Now, I want you to concentrate on
your card!”
Keeping your eyes closed, you pass your hand over the top of the deck. “I sense that your card was a face card. It was a black
card. Was it the queen of clubs?” Stunned, Rowena answers in
the affirmative. Reach over to the tabled pile and turn over the top card. It is, indeed, the queen of clubs!
Notes: The Nail Crimp: Hold the deck in right hand Biddle Grip.
Slide the bottom card off the deck with your left hand. Using the nail of your right forefinger, press down on the center of the card (photo 7). Then turn your finger and press the nail on the card again to create an “x” (photo 8). This will cause an x-shaped bump or protrusion on the card, which you will be able to feel on the face.
Bubble Peek: With the deck in left dealers grip, curl the
fingertips onto the top card, holding it firmly in place. Bring the thumb to the upper left corner and push to the right. Since the card can’t move, it buckles, creating a “bubble” at the upper right corner, where you can see the index and identify the card (photo 9).
Credit Update: After sending a number of copies of this routine to friends of mine, I have been told that Bob Hummer put out a routine with this exact principle and very similar handling. However, he
scratched a card with a pin for the key instead of using the Nail Crimp, and he did not divine the card. He simply stopped at the number and had the person turn over their card. In the aspect of practicality (you don’t have to carry a pin around) and the added divination of the card, I feel mine is a superior routine. However, although I came up with the concept independently, Mr. Hummer’s routine pre-dates mine by several decades, and he deserves to be credited for it—the man was a genius and very prolific!
Photo 9 Photo 7
I
based this routine on two effects by Martin Nash. Thanks to the Guinn Utility Backslip, the handling is much easier. After performing this, people will be convinced you’re a card sharp. It’s totally impromptu and can be done with a borrowed deck. This is the perfect routine to do when someone says, “I’d hate to play cards with you!”I do need to mention that this routine is not for the beginner. You must be able to do a faro shuffle, which I will explain very briefly in the notes following the explanation of the routine.
Effect: You offer to demonstrate what you could do with a marked deck in a poker game. “I could read
the backs of the cards as easily as you read the faces. I’ll turn the aces face up in the deck so you can see how this would work.”
You place the face up aces into the deck, making sure they’re widely separated. You cut, shuffle twice, and cut again. You deal four hands of poker. All four aces come to you!
You replace the aces in the deck, this time face down. “If I were dealing in a real game and I got four
aces, I’d probably get shot! So I’d use a partner. I’d deal him the aces and we’d split the pot later.”
You ask Walt to designate which hand in a six-hand game he would like to represent your partner. We’ll assume he picked the third hand. This time you make absolutely no adjustments; no shuffling or cutting or anything. You deal out six hands and sure enough, the third has the four aces!
Setup: The only preparation is to put a Nail Crimp (page 76) into the bottom card of the deck.
Method and Performance: Remove the four aces as you explain that gamblers don’t have to mark all the
cards in a deck to gain an advantage; having just the aces marked provides a tremendous advantage. “If
these were marked, I could read them as easily from the back as you can from the front.”
To give them a chance to follow along, you reinsert the aces face up into four different parts of the deck, letting them protrude halfway from the front. Do the GUB Multiple Control to 2nd from Top with the four
aces. Afterwards, you’ll have four face up aces under the top card of the face down deck.
Undercut a small packet of five to eight cards from the bottom of the deck to the top. Do two faro shuffles. It doesn’t matter if they’re ‘in,” “out” or “straddle,” and they needn’t be perfect. The only part where the halves must weave perfectly is from the crimped card
to the bottom ace. (Also, you must be sure the aces and crimped card are in the same half each time you cut for the faro.) After the second faro, cut the crimped card to the bottom. Deal out four hands of poker. Your first card will be a face down indifferent card. The remaining four will be the face up aces (photo 1)! For the second phase, explain the need for a partner as mentioned in the effect description above. As you talk, gather all the dealt cards except the aces and shuffle them into the deck. Turn the aces face down and place them, widely separated, halfway into the deck. Do the GUB Basic Move, leaving the aces backslipped.
Let Walt dictate which of the five hands will be your partner. Photo 1
Assume he chooses the third hand. Deal six hands, performing the GUB False Deal to the third hand on the first four rounds. The last round is dealt fairly.
Set the deck aside. Turn over all the hands (including yours) except the third. Ask Walt to turn the cards in the third hand over, one at a time. The first card will be indifferent, followed by the four aces. Everyone will be convinced that you can do anything you want to with a deck of cards.
Notes: Briefly, a faro shuffle is one where the cards are placed end to end and caused to weave together
(photo 2). Unless otherwise specified, typically a faro shuffle is assumed to be a “perfect faro”—the deck is cut exactly in half and the two halves are perfectly interwoven, alternating every card from each packet (photo 3). An “in” faro means that the top and bottom cards are “in” the shuffle—the top card becomes second from top and the bottom card becomes second from bottom. An “out” faro is just the opposite— the top and bottom cards are “out” of the shuffle. The top card goes on top again and the bottom on bottom again as the rest of the deck weaves together. The faro shuffle is difficult and can take years to learn to do consistently. But there are many incredible things you can do with a faro that you can’t accomplish any other way. It is well worth learning. Roberto Giobbi’s Card College 3 is a great reference for a more detailed explanation.