Stacks in Cards

This ebook classifies and breaks down the methodology and nomenclature of stacked decks.

3rd edition 2015, 11 pages.

A fascinating combination of Biology and Numerology in this volume of Deckology. A deliciously novel flavour of "Scientific Mysticism". You will discover weird secrets in your deck of cards which will enthrall and mystify your audience. Every card trick of yours, especially card mentalism effects, will look more baffling and more interesting for the spectators when you build in this theme of "Scientific Mysticism".

Also included is some useful bonus information for magicians and mentalists for use in their patter and presentations.

1st edition 2015, 13 pages.

This is the story of the making of the Karma Deck. The various emotions, thoughts, incidents and most importantly the people involved in the making of it. The culmination of this story is the fact that Karma Deck reached the very top of the hot list on Lybrary and stayed there for over 100 days and continues to be among the top few.

1st edition 2015, 23 pages.

Si-Step is a system which enables you to know what card is at a given position in the deck or get the position of any named card. Specially developed for the original Stebbins Stack and for people who do not like mental arithmetic.

It was originally published in 2014 in Recycled Stebbins.

PDF 8 pages.

You will learn how to prepare the Si Stebbins stack with two faro shuffles.

runtime: 2min 37s

THE BIGGEST SNAG IN "EIGHT KINGS" OR "SI STEBBINS" EFFECTIVELY REMOVED.

Are you afraid of being caught when using a stacked deck of cards? Then you must know George Blake's system! No more fear of spreading the deck face up, if you know it.

From the introduction:

The Nikola Card System is more advanced than either the Si Stebbins or "Eight Kings" card systems. Even upon close examination pre-arrangement seems impossible with this system.

• Section 1: Argument
• Section 2: Curriculum
• Section 3: Utility
  • 1. "Stop"
  • 2. Cards By Weight
  • 3. Weighing Chosen Cards
  • 4. The Sense Of Touch
  • 5. Human Magnetism
  • 6. Locating
  • 7. Spelling
  • 8. To Spell Any Card Called For
  • 9. Thought Anticipated
  • 10. Unconscious Thought Transmission
  • 11. Wizard's Whist
  • 12. All Trumps
  • 13. The Spelling Bee,
  • 14. The Game Of Poker, And
  • 15. The Game Of "Nap"
  • 16. To Name The Position...

This is one of the books that Abbott published for the troops during wartime in the 1940's. It uses Si Stebbins system, except the step size is 4 rather than 3, also known as "The Riverboat Stack" or "Mark Twain Stack" (see New Card Tricks with the Mark Twain Stack). Routines can be performed with most other stacks.

• Foreword
• The Magic Card System: The Rules That Make It Work
• Effect Number One: A Skeptical Spectator Interrupts
• Effect Number Two
  • It Might Happen To You
  • Effect Number Two As Performed By Two Persons
• Effect Number Three
• Effect Number Four
• Effect Number Five
  • The Effect Done With An Assistant
• Effect Number Six ...

This is the first known publication of the Si Stebbins stack and several tricks that go along with it. It is a reproduction from the Sunday 18th December 1898 issue of the St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper.

1st edition, 1898; PDF 5 pages.

The Mark Twain stack is a Si Stebbins stack with a four-apart sequence in SHoCkeD order. It was first published in the February 1935 issue of Modern Mechanix and Inventions magazine. This is a reproduction of this article.

The Mark Twain stack, also called the Riverboat stack (see for example Magic Card System), due to the abundant gambling on Mississippi riverboats, gets its name from the practice on these riverboats to frequently having to measure the water depth. If it was two marks, pronounced 'mark twain', it was ok.

1st edition 1935; PDF 4 pages.

The venerable Sequeira stack from 1612 has been refurbished using the present day shadow concept. The Shadow Sequeira Stack allows to determine preceding and succeeding card as well as smooth translation from card to position and vice versa. The description of this universal stack is an exclusive extract from the author’s book In the Shadow Realm of Playing Cards.

version 2.02, 16 pages.

There are so many possibilities with a stacked deck, or better yet, "Impossibilities." That's because these decks look regular but what you can do with them quite casually can appear incredible. It's an old stack that's still worth its salt is, "The Si Stebbins Stack." It's sorta the granddaddy of this kind of amazing card magic. And it has a mathematical build to it that allows for a variety of other approaches as to magically finding a selected card and or knowing where or what a card is as to its position. This effect is a refreshing and fun way I found to make a bit more magic happen...

This series of Suit Ordering Systems is probably the world's first 'super store' for ordering suits. The main purpose of these various Suit Ordering Systems is to create a random sequence of suits while retaining a secret pattern visible only to the performer. The applicability of these SOS methods is for various stacks like memorized, algorithmic, mnemonic decks including Karma Deck, Rasik Deck, Yogik Deck, or Fun Stacks etc.

Initially SOS Vol 1 and SOS Vol 2 were released. Subsequently, SOS Vol 3 was released as part of Karma Deck Pro 11-ebook bundle. And now this latest volume contains a very easy method of randomizing...

Easy to learn, hard to detect. A booklet of routines that use the Si Stebbins stack.

This is an early publication by Hugh Johnston predating his larger Modern Card Miracles by several years. Includes research on its likely publication date by Chris Wasshuber.

• The Secret
• Rapid Counting
• Weighing the Cards
• To Tell the Center Card of Pack
• To Locate Any Card Called For
• To Have the Joker Tell You What Card is Drawn
• To Tell the Number and Suit Of As Many Cards As Are Drawn
• To Tell Card That Is Drawn While Blindfolded
• To Cut the Cards in Three Heaps and Tell Bottom Card of Each Heap
• Reading the Cards
• To Have Pack Cut and Name Bottom...

A series of letters, between an unidentified friend and his correspondent (William Frederick Pinchbeck) comprising of how to train a pig, invisible lady and acoustic temple, philosophical swan, penetrating spy glasses, several magic tricks, such as how to catch a bullet, and reflections on ventriloquism.

This book includes the first known description of the "Eight Kings" card stack.

1. Method of teach the Pig – from Letter I. to IX. See also Letter V. Appendix
2. Principles of the Acoustic Temple – from Letter IX. To XIV. See also Letter II. Appendix.
3. A Demonstration of the philosophical...

An apparent demonstration of total card mastery, this series of card effects entertains and baffles a lay audience. The magician names missing cards by glancing at a riffling pack, listens to the riffling cards to count packets or locate any card, and detects truth from lies by spelling with the cards.

1st edition 1988, 5 pages; PDF 6 pages.

You will learn stacks for 2 - 10 players which allow you to do the following:

Presentation: Bring out the card case and remove the cards. Briefly show the cards and hand the deck to one of the players. Have them cut the deck. And cut again. State that you think he (or she) is lucky and let them deal. He deals and he wins! They have no explanation. He cut the cards and dealt and you did not touch the deck after he cut the cards.

1st edition 2019, 16 pages.

Jack Yates was a very clever and innovative magician who has somehow stayed below the radar and is completely unknown - undeservedly so - to many particularly in the US. Jack's Pack is a clever stacking method for finding any card in a deck by way of using numbers, names, words, etc.

Edited and with additional notes by Ken de Courcy.

1st edition 1978, 8 pages; 1st digital edition 2017, PDF 10 pages.

More fun with the original Si Stebbins Stacked deck. Contains an explanation of the original Si Stebbins stack and how to set up any deck of cards in that order.

Four different effects using the stack:

Kind of a Four
The spectator chooses a card and the performer prognosticates what that card is by looking at 'indicator' cards. Eventually, the 'indicator' cards are shown to be the three 'mates', matching the value of the chosen card, making four of a kind in all.

Curried Stebbins
A version of Paul Curry's Out of this World where two spectators randomly pick cards and it transpires that one spectator chose all...

Two mentalism card routines.

Cut It Out

The spectator is asked to cut a regular packet of cards and to complete the cut by placing the bottom half on top. The performer ribbon spreads the cards face-down onto the table, inviting the spectator to slide any card from within the spread. The selection is at this stage kept face-down with its identity remaining unknown.

The packet is once again gathered up before the spectator is asked to again cut the deck into two piles. The position cut to is marked by placing the lower half of the deck onto the upper at a right angle. The selected card...

The deck is shuffled by the performer and then cut several times by the spectator. After, the spectator cuts the deck into four packets totally at random. No force. The magician will be able to divine not only the cards above but also the cards at the bottom of each packet. All this with a normal deck of cards. No marked cards. Instant reset.

1st edition 2022, video 18:54

If you are a fan of magic involving memorized decks or algorithmic stacks, you may wish to check out the following manuscript, called The Bart Harding Secret. As many of you may know, Darwin Ortiz published a method of transforming a deck from New Deck Order (NDO) into Si Stebbins order, which he called the The Si Stebbins Secret. Similarly, the Bart Harding Secret describes how to transform a deck from NDO to the Bart Harding Stack (BHS). Although the Si Stebbins stack is highly versatile, one drawback is that it does not look very random, and so many magicians will not use it for effects in which the...

Effect: Two people each select a card. The performer then shuffles the deck by giving it a riffle shuffle. The spectators take the deck and returned the cards with the deck in their own hands in such a manner that there can be no suspicion of trickery. The two cards are not forced.

The performer now spreads the deck face up on the table so all the faces are in full view. The first card is found by contact mindreading (apparently). The first spectator holds the performer's wrist while he moves his fingers over the face up cards. Suddenly, the performer's finger drops down on a card and it...

Best of the Best is an effect that makes most of the potential of the pre-ordered deck. But don't worry because to perform it you will not need memory work and no complicated mathematical operations. Everything is super impossible but really simple to do. Three divinations plus a prediction, a surprising climax. The method behind this effect is truly amazing and fascinating.

• A normal deck
• No memory work
• No complicated mathematical operations
• No gimmick

1st edition 2022, video 17:34.

This is a new self-working card trick: the viewer will choose two cards, to represent the law and by means of which he will get two more cards, lost in the deck, which he will then divide into four bundles. Over the course of two separate stages, the spectator himself will insert the "sheriffs" within the deck, as arbitrarily as possible. The decks will be shuffled, cut and completed but, despite a thousand adversities, the two "sheriff" cards will succeed in tracking down and capturing the two "outlaws," generated by the combination of the first two cards, chosen at random.

The legend...

A minimalist storytelling mentalism card routine.

"This is a truly thoughtful and beautiful presentation - the sort of thing that really warms my heart. The presentation here is the thing. And what's really nice about it, is that it is easily adaptable to other effects if one so desires. I love it!" - Sudo Nimh

A special competition was underway at a famous monastery and all the monks were quite eager to do well. The Master had pointed out a very special tree that lived in the woods surrounding the monastery grounds and the monks had been asked to write a story about this tree. The winner...

An easy-to-calculate version of the Si Stebbins stack.

The name 'Snibbets' (Stebbins reversed) was coined by Rusduck. It denotes a reversed Si Stebbins stack where instead of adding 3 to get to the next card's value one substracts 3. The first to publish a negative step version was Ernest Hammond in The Magic of Tomorrow. While this may seem a rather inconsequential change, it has some advantages over the classic Si Stebbins stack. In this ebook, Dr. Solka takes you through the details of this lesser-known version of Si Stebbins.

1st edition 2022, PDF 19 pages.

An incredible stack that was worked out by hand at a time when computers were not available. The experts were impressed:

"In actual play, that would get the money." - Dai Vernon

"... the best stack since Rusduck's. - Ross Bertram

"... interesting and has possibilities at the gaming table." - Faucett Ross

"... Ned, you've come across a real gem, don't tip it." - Orville Meyer

"Vernon should see this." - Francis Carlyle

The spectator takes a shuffled deck. The spectator makes a choice of the type of poker to be played:

• Straight Poker
• Stud Poker ( 5 – 6 – or 7 card)
• Blackjack
• Draw Poker

This is a collection of three similar but distinct publications by Si Stebbins, explaining his famous card stack and various tricks one can do with it. These three are reproduced in facsimile but made searchable with added bookmarks for easier navigation.

The first one has the title "Si and Mary Stebbins" and opens with a wonderful photo of Si and his wife Mary, original Barnum & Bailey Rube. It was printed by Press of Rex Printing House in Philadelphia. No publishing date is given but must be after 1913*. It features the system, rules, and 10 tricks followed by an additional section on Pinochle,...

Resolving the alternating color issue of the Si Stebbins stack

You can now use the easy Si Stebbins stack without guilt. The alternating color issue has been resolved. Use it with confidence. Continue to perform every effect you already perform with the Si Stebbins stack, with the alternating black/red color issue resolved.

Included in this updated PDF Alexandre's closely guarded presentation/effect using this stack (or any stack for that matter!) "MENTAL STEBBIN - The Predictive Physiological Anticipation Effect".

This was one of my first offerings to the Magic and Mentalism community...

We all think we know the Si Stebbins Stack, so did I, until I dug a bit deeper. This publication describes the stack used by Si Stebbins himself and it's not the old favourite that we all know and love.

Not just a one-trick pony, a deck of cards set up in the Si Stebbins System can be used to build a complete card routine, consisting of many different card effects. Six such effects are described and explained in this text. Also included is a simple diary or planner with a named card at every date, which can be used in the "Planner Ahead" effect.

Plus you get a new, 'low maintenance' method...

"The only people who speak of the difficulties of the memorising a deck of cards are those who've never seriously tried to learn one." - Simon Aronson

A complete card-act with patter.

This ebook describes moves and routines for a stacked deck. The authors are using the Si Stebbins stack, but most of what is taught applies to other stacks, memorized or algorithmic. At the very end a simply two person code is taught.

Dornfield, President of the Chicago Society of Magicians writes in The Sphinx magazine, November 1919 page 209:

Excerpt from the introduction:

• Progressive Poker Hands
• Poker Memory
• The Ten Game Challenge
• The Seven Game Stack ...

The "ultimate" fishing stack!

Using an ungimmicked deck of cards you can have a participant select, think, deal down to or look at one or two cards in the deck. You instantly start to describe aspects of the cards until you reveal both.

I truly believe this to be the ultimate fishing deck ever devised using a normal deck. No markings, no rough and smooth, no short cards, no misprints. Use a 100% normal deck.

Comes with two routines to get you started and some tips on how to present fishing questions.

1st edition 2023, PDF 7 pages.

Boris is probably best known for his 'Boris Wild Marked Deck', which he describes here in detail. (For the right material to prepare your Boris Wild Marked Deck please see here.) He also teaches his version of a memorized deck, which you can learn in 6 minutes, because there is a system, a formula if you will, to it. And particularly the combination of his marked deck and his memorized deck allow you to fulfill your Wild-est effects.

If that is not enough then you will also learn the Kiss Count. The Kiss Count is a new move in cardmagic. Thanks to it, you will be able to pretend you have four...

Deck switching: The act of secretly switching one deck for another during play.

The Cold Deck is a collection of deck-switching techniques by Daniel Madison. The ebook teaches six techniques for secretly and invisibly switching the deck in play in thorough detail. It also includes Slaine, a device that holds or feeds the cold deck to the cheat without suspicion.

The following techniques are included in this ebook:

• Patch
• Slaine
• Veil
• Grit
• Ott
• Heat

1st edition 2011, 16 pages.

Those who have used it agree that it's one of the easiest and potent stacks in the world of stacked decks. A work of over 10 years that finally is seeing light in this ebook.

New properties and deep study about the DaOrtiz stack. Divination, coincidences, exhibitions of skill… all in 134 pages complete with photographs.

But what properties comprise the DaOrtiz stack? In addition to the properties of all stacks, like how to find and control cards, this stack supports the abilities to:

• Get to stack from a new deck
• Show it to the spectators
• Ability to move to red-black alternating...

Now includes "The Dan Harlan Subtlety" an exciting alternative handling proposed by Dan Harlan. Also includes some cool additional ideas proposed by Robin Gillett.

Deckciting deckxamples of deckceptional and decksplosive memory deckshibition and mind reading decksperiments with any memorized / algorithmic deck including Karma Deck.

A unique 7 phase memory and mind reading routine where the deck is genuinely shuffled by multiple spectators. Can be done with any stack where knowing the card at any position and the position of any card is possible, like the Karma Deck.

No peeking or switching. Self working and hands...

Five elegant routines. Simple and self-working. Long lasting lingering impact. No forces. Novel and refreshing presentation themes, patter pieces and scripting bits.

1. JUNE -- Performed using participant's month of birth. Participant chooses two cards related to her birth month this year and the next. And you have predicted both.
2. U -- Performed using participant's first name (NOT a spelling effect). Participant chooses two cards related to his first name and you have predicted both.
3. TRYST -- You show a participant your prediction in advance and she successfully transmits it telepathically...

A classik twist to a classik stack. Now this 2nd edition includes a printable image of the Rasik Deck stack for visual practice and a cool method suggested by Rick Silberman for getting into the Rasik Deck stack from new deck order.

A Shocked Duchess became Si Stebbins' Karma (Destiny). If Si Stebbins would have learnt the Karma Deck this would have been the result. The Rasik Deck is the surprising result of applying the Karma Deck principle to the age old Si Stebbins stack. And added to this is a novel method of using existing suit systems to create a random suit sequence. So the final end result is a fabulously refreshing stack with many...

SOS Vol.1 gives you a set of 4 simple rules with which one can generate 24 different suit sequences. These suit sequences can be applied to any stacked deck including the Karma Deck or Rasik Deck or Sloka Deck.

Even though there are many, many different types of stacked decks available, when it comes to generating unique and random suit sequences there are very few options available like chased, shocked etc whose red/black alternating pattern may become a limiting factor sometimes. The objective of Suit Order Systems is to fill this gap. Also, this could be very useful if you are also a creator of...

This SOS series is probably the "world's first superstore for ordering suits".

• Can be easily applied to any memorized, algorithmic or mnemonic deck systems including the memorythmic Karma Deck system or Rasik Deck or Sloka Deck.
• Provides more sufficiently random alternatives to the popular red/black alternating systems like CHaSeD, SHoCkeD, DuCHeS etc.
• Given any number 1-52, you know the suit instantly.
• Allows you to create your own personal stack.
• This volume gives you two sets of 4 simple rules. With each set you can generate up to 24 random and unique suit sequences.
• Also included is a recipe...