(S. Bronx, New York City, NY: 11th December 1948 - 13th October 2023)
Learned at age 7 "as an offshoot of card playing and exposure to sleight of hand in street gambling." Pro card magician and professional gambler since leaving law school in 1973, specializing in close-up card magic and gambling exposés. Operated The Darwin Ortiz Gambling School in Manhattan 1979-82 when moved to Washington, DC. International consultant to casinos and police on gambling cheating methods.
1st edition 2004, video 1h 28min.
1st edition...
A deck is borrowed from one spectator and shuffled by another spectator. Darwin finds the four aces while his eyes are covered by the hands of a third spectator. He even discerns the suit of one of the aces by touch alone.
To pull this effect off you will need a bit of pre-show work.
runtime: 18min 28s
This is a nice routine where several times the black tens change into the red tens and then the red tens change into the black tens and it keeps changing like this several times. Performed in an off-beat manner this is a really strong effect.
runtime: 9min 49s
A commercial gambling routine.
Darwin starts with a little false dealing demonstration dealing seconds and then thirds, fourths or fifths. He continues to show how a cheat could use such dealing techniques. He attempts to deal the four Jacks to himself starting with the Jacks as the top four cards. However, he ends up dealing the four Jacks to his opponent and - as a climax - reveals that he has dealt himself the four aces.
Darwin teaches an easy faux 3rd-, 4th-, 5th- deal. You will need to be able to deal seconds. You will also need to be able to cull cards and do a Braue addition.
runtime: 7min 9s...
Effect: You display a heirloom deck from your grandfather that due to its frequent use has lost all faces - you display a blank deck. You place the Queen of Hearts (a blank card) on the table and the Joker (another blank card) in your breast pocket. Magically these cards turn into the real cards. On top of this entire deck has changed from a blank deck to a regular deck.
You will need to be able to do: a reverse fan, hindu shuffle, double lift.
runtime: 10min 17s
The four aces are removed from the deck and three spectators freely choose one card each. The three spectator cards are lost in the deck. Then one by one the four aces vanish to reappear face up in the deck and sandwiched between them the three spectator cards.
You will need to be able to do a pinky count, a sidesteal color change, and a cover pass. False shuffles are optional.
runtime: 11min 3s