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Winning WinnowingJon Racherbaumer Ways To End Up With the Only Thing You Want
From the introduction:
This paper is an introductory effort yearning to be a disquisition. Please forgive its discursive style. So far, this recondite subject has resisted an in-depth, organized treatment. The subject at hand is an exploration of reduction and the process of indirectly seeking information. Or, to use the jargon term, it is about elimination and fishing as applied to card magic—more specifically to the Think of a Card effect.
- Two Ways to Convincingly Disclose One of Two Possibilities
- A Card That Lies, A Deck That Tells...
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WhispersJon Racherbaumer This treatise is a detailed exploration of a glorified location-divination, framed by a whimsical conceit - namely that an inanimate object - a playing card - is the supposed agency that makes the entire trick work. In this regard it was an effort to upgrade an essentially puerile divination effect.
Here is the basic approach or plot: The way the performer learns the identity of a freely selected card is apparently due to enlisting the assistance of another playing card (usually a Queen), which whispers the name of the selection to the magician. The magician then acts as the Queen's proxy... | ★★★★★ $12 to wish listPDF |
Virtual VisitationsJon Racherbaumer Diving into double-back transits.
- Jennings' Visitor: The spectator selects a card and the performer places it between two black Queens. The card becomes restless and upon command leaves the black Queens and is found face-up between two red Queens. Upon command, once again the card jumps from the red Queens back between the black Queens. The selected card may be initialed.
- The Visitor Sans Deck / Dave Solomon: Four Kings and four Jacks are removed from the deck. The Kings and Jacks are separated into two fours of a kind and are placed as two packets on the table. A spot card is selected from the...
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Unlimited 3.0Norm Osborn & Edward Marlo & Jon Racherbaumer  This manuscript explores in detail the possibilities of the 'Double Count'. As the title implies, the possibilities seem unlimited. After reading this PDF you will surely come up with your own variations and takes on the effects presented. The Double Count in its basic form is to show five cards absolutely cleanly as six. One of the five cards is a double facer.
1st edition 1953, 2nd edition 1983, 3rd edition 2002, 48 pages.
Table of Contents
- The Card Goes Home (Norm Osborn)
- Improved Double Count (Edward Marlo)
- Effect One
- Effect Two
- Effect Three
- Effect Four
- Effect Five
- Effect...
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TwixtJon Racherbaumer Reviving "Between the Palms" one of Alex Elmsley's most offbeat plots. This is sort of a "locked room" mystery with playing cards.
It is an offbeat plot because the implicit aspects of effect, particularly its climax, are not immediately understood or appreciated. Yet the effect still has an emotional impact. Compared to other card tricks being done in 1952 it was very different. (Perhaps its closest cousins may be Fred Braue's "The Prechosen Chosen Card" from The Gen (February 1962) or Brother John Hamman's "Signed Card.")
Effect: The performer removes a card from the deck and, without showing its face, places it between... | $15 to wish listPDF |
Trix FixesJon Racherbaumer
- LEITMOTIFS
- Copycat Cards
- Rashomonian Universal Card
- Counting a Conclave
- LOCUS POCUS
- Mine Finds Yours
- A Narrow Margin
- Bubkus Divination
- No-Frills Invisible Toss
- PUZZLETS
- Changling Sandwich
- Another Challenge
- Easy O. Henry
- Recliner Mind Reader
- Either-Oracle
1st edition 2020, PDF 39 pages. | $10 to wish listPDF |
TosherooniqueJon Racherbaumer From the Foreword:
"Tosheroon" is an odd but memorable name. It sounds amusing and somewhat incantatory - especially for a card trick. Bob Driebeck, who dubbed it, knew that the word was Cockney slang for a half-crown, which is also the type of coin he used to perform this offbeat card trick.
The basic effect is a transformation done with an impediment in place - the impediment or obstruction in this case is a coin, which is placed onto the face of the card that eventually changes.
Effect: A card is selected and lost in the deck. Then a borrowed coin is marked and placed onto the face... | ★★★★★ $12 to wish listPDF |
Timely TrickeryJon Racherbaumer While we all intuitively understand what time is, even a child can tell you what time it is, it is a hard concept to fully understand from a scientific point of view. It is hard to define, and wrap your head around. That is part of the intrigue of making it the topic of a magic effect. Particularly for an interested and sophisticated audience it can be a very effective plot line. Jon Racherbaumer explores how magicians have made use of it over the decades, and he has unearthed some remarkable gems.
- Preface
- Foreword
- An Unusual Plot Emerges
- The Charmed Watch
- Charles Wicks
- Precursors
...
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Tickling TekelJon Racherbaumer From the Introduction:
The purpose of this compilation is to incentivize and "tickle" students to reexamine the Mene-Tekel deck and reconsider its possibilities. This has been done before and as recently as 2003 when Chris Wardle (via Paul Hallas) published a 27 page booklet titled Investigating the Mene-Tekel Deck (Magic's Forgotten Trick Deck).
...
We begin with Ed Marlo's groundbreaking addition of what he called the Roughed Mene-Tekel. We end with ends with David Britland's clever routines. In between there the other contributions are meant to provide further context and stimulation - enough to tickle anyone's fancy. At least that's the presumptive impulse that led to its creation.
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Thirty Years Ago: Contributions to the New PentagramJon Racherbaumer These are Jon Racherbaumer's contributions to the New Pentagram Magazine from 1979.
- Surprising the Princess: ESP card effect with a surprise ending that will whack you down.
- Simplex Mental Reverse
- Magical Separate Colors
- King-Currence
- Still Another Lie Detector
articles first appeared 1979; 14 pages | $5 to wish listPDF |
The Universal Card ExpandedJon Racherbaumer More than 40 years ago Jon Racherbaumer wrote a book on the Universal Card plot introduced by Karl Fulves. This is an updated and expanded version.
- By Any Other Name – Karl Fulves
- Universal Card – Robert Parrish
- Universal Card – Francis Haxton
- Universal Ghost – Roy Walton
- Universal Mexican – Roy Walton
- Universal Joker – Horace Bennett
- Reflection – Edward Marlo
- Hypnotic Card – Edward Marlo
- Favorite Universal – Edward Marlo
- Universal Solutions – Edward Marlo
- Universal IV – Edward Marlo
- Tout’s Universal – Edward Marlo
- The Chameleon Card – Jon Racherbaumer
- Universal...
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The Universal CardJon Racherbaumer This ebook explores variations on the Universal Card theme, is part of the Yod series. Universal Card is a classic card plot in which a single card (like the joker) transforms to one at a time to match each of the selected cards. Originally posed by Karl Fulves in his Pallbearers Review, where he used the term "Universal Card", a name that caught on.
- The Hypnotic Card
- Marlo's Favorite Universal
- Universal Solutions
- Universal IV
- Tout's Universal
- The Chameleon Card
- Universal Combine
- Hypno-Versal Way
- Cervon's Universals
- More Universals
- Not Quite Ambiguous Universal
- Full-Circle Universal
- Open-Faced...
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The Too Perfect TheoryJon Racherbaumer Can a magic trick be too perfect? Too impossible? Well, opinions differ. Some of the most prominent minds in magic disagree. Reading these essays will help you form your own personal opinion on this fundamental question. The theorists are:
[Note that this collection of essays is also part of the Ask Roberto Giobbi ebook.
1st edition 2008; 61 pages.... | ★★★★★ $5 to wish listPDF |
The Legendary Kabbala (1971-1981) (used)Jon Racherbaumer Hardcover with dust jacket. Like new condition. For details on the content see the digital edition. | $150 to wish list |
The Legendary Kabbala (1971-1981)Jon RacherbaumerThe meaning of Kabbala, translated from Hebrew, means something received and handed down. This definition resonates. Knowledge of magic, after all, is handed down from generation to generation, from magician to magician, and from teacher to disciple. Prior to xerography and personal computers, most magical knowledge was transmitted in this primitive, semi-private, and intimate means. Word-of-mouth reigned supreme and to a certain extent still does.
The magic scene in the Seventies was a blooming, buzzing place, atwitter with contentiousness and creativity. Close-up magic, particularly with... | ★★★★★ $49.50 to wish listPDF_facsimile |
The Last HierophantJon Racherbaumer Impromptu Effects
- One Fantastic Move (Edward Marlo)
- The Joker Reads Minds (Edward Marlo)
- One Thru Four Elevator (Dave Solomon)
- You Did It Again! (Edward Marlo)
- You Did It Again And Again! (Edward Marlo)
- Black-Hole Card Switcheroo (Edward Marlo)
- A Way Out (Danny Korem)
Strictly Technical
- Moving Monte Switch (Chuck Smith)
- Sleeper Shank Shuffle (Edward Marlo)
- The Marnase Change And Vanish (Edward Marlo)
- The Double Erdnase Change (Edward Marlo)
- Darting Double (Jon Racherbaumer)
- Center Double (Jon Racherbaumer)
- Marlo's Swivel Cull (Edward Marlo)
- Snap Pass (Jon Racherbaumer)
...
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The Hierophant 5 and 6Jon Racherbaumer Issue 5:
- Publisher's Palaver
- Hurley's Automatic Boston Box
- Coin Concatenation
- Ambush
- An Easy Ambush
- A Clean Ambush
- Let's Ambush and Kill "The Collectors"
- Dingle's "Collectors"
- All You Had To Do Was Watch And Still You're Not Happy
- "Collect Double"
- Marlo's Visual Retention Change
- Marlo's Technical Variation of the Veeser Concept
- Almost Like Trick Cards
- Estimations
- The "Too Perfect" Theory
- Dunbury's Delusions
- Riffs of Henry Christ
- A Dialogue with Merritt
- The Satiricon
- Further Cardmanship - part two
Issue 6:
- Notes on a Miracle
- Have Another Sandwich
- Variation...
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The Hierophant 3 and 4Jon Racherbaumer Issue 3:
- Major Arcana
- Hurley's Chinese Enigma
- Repeat Signed Card To Case
- Signature Transposition
- Simplex or Comples
- Minor Arcana
- Cervon's Dealing the Flush
- Allan Ackerman's The Fickle Card's Fingered Fate
- The Professor's Incubus
- Card-Nundrums
- Roy Walton's Friendly Persuasion
- 3 to the power of 2 Deal Duplicated
- The Satiricon
- La Fleury, Pagan Cardicienne
- Dove Droppings From All Over
- Ask the Millwright
- Olram Returns
- Convincing Control
- Marlo on the Charlier Pass
- Variant of Hit Second Deal
- The Surprise Packet
- Signed Card In ...
- No-turn Triumph
- Tilt Collectors
...
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The Hierophant 1 and 2Jon Racherbaumer Issue 1:
- Proem
- Marlo Handles the Open Prediction (10 Variations, 15 Methods)
- Addition to Marlo's "Matching Miracle"
- Heldman's out of this World Clean-Up
- Estimations: Faro Fantasy, Finagling, and Paul Swinford
- The Satiricon
- Cardmanship
- Footnote to Ferris
- Mirabile Dictu
- Excerpt from a Dialogue Overheard at a Convention
- Postscript
Issue 2:
- New Fangled Glimpse Anthology
- If Glimpse
- Fi Glimpse
- Spring Glimpse
- Neo-Piquant Glimpse
- Marlo's Beveled Deck Glimpse
- Turn Around Center Glimpse
- Marlo Stalks the Ultimate Sandwich
- Marlo's "Collectors"
- Alternatives for the "Collectors"
...
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The Gemini MotifJon Racherbaumer The Gemini Motif is an apparently fair-looking, semiautomatic dealing procedure that forces two, three, or four
cards, depending on its application.
- Introduction
- The Gemini Motif: Background of the Gemini Motif
- The Basic Automatic Placement Procedure
- Junking Gemini (Jon Racherbaumer)
- Blushing Gemini (Jon Racherbaumer)
- On Perfection Day (Henry Evans)
- Caster & Pollux (Allan Slaight)
- Multiple Gemini (Al Thatcher)
- Free Will Refutation (Jon Racherbaumer)
- Collected Bibliography
1st edition 2016, 31 pages. | ★★★★★ $10 to wish listPDF |
The Complete Gypsy Switch HandbookJon Racherbaumer Note that different moves and techniques have been called 'Gypsy Switch' over the decades. See for example a technique to switch bills using an envelope: Gypsy Switch. The technique described here by Jon Racherbaumer uses a handkerchief and is mostly used with coins, but the basic technique is flexible and utilitarian, which means any object that is conveniently flat and compact can be switched for a similar object, using a handkerchief. This includes objects such as coins, poker chips, billets, cards (business and torn playing card pieces), and folded currency.
In its antecedent form this move appeared... | ★★★★★ $12 to wish listPDF |
The Ascanio SpreadJon Racherbaumer The Ascanio Spread is a beautiful false display move, generally used to display 4 cards and hide a fifth one.
From the Introduction:
The Ascanio Spread immigrated to this country from Amsterdam. Del Cartier, Herb Zarrow, Mike Rogers, and Pete Biro were instrumental in bringing this technique to America. In fact, Del Cartier is a close personal friend of Ascanio and was the go-between in obtaining the original Ascanio manuscript for Mike Rogers, who in turn passed it on to me.
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- To Begin
- Racherbaumer Variation
- Some Comments On The Mechanics Of The...
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Synergistic SandwichesJon Racherbaumer Sandwich tricks, long popular with cardmen, are nothing more than glorified locations. What makes them a little different is that the selections are found at specific places: between two other cards. Perhaps the best way to present these stunts is to perform a few in a rapidfire, successive way—each phase following the preceding one in a logical, progressive way. Also, each phase should be stronger than the preceding
one. When such phases unfold in this manner, the overall impression will likely have more impact and be memorable.
And this is exactly what Racherbaumer has engineered in... | ★★★★★ $10 to wish listPDF |
Super-CutsJon Racherbaumer The methods explained in this manuscript involve cutting a deck to ostensibly change its order. They are semi-automatic because minimal dexterity is required. Otherwise they are subtle in seductive ways and all of
them are completely or partially false.
The false cut triggering this manuscript is Jay Ose's False Cut that was auspiciously introduced to magicians by Harry Lorayne. This false cut eventually made its way into the repertoires of card specialists, but early on it was primarily meant to be easily and quickly performed after false shuffling. It was to the point, expressing a pleasing, sixbeat... | ★★★★★ $10 to wish listPDF |
SunkenJon Racherbaumer A deep dive into a key principle - the sunken key card.
- So It Begins ...
- Adding the Pips / Larsen - Wright
- Automatic Location / Oscar Weigle Jr.
- The Three Pile Trick / C. W. Jones
- The Twenty-Sixth Location
- The Triple Discovery / Charlie Miller - Jack McMillen
- Watching the Pitchman / Charlton Chute
- Improved Twenty-Sixth Location
- Middle Maze / Bruce Elliott
- The Twenty-Sixth Card Location - Using a Corner Short / George G. Kaplan
- Koran's Miracle Card Stab / Al Koran
- A New Use for a One Dollar Bill / John Henry Grossman
- Buried Treasure / Alex Elmsley
- Shadowed / Alex Elmsley
- S-D Location / Dave Solomon - Steve Draun
- S-D Plus / Simon Aronson
- An Exploration...
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Streamlining DiscernmentsJon Racherbaumer A treatise on how to determine a thought of card.
1st edition 2011; 52 pages.... | ★★★★★ $15 to wish listPDF |
Sticks and Stones: a leaflet for the left handJon Racherbaumer Racherbaumer, a man of words - sometimes strong words, sometimes exotic words, sometimes provocative words, sometimes strange words - but always thoughtful and worth reading, wrote a two year column in The Greater Son of the Bat Jr. journal (S.O.B.jr.). All 24 installments of this column are collected here. You will find a lot of Marlo-vian talk, good tricks and interesting articles.
I was not a magician in the late 70s, so I cannot say how it was back then in the 'good old times', but reading Sticks and Stones allowed me to imagine how - I am sure - it must have been.
- EFFECTS ALPHABETICALLY
...
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Speeding BulletsJon Racherbaumer A survey of the seven-card assembly.
This ebook is a survey of the Seven-Card Assembly, a subcategory of Ace Assembly. Its name due to the number (7) of principal cards used, which makes it different from other Ace Assemblies. Standard versions use sixteen cards - four Aces and twelve X-cards - and when the preliminary layout is made, the Aces are dealt into a T-formation and three X-cards are placed onto each Ace. In a Seven-Card Assembly three X-cards are added
onto only three of the Aces. The Leader Ace lies alone. This reduces the duration it takes to set the stage. Then the four Aces... | ★★★★★ $15 to wish listPDF |
Shades of WowJon Racherbaumer Elucidations of a classic card trick: The Biddle Trick
The basic plot is fairly straightforward: A card is selected and in the process of determining its identity it is winnowed down to five possibilities. Then, in a surprising act of differentiation, the selection disappears from this five–card packet and reappears elsewhere. In most cases, the selection ends up face up in the middle of a spread deck. This trick has been variously named but ultimately it was christened "The Biddle Trick", named after Elmer Biddle who published the trick in Genii magazine in 1947. It marks the first appearance of the well-known... | ★★★★★ $10 to wish listPDF |
Rub-a-Dub DigestJon Racherbaumer
ABOUT RUB-A-DUB: The rhyme is of a type calling out otherwise respectable people for disrespectable actions, in this case, ogling naked ladies - the maids. The nonsense "Rub-a-dub-dub" develops a phonetic association of social disapprobation, analogous to "tsk-tsk," albeit of a more lascivious variety.
The Rub-a-Dub Move's inauspicious beginning began in 1909 at a time when, relatively speaking, magicians had a limited number of utilitarian sleights and techniques at their disposal. Besides, the Rub-a-Dub Move happened in
the blink of an eye and was only an offbeat way to make a card disappear.
... | ★★★★★ $12 to wish listPDF |
Robert Walker's Hyper TwistJon Racherbaumer Effect: Four blue-back cards are shown. One at a time each card - the Ace, Two, Three, and Four of Diamonds - turn face up. Their backs then change to red and then one at a time the backs change back to blue. Finally, the cards change to four Fours of Diamonds.
1st edition 1975 in Paul Diamond Presents Magical Masterpieces #2, updated 2018, PDF 15 pages. | ★★★★★ $8 to wish listPDF |
Red-Hot Mamas: 17 Ways and MeansJon Racherbaumer This manuscript is a compilation of methods in order to identify and track its history. In the process, it hopes to show how a given trick evolves, sometimes devolves, and ultimately reflects the periods of time this process has occurred.
The trick in this case is the "Red-Hot Mama" or "The Chicago Opener," a presentation that has been around for
almost 60 years and has been a useful, dependable and enduring workhorse.
In its basic form it is an effect where a card is selected. Its back changes color and is set aside. A second card is selected, lost in the deck, and the initial selection... | ★★★★★ $15 to wish listPDF |
Real-Gone AcesJon Racherbaumer The 'Real-Gone Aces' problem is a side branch of the classic four Ace trick. In the classic you place four aces on the table, then put three indifferent cards on each ace, and magically all aces end up in the same pile. In the 'Real-Gone Aces' plot which was originated by Marlo, after correspondence with Neal Elias, three aces vanish to join an isolated leader ace.
If this plot appeals to you then you will learn a good number of variations on it in this ebook. And I am sure, if you are the kind of guy or gal who enjoys reading such detail filled descriptions of finesses and fine points, then... | ★★★★★ $5 to wish listPDF |
Psi-VJon Racherbaumer A retrospective look at Dai Vernon's Five-Card Mental Force.
- Introduction
- The Prototypal Version From Early Vernon
- A Woolgather's Aside
- My Skirmish with the Five-Card Mental Force
- 30 Years Passed
- Five Card Mental Farce / David Acer
- Max on Five-Card Mental Force / Max Maven
- Outtings
- Rescuing the Five-Card Mental Force / Allan Slaight
- The Ultra Effect / Paul Rylander
- Dai-Cipher / Phil Goldstein
- I Have It / Edward Marlo
- Psyboards / Tom Frame
- Indisputably Predictable / Jon Racherbaumer
- Post Mortem
1st edition 2020, PDF 32 pages. | ★★★★★ $10 to wish listPDF |
Processean PrincessJon Racherbaumer Henry Hardin's plot has been around for 107 years and his initial three methods are explained in The Art of Magic (1909). Card tricks of this kind were atypical when Hardin devised his trick. During his time, spectators physically picked cards. They seldom, if ever, mentally selected them. Because only five cards are used in "The Princess Card Trick," Hardin strengthened the challenge by finding the mental selection by tactile means while the five "possibilities" were in his pocket.
This is how the his trick appeared to audiences: Five cards are shown to a spectator who is asked to think of one of them.... | ★★★★★ $12 to wish listPDF |
PocketherealJon Racherbaumer As a plot, Cards Across is fairly simple and direct. It's a transition effect where a number of cards - usually three - magically travel from one packet to another. There are methods that use gimmicked cards, others use purely sleight-of-hand.
This manuscript is an exploration of subtle methods based on Stewart James' "Pockethereal." Its selling point is that there are no switches or exchanges. The only sleight of hand is the false counts. This put it in a class by itself.
- INTRODUCTION
- POCKETHEREAL (Stewart James)
- POCKETHEREAL, MINUS POCKETS (Bert Fenn)
- POCKETHEREAL MINUS POCKETS (Edward Marlo)
- CLARIFIED PACKETHEREAL...
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Playing CanastaJon Racherbaumer The presentations in this manuscript are homage to the nonmanipulative, off-the-cuff approach taken by Chan Canasta.
The material is stuff Jon has published elsewhere, mostly piecemeal. The thrust of the ebook, though, is how these effects are PRESENTED in a CANASTA WAY. This then is its organizing principle. It is basically designed to demonstrate Canasta's approach. The material is easy and commercial.
- INTRODUCTION
- KISS MET
- OPTICUNNING CUTTING
- SOMATIQUE
- TACITRIX
- VOCALYSIS
- THE JOKER EATS YOUR MIND
- UNTOUCHABLY YOURS
1st edition 2016, 25 pages. | ★★★★★ $8 to wish listPDF |
Picnic PocusJon Racherbaumer This manuscript is about one trick that incorporates a seminal sorting procedure now given the name Belcho's Disbursive Deal. Over the years the trick eventually morphed into an organized compilation that shares the same identifiable title: "Poker Player's Picnic."
It begins with Vernon Lux, an enterprising amateur who founded the International Society of Junior Magician in 1931 and began a magazine called The Dragon in 1932. Therein Oscar Weigle had a column called "Themes and Schemes" where he explained a trick called "The Million to One Trick." (Later it was changed to
"Belchou's Aces.") It's unclear... | ★★★★★ $18 to wish listPDF |
Piano RolesJon Racherbaumer Jon loves to collect, compare, and organize tricks into themes and plots. This is his latest work on the piano trick.
WHAT IS THE PIANO TRICK?
A spectator places his hands palm down on the table in the same way a pianist places his hands on a keyboard. Then pairs of cards are placed between the spectator's fingers to set the stage. These pairs are then fairly removed to form two equal piles. An extra or "odd" card is added to one of the piles. Then, without any further movements or fanfare, the "odd" card inexplicably travels to the other pile.
- Introduction
- At The Beginning
- Thoughts...
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Pasteboard PermutationsJon Racherbaumer
- A WHIM-WHAM WARM-UP: Warmed Over Rhetoric
- KINDS OF PERMUTATIONS
- FIRST PERMUTATION: HUMMA-HUMMA-HUMMER
- SECOND PERMUTATION
- PERMUTATION THREE: VALUE-SUIT, SUIT-VALUE (Jon Racherbaumer)
- PERMUTATION FOUR: WHY IS THIS ODD CARD SO QUEER? (Jon Racherbaumer)
- PEMUTATION FIVE: THE LAST GAME (David Britland)
- PERMUTATION SIX: BILE AND BLOOD (Jon Racherbaumer)
- PERMUTATION SEVEN: PURIST CARD PUZZLE (Edward Marlo)
- PERMUTATION EIGHT: MR. FOGG TRACKED DOWN (Steve Reynolds)
1st edition 2013, 49 pages. | ★★★★★ $10 to wish listPDF |
