Stacks in Cards: page 1

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.

A comprehensive treatise devoted to a brilliant cyclical stack system for professional magicians and mentalists.

This ebook covers the topic in great detail, including ten lessons for learning the system, plus how to use the Magi System to its utmost, including clever false cuts and shuffles that'll hide the fact that a setup is used at all. Also included are mechanical methods that can optionally be combined with the Magi System to make it even better.

The ebook contains a mix of effects that are easy to do and ones that take some skill. All are explained in an easy-to-follow manner,...

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 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.

X Deck is a cyclical stack. Given any card in the stack, you can almost instantly know the next card. It is based on a couple of simple algorithms. The stack looks quite random both value-wise as well as suit-wise. An equally easy variation X Deck 2 is also included. Easy to learn and simple to use, you should be able to get this down in a few minutes.

1st edition 2022, PDF 9 pages.

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.

Excerpt from the introduction:

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

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

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...

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.

Easy miracles using a new stack of cards.

This eBook collects a series of no less than seven tricks that are very simple to perform in front of one's audience, but all very impressive. All this is only possible thanks to a particular pre-arrangement of the pack of cards, derived from Si Stebbins but which, unlike it, will not be recognizable even to the majority of magicians, appearing on first examination to be entirely similar to a real shuffled deck. I have called this pre-order: VR Stack Pro and I will describe it extensively on the following pages.

Below you will find the effects...

Array is Fraser's take on the algorithmic stack. He has been working on this problem 'on and off' for the past six or seven years and was only recently able to find the ideal solution he was looking for. His idea was to create a stack that was not only incredibly easy to learn but could also be applied effortlessly, in performance. He imagined a system that could be learned simply by reading through the rules once.

Fraser is pleased to say, all of the pieces of the jigsaw finally fell into place to allow him to create what he considers a close-to-perfect arrangement for this type of method....

The Noon Stack is the only stack in the world with three official names. It is also called the Midnight Deck or the Moon Stack. You can either start learning this stack exactly at 12 noon or exactly at 12 midnight, any day.

Okay, on a more serious note, Noon Stack is a simple algorithmic stack that forms a nice memorized deck. Given a card, you can know its position and given a position, you can know the card at that position. And literally speaking, if you start learning this stack at 12 noon (or 12 midnight), you can completely get this down in less than an hour by about 1 pm (or 1 am)....

You, a spectator, a deck of cards, a miracle!

A spectator shuffles a deck of cards, you instruct them to hold the cards face up, under the table, so that only they can see them. Despite these test conditions, you apparently display a genuine feat of 'remote viewing' by attempting to name each card in turn, as if you are somehow able to 'see through the table'. With an accuracy way beyond the odds you are able to prove to your audience that they are witnessing a real demonstration of 'psychic' ability and what you claim to be true, must be possible.

This effect will completely 'blow away'...

Frac Stack is a groundbreaking tetradistic stack, with fractal and mirror properties that make it easy to learn and hard to forget. Imagine amazing your audience with a regular deck of cards that appears well-mixed, while they never suspect the unbelievable truth. You know the sequence of the cards forwards and backwards. You know the position of every card from the top of the deck, and even the position of every card from the face. You can quickly determine the sum of the values of any group of cards. On top of all this, imagine being able to secretly rearrange the cards mid-performance so...

Imagine: The magician and the spectator are seated together at a table. The magician introduces a deck of cards and spreads it face up to show that all the cards are different. After this, he turns his back to the spectator and says "I want you to generate a random number between 1 and 52. Of course, I could have you name one, but then you may think I psychologically influenced you towards a particular number or that I relied on you to think of a popular number. So to eliminate such ideas, I want you to generate a number by cutting off any amount of cards from the top of the deck and then...

Imagine:

The magician introduces a deck of cards; he spreads it face up to show that all the cards are different. Next, he places the deck on the table in front of a spectator. He says: "In a moment I am going to turn my back to you, and while I am turned away, I want you to make a free selection of any card. Simply cut off any amount of cards and look at the bottom card of the cut-off portion. Then, bury the cut-off portion somewhere into the middle of the remaining cards in order to lose your selected card. Once that is done, invite me to turn back around to face you."

So the magician...

The Next Stack is a cyclical stack that is as easy to learn as the Si Stebbins stack but can withstand scrutiny, unlike the Stebbins stack. In the Stebbins stack, the increment of 3 or 4 could be visible to a participant if observed keenly. But in the Next Stack it is almost impossible to recognize the sequence.

The Next Stack is named as such because literally it is based on the "Next" principle, which is a novel, innovative principle. Given any card you can instantly know the next card.

It will take all of 5 minutes for you to learn this cool principle and start applying it. This principle...

Note: For those who own the original Rain Man, you're in for a real treat (see the last condition in the conditions section below).

Imagine:

The magician and the spectator are seated together at a table. The magician introduces a deck of cards and spreads it face up to show that all the cards are different. After this, he turns his back to the spectator and says "I want you to generate a random number between 1 and 52. Of course, I could have you name one, but then you may think I psychologically influenced you towards a particular number or that I relied on you to think of a popular number....

Imagine:

The magician hands a business card to a spectator as he says to them "My assistant's number and name is on this card. I'm giving this information to you now because if I gave it to you after the selection, you might think I have 52 numbers or 52 names prepared, one for each possible outcome." With this said, he promises never to touch the business card again.

The magician then introduces a deck of cards, spreading it face up in front of the spectator. The spectator can see that all cards are present and that there are no duplicates.

The magician invites the spectator to...

Toni Koynini brings to you some fine card magic with a new approach. This is an ebook of card magic in which no digital skill is required, for the effects literally work themselves, yet there is none of the usual tedious dealing and counting associated with such tricks. First, there is a complete card act of six splendidly routined miracles:

CAN'T SEE (A complete Card Act): A pack of cards is shuffled and cut by a spectator, and the performer is genuinely blindfolded with bandages, dough or what you will. Then, using only the sensitivity of his fingertips, he quickly deals the cards, laying...

Imagine:

The magician introduces a deck of cards. The spectator can thoroughly examine it, after which they can freely shuffle it for as long as they want in any way that they want. Once they're done shuffling, the magician invites them to spread through the deck face down and select any two cards that they like. They leave these face down on the table. The magician then instructs them to turn one of them face-up - let's suppose it is the JS. As for the other one, the magician tells the spectator not to look at this card yet - it will be a mystery for the end.

The spectator is then...

Bracelet sequences and algorithmic stacks.

Mathematical Stacks contains a collection of various stacks made with 52 standard playing cards. Although some routines and presentations are mentioned, the book is not predominately about either routines or presentations. The very few presentations listed in this book are generally the bare minimum to demonstrate an effect.

The book contains stacks with bracelet sequences and built-in routines. The book includes stacks with binary bracelet sequences, e.g. a red-black suit bracelet sequence, where six consecutive cards identify the cards. Some...