Stacks in Cards: page 2

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,...

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.

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 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 ...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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'...

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...

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...

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.

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

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.

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:

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...

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:

In 1979, Simon Aronson gave the world of magic an incredible tool - A Stack To Remember - which has come to be known as the "Aronson stack," a seemingly random arrangement of cards that has amazing miracle properties built into it.

Many magicians have avoided adding memorized deck work to their repertoires because of the daunting task of committing a stacked deck to memory. Struggling to grasp the associations of the cards and their locations within the stack, most quit after a few hours or days. I was the same way... until a Harry Anderson manuscript got me to thinking about how to make...

Mnemonica for Everybody is a streamlined, graphical method for easily and quickly learning the Tamariz stack.

It's the same Peg Memory System (PMS) I developed that I used to learn the Aronson Stack in an hour while driving. BTW, this same technique works great for every memorized stack out there including the Aronson Stack, The Six-Hour Memorized Deck by Martin Joyal, the Nikola stack and others.

Even though there are no actual tricks taught in this manuscript, it does contain links to several free memorized deck tricks and other resources (including a free e-book from Simon Aronson).

Please refer to the writings...

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.

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 principle facilitates in determining the position and identity of the matching of cards in two decks, which have been randomized by the cutting of each deck. The principle works in conjunction with a memorized stack. A presentation is given where you don't have to commit a stack to memory.

The Gerats Principle enables you to perform the following effect:

Two decks are on the table. After two spectators have each cut one of the decks to their heart's content, the magician is able, without handling the cards, to tell whether there will be a matching of cards (ie: 2♥/2♥)) at a certain...

What is S.E.M.P.E.R.? (Special Esp Memory Powers Enhanced Radically)

A special trick with a flexible method that offers wide-ranging presentational possibilities. It uses an ordinary deck of 52 poker cards and the trick will be deceptive even for many illusionists, but above all its impact on the audience is devastating.

Two spectators are asked to take a card and put them unseen in their pockets. The magician explains that, under these conditions, it is obviously extremely difficult to be able to identify the cards. Nevertheless, and in order to demonstrate to the public the uncommon...