Cards in Magic & Mentalism: page 57

Why create and print your cardbox? Several reasons:

1. To keep your decks organized
2. Easy to read cribs
3. Reveals
4. It's fun, at least to me

If you are like me, you have many decks set up for different effects and I needed a way to keep them organized. This is the best method. I simply code the decks and print it on the side or bottom of the cardbox. With step-by-step directions and photos, creating your custom cardboxes is easy. A customizable PSD file (Adobe Photoshop) and SVG file (Scalable Vector Graphics) are included with this download.

Note: You need to have a basic knowledge...

Formerly published under the title How to Cheat at Cards this is an updated version released under the title How to Cheat at Poker. The new version includes T.U.T., 50 pages by Chris Stanislas, his first and only publication.

The ultimate guide to learning all of the techniques for cheating at card games ...

An insight into the mind, mechanics and devilry of a card cheat.

Available again at last. This privately printed gem contains the real work for some of the best card marking inks, daubs, shading and blockout inks that the world has ever seen. Even the infamous luminous reader formula is explained, as is an easy method to produce short or narrow cards that doesn't require a card trimmer!

Best of all, this revised edition includes modern alternatives to the chemical and dye-based compounds, making it easier than ever to obtain professional results in the privacy of your home workshop.

"Your Red Daub is very fine. I find that Daub is the secret of the...

This is a pre-Erdnase description of moves and ruses to cheat at the card table by an unnamed 'retired professional'. However, Bart Whaley's research revealed that this retired professional was Gerrit M. Evans, that his real name was most likely Edward M. Grandin and that Evans/Grandin was not a professional gambler. (Bart is working on an upcoming book about Evans - The Mysterious Gambler.)

This ebook was created from the 1868 edition. There is also an earlier 1865 edition. The 1868 faked edition drops the name of the author who is, of course, Evans/Grandin, pretends that...

A complete Gambler Expose act.

• Introduction
• The Gambler's Touch
• I Get The Aces
• The Gambler Gets Your Cards
• The Gambler's Second Dealing
• Three Card Monte
• Cutting The Pack
• The Sensational Poker Demonstration
  • The Demonstration
  • The Shuffle
  • Suggestions For Interchanging Cards
• Heads Or Tails
• Hitting The Spots
• Predicting The Spots
• The Thimbles And Dice
• Suggestions For Arranging A Routine

PDF 25 pages.

An impromptu location effect, incredibly self-working.

The title, which could also be read, thanks to a play on words, as "How to catch one card," indicates an easy but amazing effect, performable in any context and incredibly self-working, of finding a chosen card lost in the deck, thanks to two other cards that the magician himself will choose, inside two piles shuffled by the spectator, in order to capture it in a way that is as simple as it is unexpected...

Strengths:

• The effect is completely automatic and impromptu.
• The magician does not necessarily need to know any card manipulation...

David Devlin has released a staple from his impromptu card act. This is a full routine, and it is a killer! This is based on an effect by the great Nick Trost, and is a tribute of sorts to him. This may become your "go-to" effect when someone hands you a deck and says, "Do something." You will be performing this routine in no time. It is not difficult, and it looks incredible.

Here is the routine: The jokers are removed from the deck, and placed on the table. The performer removes any card he wishes, but shows it to know one, not even himself. This card is placed face down between the two jokers, but...

Here Ken de Courcy took a clever cut effect by Gerald Kosky, changed it, and altered it to make it completely self-contained and also impromptu. Whilst doing this, Ken hit on another use and here you are getting two for the price of one.

EFFECT:

A borrowed pack is shuffled by the owner, then the magician extracts two cards from it, hands the cards to the spectator and asks him to place them into a convenient pocket. The deck is placed on the table and the spectator is requested to cut off about two-thirds and lay it face-up alongside the remainder. He now cuts the larger packet roughly...

A series of novel and above all entertaining card tricks, all requiring a minimum of skill, the simplest of apparatus and all designed for the maximum entertainment and audience appeal.

No. 1. "A Double-Dose": Predestined and Black and Red Computation II.

Two effects, both using the same subtle principle, credited to Nick Trost.

PREDESTINED is for platform performances. You can use a Jumbo pack of cards and four cardboard plates. You will make this up in a few minutes and have a good program item. The working is simplicity itself but, being more interested in the presentation possibilities...

Horus contains some of Luca Volpe's best kept secrets from his professional repertoire. Mixing a blend of clever thinking and easy to do methods, which creates stunning effects. Each routine is audience tested and contains everything you need to perform the effects, from the script to plenty of bonus tips.

No complicated props to build or expensive items to buy, but just pure mentalism that is suitable for stage and intimate performances. Also included is a special graphic design which allows you to perform one of the effects that Luca Volpe has never revealed... until now!

• THE "HORUS"...

A collection of new card routines.

Card to Envelope
In the book Inspirations (published by Martin Breese in 1987) I included an effect called 'Envelope Prediction'. This is a different version which I performed as part of my close-up act at the Blackpool convention in 1979. There is no palming or copping of cards, in fact you could call this near-self-working!

Lie To Me
A card is selected and lost back into the deck. You give the spectator an old coin/medallion which they hold in their hand. This, you say, will send "truth waves" to the deck. You now ask the spectator a series of questions about his card: he...

"I highly recommend this to all of you who are interested in learning a devilishly clever approach to TORN & RESTORED CARD" - Danny Orleans (Genii Magazine)

Hoodwink is not designed to replace, or to in any way compete with, the fine crop of "quarter by quarter" restorations that are making the rounds. Instead,...

You will learn two versions for the classic Homing Card effect. The first one uses only one palm and is for the beginner and the second version uses two palms.

runtime 6min

Matteo Filippini presents his personal study on the Francis Carlyle Homing Card.

Starting from the splendid Carlyle version, which appeared on the historical Stars Of Magic, through Roberto Giobbi's Homing Card Plus, from the second volume of Card College, Matteo offers his vision on this great card magic effect.

The Homing Card is certainly one of the few effects with playing cards that are well suited to different situations: close-up, parlour, TV, theatre...

The routine has been divided into several phases and analyzed down to the smallest detail. In addition some historical notes and a rich bibliography.

1st edition 2019,...

A stunning new packet effect by Cameron Francis.

Effect:

A card is selected and lost in the deck, we'll say it's the Six of Diamonds. The magician introduces a packet of four cards. Each card has one hole punched through it. The cards are flipped face up and are seen to be the four Aces. "The Aces are going to tell us the suit and value of the card you selected. First they'll tell us the suit."

The magician gives the packet a twist. He spreads the cards and one of the Aces is now face down. The Ace of Diamonds. "This tells me that the card you picked was a Diamond!" The magician then...

Ever thought that all other Oil & Water routines were a bit boring? Did you think they lacked some visual elements? Here’s Holy Blood Holy Water! A super visual multi-phased Oil & Water routine. Just imagine seeing the card mixed and then separate in front of your eyes.

This is the most visual Oil and Water routine to date, and, best of all, it’s easy to do! Virtually sleight free. There’s no reset and no need for a table, it can be done in THEIR hands, which probably makes this the most workable and commercial Oil & Water to date as well.

This manuscript details Daniel’s version...

Brother John Hamman's effects are conducive to creating strong, synergistic routines. That is, many of his individual effects, including its discrete parts, can be combined to form powerful presentations. The following nine-phase is a good example.

Holistic Hamman was originally part of an unpublished book titled Real-World Cardstuff: Synergistic Schemes.

Requisites: A regular deck of cards.

1st edition 2000, 2nd edition 2013, 15 pages.

You show one card with a big hole cut from its center and four regular cards without any holes. When you remove one from the regular cards and add the hole card to the others, they all suddenly also have big holes. Then you reverse it back to no holes. It uses a sneaky combination of methods.

1st edition 2025, video 4:24

Following on from the success of Ripped & Repaired, Holes is a manuscript from David Forrest featuring three close up miracles with playing cards, each involving holes!

• On Holemeal - A super visual sandwich! A signed card which was lost into the center of the deck suddenly appears between two blank cards, one of which has a hole in it, as they are waved over the deck. The spectator actually sees their card arrive through the hole! Extremely visual. Easy to do. Resets automatically. Special cards included.
• Hole’d the phone - A card is freely selected from a genuinely shuffled pack and signed across the...

You show four cards, one of which has a big round hole cut out. Suddenly all the cards have a big round hole cut out. In another blink of an eye, the round hole has transformed into a square hole and you are only holding a single card. This effect is best seen performed. Watch the demo video below.

1st edition 2024, video 2:39.

A visual stunner with hole cards.

You will need:

• hole cards that you can make yourself
• Pelli Spread (briefly explained)

length 3min 56s

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.

Karl Fulves published in Pallbearers Review an unsolved card problem wherein an Ace having the same suit of a previously selected card changes into that selection. The puzzling aspect of this problem was this: The four Aces are shown, mixed, and tabled face down. Nobody knows the order or disposition of the Aces, not even the spectator.

Jon describes eight solutions each with its own trade-offs, strengths and weaknesses.

Jon concludes his manuscript with:

Hofzinser was born at the beginning of the 19th century and lived in Vienna during a time called the 'Biedermeier'. This was a time where people enjoyed art and entertainment in drawing-room presentations and at little receptions in the houses and villas of the rich and famous. Hofzinser thus never performed on a stage but perfected the branch of magic today known as 'Close-up'. One could argue that Hofzinser is the grandfather of close-up magic in particular close-up card magic. And this book is all about card magic. We have to thank Ottokar Fischer for collecting Hofzinser's material about...