Cards in Magic & Mentalism: page 78

Spectator selects and remembers a card that is lost back into the deck. Another spectator deals cards into the performer's hand and stops anytime they want. The card stopped at is the first spectator's chosen card.

This version uses the Havana Bottom Deal. This video does not include a detailed explanation of the Havana bottom deal.

runtime: 3min 1s

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...

A close-up "lay-out" type effect based on a mythical game, "New Zealand Brag".

You deal out the shuffled Aces, Kings and Queens, yet miraculously when the hands are turned over they have separated into suits and, what is more, each hand is in their right order, Queen, King, Ace! Something very different in card magic.

1st edition 2018, 5 pages.

You show seven Jacks of Hearts and one Ten of Spades. By putting the Ten of Spades face-down on the face-up Jacks, all cards turn magically face-down. But the climax is still coming. Once the cards are turned face up they are now all Ten of Spades except one Jack of Hearts.

1st edition 2022, video 3:11.

My card routines Triple Cut ACAAN and Three Chances ACAAN have received a great response on Lybrary, and ACAAN routines where the spectator cuts three cards and their values add up to the final position of the selection are one of my favorite types to explore. Today, I'd like to share two more ACAAN routines along the same lines.

Like the previous routines, both are very fooling to magicians, with very direct effects. Both routines also use unconventional methods, resulting in even more unique and powerful effects!

Composite ACAAN:
The spectator freely selects...

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

Twenty-one card tricks from the inventive Scotsman.

1st edition, 2000.

BACKLOG: You spread the deck with the faces upwards and invite a spectator to select any card - free choice. This is left face up on the table. You give him the deck and he now spells the name of his card - first the suit, then the value. This produces two random cards. The values of these cards are added - they might be a 3 and a 10 = 13. When the spectator turns his card over it has the number 13 boldly written on the back!

THE DETECTIVE: A spectator selects a card from a packet. Using the name of the famous fictitious...

New Era Card Tricks is the masterpiece of Roterberg's publishing efforts. Scholars are pretty sure that the elusive Erdnase must have known and read this book. It is still today an extremely good and important work on cards. It is a book any serious card man should read. This is to a large part the foundation on which a lot of the later card work has been built. A good part of this book is essentially a translation of the German work Der Moderne Kartenkünstler by Friedrich W. Conradi. Richard Hatch wrote a wonderful introduction that by itself is worth reading. He starts:

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.

"When I first read 'Scribble' I had a huge smile on my face for the entire time I was reading it. I've just spent the past half an hour trying it out and an even bigger smile appeared! So cleverly constructed, it's a creation of genius!" - Iain Moran

STRANGER
Mat's 'Invisible Deck with a regular deck' opener. A cased deck of cards is placed on the table. A spectator names any card - a completely free choice. The deck is removed from the case and the named card is shown to have been impossibly predicted ahead of time.

COIN CON
Mat's 'take everywhere' coin effect. Four different...

Another miraculous red-black trick from the inventor of Out Of This World.

A spectator shuffles both halves of a deck over and over - yet it is revealed that both halves are in the same red-black order!

Performed under the strictest conditions imaginable, and it works every time.

1st edition 1975, digital edition 2015, 5 pages.

Revisiting the False Shuffle for Artifice and Magic

There has not been a complete work on Shuffle technique since the early 1970's, yet Shuffle techniques have continued to advance. In fact, there has been a significant shift in the paradigm of those at the forefront of Shuffle techniques. Further, "In-the-Hands" techniques have become increasingly common, even in the magic fraternity, as they have been in the cheating community for many years. Now, for the first time, one of the most recognized experts on the subject has released the real work, including many of his own developments, for...

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

Please note that this video is in Vietnamese with English subtitles.

Two signed cards, one signed by the spectator and one by the performer change places. The spectator card goes into the empty card box. The performer signed card is lost in the deck.

1st edition 2018, length 20 min

Natural Scam, by Vittorio Versailles, is an ACAAN effect based on Tommaso (Tommy) Guglielmi's famous Subtle Scam.

Natural Scam represents a significant change to the workings of its predecessor, and will be of great interest to all those interested in the ACAAN plot.

What the new changes do best is they allow you to perform this ACAAN routine in a way that is so completely natural that members of your audience will think they just witnessed a miracle.

Natural Scam is completely impromptu, totally hands off, requires no prior set-up, and it is 100% natural.

Is this the holy grail? You will have to find out for yourself! ...

In this ebook a detailed explanation of Nate Leipzig's original method of performing the Card Stab will be found.

From the foreword:

So you want more card tricks with a regular deck of cards? Here we go!

• ISOLATION (Aldo Colombini): The deck is cut into two. A card is selected from one half. A spectator finds it by picking two cards from the other half.
• 52-CARD MONTE (Karl Fulves): An entertaining, unique three-card Monte routine using the entire deck where at the end the deck changes color. Self working.
• UNBEATABLE (Aldo Colombini): You leave one card aside. Two indifferent cards placed face down in the deck, capture a Jack. Your card is turned and it is seen to be the other Jack. Then the two cards change into the other Jacks. ...

Fifteen card tricks from the inventive Scotsman.

1st edition, 2000.

ACQUIESCENCE: Two spectators each lay out pairs of cards from freely shuffled packets. Despite any constraints you have accurately predicted the outcome. Miraskillesque perhaps?

THE FLEEING ACES: The four Aces travel from one half of the deck to the other and capture a previously selected card.

FOUR TO THE FORE: A spelling effect based on an Henry Christ premise. Two single Bottom Deals are required but they happen on the off-beat and a fine technique is not necessary.

MY FAIR LADY: You fail four times to find a selected...

Unpacking the Smith Myth and the Rashomon Concept.

This collection of tricks focuses on a similar motif because they fit the precise definition of that word and, in each case, the goal is to show what unifies and specifically defines each one. I'm also using the term "curate," because I sifted through lots of material so readers can compare and analyze everything. I consider this to be a contextualizing exercise that reveals the motif's history and pinpoints its rightful place in the Creative Continuum.

The two motifs compiled here are the Smith Myth and what's popularly known as the Rashomon...

Adapted from a classic routine by Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser. The spectator deals the cards into three piles on the table. In the end, the magician is left holding ten cards, while the tabled piles reveal four Tens. Finally, the bottom card is turned over to reveal four Kings.

1st edition 2026, video