The title suggests that the routines to be described solely involve small packets of cards. To that extent, it is inaccurate. Many of the routines utilize the full deck in varying degrees. The excuse is that they center around small groups of cards which by themselves are identifiable as packets, and thus can be combined in longer sequences with routines using those groups alone.
Small packet routines seem to have a certain niceness and precision about them and thus have a particular fascination for cardmen. Fortunately, laymen are generally impressed as well, ascribing greater difficulty to routines of this sort which create the impression that "there is no place to hide". Sequences of such routines must be arranged with care, however, to avoid the overuse of the same techniques (e.g., the Biddle move, Atfus, Secret Addition [or Secret Subtraction]) and the repetitive redisplays of the packet often characteristic of these techniques.
A few of the routines herein are described as openers, beginning with the actual removal of the featured cards. For the most part, however, the descriptions begin with the assumption that the four aces, for example, are already on the table following a preceding routine. Obviously, these can be adjusted easily enough to accommodate their use as openers. As might be expected, incidentally, there is a concentration of four-of-a-kind effects.
Some of the routines use certain moves described in two earlier manuscripts, Secret Subtraction and Odd Lifts. Most of the material, however, relies on many standard techniques, and the manuscript thus should be of practical interest even without an advance reading of the other two.
