Reviews of products by S. W. Erdnase
The Expert at the Card Table
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Gregg Webb (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 14 November, 2023)
I am an author and innovator of card tricks and routines as well as other sleight-of-hand interests and have been reading Dr. Chris Wasshuber's book about Erdnase. In my teens I had the Expert almost memorized but switched to other newer techniques. Since reading the book about Edward Gallaway as the probable author of The Expert, I decided to revisit the section on the running up of hands with the jog shuffle and to study the math involved again.
Also after reading Jack Pots, written probably by Erdnase, and about stories of poker players and poker games, I am now realizing that even the introduction to The Expert, and onward, are truly written by someone who was there and knew for sure what was going on. Jack Pots was written by Eugene Edwards, which is surely a pseudonym of Erdnase (Edward Gallaway). I now realize why Dai Vernon was so enthused by The Expert.
The German language connection of The Expert has caused me to also look into the German books and magazines about magic and cheating at cards just before the turn of the last century.
As it turns out, at least 6 of the card tricks in the second section of The Expert are borrowed from German books and magazines by Willmann and Conradi to mention two.
And so The Expert is valuable on many levels and more than the sum of its parts. History, brilliant writing, and word usage, in addition to the "moves" and strategies in the book, all run through the man nicknamed Erdnase.
The Expert at the Card Table
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Monday 14 May, 2012)
The Expert at the Card Table
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Josh
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 17 February, 2006)
This book is a great introduction to the world of card manipulation. Before you purchase this, make sure to realize that it is over 100 years old, and the prose of the writer reflects this. Also, some people have criticized it for how complicated some of the instructions are. This is fairly unavoidable. If you know nothing about card manipulation then yo will not be able to read through an explanation of retaining the top stock while shuffling. Reread the explanations several times and make sure to read the glossary of terms provided. That being said, there are some errors in the book that make doing the manipulations as described impossible. All of these become self explanitory if you keep reading.
Overall, this book is a wonderful tool to anyone interested in card tricks (or cheating at a card table...).