The Cardiste 4

THE CARDISTE "Dedicated To The Art Of Cardistry" No. 4.

;:

Rusduck, PO Box 372, Philipsburg, Pa. Sept. 1957

DEALER'S CHOICE: Seems I'm always referring to LLOYD JONES the pudgy pill pusher from Oakland, but I'm impelled to refer to his Magical Memorial THE BAT - (Wish he would start it again)...Lloyd stated in his early issues that he would appear in print "From time to time" - Looks as if' I should have declared myself thusly, instead of proclaiming Cardiste as a monthly - because I've been behaving much more like a quarterly, and even then not too consistently...My' good wife has informed me that.I should realize, thru my extensive police experience, that since you good subscribers have put your money on the line - I'm paying myself wide open for a good case of fraudulent conversion unless I produce as contracted...So, reluctantly - I'm getting this issue out, I admit I have been neglecting Cardiste...and offer no excuses for laziness and indifference - but as the GW has told me - I have a legal and moral duty to perform - so here goesl My correspondence has been heavy - and also neglected -'but I hope to get with it as soon as this issue is put to bed,..I know it's asking a lot to have you continue to bear with me., but please believe I have the best of intentions. The response has been excellent on my request for a system of designating an unknown hole card with an arrangement of the remaining four face-up cards...The ideal solution has been forthcoming from MAX KATZ, who was recently featured in M-U-M, and will appear in the next issue of Cardiste - which will appear????? I hope next month. So sorry to hear of the passing of AUDLEY WALSH - a fellow police officer who became very close to me when we used to appear in the "MAGICOPPER", the organ of the now defunct ' Magicops...I always admired Audley's gambling routines...He had a REAL greatness unlike some of self-styled experts:::: (1)

I have had some inquiry and c r i t i c i s m as to the preference in Cardiste for stacked deck rather than impromptu r o u t i n e s . . . I t boils down simply to the fact that I take a dim vue on "Take A Card" discovery card effects - and t h i s i s just about the only type of cr.rd effect possible without pre-arrangement« DARIEL FITZKEEin "THE CARD EXPERT ENTERTAINS" s t a t e s : Now we arrive at the f i e l d s i g n i f i c a n t to most card t r i c k s t e r s . . » I t i s the f i e l d of i d e n t i f i c a t i o n . . . I n card magic the performer simply discovers the i d e n t i t y of the card selected,..Why probably ninety percent of t h e demonstrations of card magic are confined to t h i s colorless effect I s h a l l never be able t o explain,.,Whether the card be selected and replaced, withdrawn from the deck or merely thought of, or even peeked a t , a l l the card performer does i s merely find i t or identify i t i n some manner...He might seem t o s p e l l i t out, smell i t out, stab i t , cause i t t o vanish, cause i t to reverse i t s e l f , or he may seem simply to look thru the deck and find i t . . . N o matter what he does, however, fundimentally ALL HE HAS DONE i s t o discover the card's i d e n t i t y i n some manner...HERE IS WHERE MOST OF THE SPECTATOR'S RESENTMENT OF CARD TRICKS SPRINGS FROM... PEOPLE GET FED UP QUICKLY \MW COMPELLED TO ACCEPT THIS CORNY, TRITE, UNPALATABLE FARE." To which I add a fervent SO MOTE IT BE! I suggest you read "THE CARD EXPERT ENTERTAINS" for a compl e t e analysis of what i s wrong with card magic and what t o do about iti..DHRIEL FITZKEE r e a l l y knows whereof he speaks 111 CAftDISTE i s dedicated i n an effort to l i f t c a r d i s t r y from the humdrum to the e s o t e r i c . . . I t i s not necessarily for the neophyte and i s based on the assumption that the cardiste has a fundimental knowledge of s l e i g h t s and p r o c e d u r e . , , I would most certainly never take the trouble of stacking a deck merely for the location of a single card when there are so many miracles possible only with a stacked deck, and which cannot be duplicated by s l e i g h t s , subleties of"any other method, I have found nothing more fascinating in cardistry than the m u l t i p l i c i t y of various card combinations possible t h r u stacking, perfect r i f f l e shuffle, bottom, second and middle dealing...TRUE AND ADMITTED:::These can be mastered only thru p e r s i s t e n c e , patience, and practice - BUT - If Cardistry be an iirt - L e t ' s pursue and a t t a i n the necessary p e r f e c t i o n l i I (2)

POKER POSER RUSDUCK

. . . . . " I insist that 'anything goes' regardless, A magician can depend upon his s k i l l and digital dexterity and be a socalled a r t i s t in his profession. On the other hand, a f a i r ly decent showman can come along and with the most barefaced of GOLD DECKING METHODS . . . take the play entirely away'from the performer relying upon s k i l l alone. I don't give a hoot or continental what or how much has PREVIOUSLY BEEN SET or framed. If i t fools those who were meant to be fooled i t has served i t s purpose...The effect is the thing and don't forget i t for a minute. THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS.» - ANNEMANN. (Caps and Underscores mine - Rusduck) I have always been intrigued with stud poker dealing effects. Of course there aren't too many of them available, possibly because of the similarity of such items..,The success of any stud poker effect is to have the winning hand appear after the last card is drawn, or the hole card shown...A hand that appears nondescript, may be a potential powerhouse...This of course makes stud poker such a fascinating gambling game. This effect brings out the best of the suspense features with' the dealer ultimately getting the winning hand...Of course being a Rusduck Creation - a cold deck i s involved - Here 'Tis: SET-UP: Top to Bottom Face-Down:

(Read Across)

9S 3H QD 4D -

7H AH 4H QH -

2D 6H 8D 9H -

JD 5H KC AS -

2H 9C 6D XH -

QC 7S 8S XS -

6C 9D AS JH -

KD 3C 8H JS -

AC AD 8C QS -

XC XD 7C KH -

3D 7D 5C KS

-

3S JC 4C 2S

-

6S 5D 5S 2C

Two hands of stud poker are d e a l t . . . F i r s t card in each hand i s dealt face-down...remaining 4 face-up,..Cards are dealt a l t e r nately one card at a time into each hand...Dealer's hand l a s t . Two hands are dealt for each round of deals - the stated object being to show how the dealer's hand looks low yet wins,

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Observe that spectator's hand always appears to be the "winner as each round is dealt - ideal for betting odds - but dealer's hand ALWAYS IVINS when the hole-card i s shown... Each time, the dealer's hand JUST BEATS the other one... Five sets of hands are dealt, leaving the two black deuces remaining.,.These are shown and identified as insurance Wild Cards - "Just in Case". as each set of two hands is dealt and the hole cards turned, discard them face-down on table with spectater's hand beneath dealer's...Continue until deck i s depleted at 5th deal. So much for this effect - but never let i t be said - that Rusduck was content to go thru the deck ONCE ONLY! Discard the 2 black deuces - have spectator deal the remaining facedown cards you have gathered from the table into 5 face-down piles,.,Pick up these piles as follows: 1, 2, 3* k, 5 placing each pile on the one preceding i t to assemble deck. False shuffle and cut - retaining the entire order of the deck - then deal out TEN HANDS of 5 cards each - dealing one card at a time (face-up or face-down as you choose) showing that you have dealt every poker value from High Card clear up the ladder to a Royal Flush, Of course, these are the original hands you dealt - s t i l l in the original order - made possible by utilizing the Rusduck Run-Up. The above shows only the bare workings of the effect ,,,No patter or pres-entation i s given - YOU take i t from here,

STUDY IN STUD RUSDUCK

Lost Issue I propounded the following: "Does anyone know a system whereby tiie arrangement of four cards will designate •he 3uit ard value of an unknown fifth card??? - This would P.ke an amazing demonstration for telegraphing the face-down ole~card i n Gtud Pokeroo«What I am looking for i s a system

U)

Whereby the hole-card need not be used - but the 4 remaining face-up cards freely dealt can be arranged in such a manner as to designate exactly - the identity of the hole-card..t" Solutions were forthcoming from BILL MISSEL, Erie, Pa; WILBUR KATTNER, Ft. Worth, Tex; TOM RANSOM, Belleville, Ont., Can; and my old reliable CHARLIE HUDSON, Columbia, Mo, MEL BR0!IN, a long-time correspondent from Frisco sent me the manuscript on "Scalbert's Mystery of the 5th Card" and I can see this does not answer the problem - since 2 decks.are used - and actually 6 cards shown...JACK POTTER, the British Compiler of POTTER'S BAR for L. R. sent a complete summary of similar effects to d a t e . . . I am indebted to a l l of these readers for their interest - and a l l are now on my preferred complimentary l i s t of subscriptions. All of these Mathemagicians informed me (who has to find out the hard way - by t r i a l and error) that'the 4 face-up cards can be arranged in only 24 possible combinations - not nearly enough to convey the required information for 52 c a r d s . . , Each has worked out ingenious methods of signalling thru placing in various relative positions which would be satisfactory for card table procedure - but as they inform me - why go to the trouble when a simple word or signal code would s u f f i c e . . . BUT - what I had in mind is something that could be worked over a telephone where the spectator could read the 4 cards and do a l l the talking. ..with the only liberty allowed the cardiste being that of arranging the cards in order. MAX KATZ, C. P. A. (Confirmed Prestidigitation Addict) of N» Y. C. has solved the problem completely and f i n a l l y , . , but I'm holding his solution off until next issue in order to give each of you further chance to work on i t now that you know IT CAN BE DONEttl In the meantime I'm giving you the imperfect solution I have worked out: This will show the value and color of the hole card, Pokerwise this would be sufficient - since there are no suit values designated - however, this does not fully comply with the conditions set forth in the problem.,,and only 48 cards can be used rathsr than the full deck as required* (5)

Remove a l l 7 ' s - 48 cards remain to be used. REFER TO FOLLOWING CHART:

1-2-3

1 / 2

A /

4

2 5

3 6

3 /

8

4 /

J '' Q K

Suppose Hole Card i s IOC: Three Over).

9

10

Your Key i s 3-3 (Three Down -

Third highest card would be placed f i r s t ; t h i r d highest of three remaining would be n e x t . Of the two cards remaining - Low-High could i n d i c a t e Red; while High-Low would be black. EXAMPLE: Four cards showing could be 10H, 3C, 2D. QS , N (3) (2) (1) (4) Values are from High (4) t o Low ( 1 ) . To show a black 10 as hole card - the four cards would be arranged 10, Q, 3, 2 . F i r s t arrange cards from low to high: 2D, 3C, 10H, Qs. Since f i r s t key number i s 3 - place 10H i n ' f i r s t p o s i t i o n . Second key number i s also 3 - QS i s highest of 3 remaining cards. I t goes into 2nd p o s i t i o n , To show a black card the two remaining cards are arranged High-Low - Thus1 arrangement showing a black 10 hole card would be 10H-QS-3C-2D. If two or more cards of same value show - use Bridge values of S--H-D-C (High to Low) or your favorite' GHaSeD order. Use of the hole card at e i t h e r end of the spread makes i t possible t o read a s u i t and value designation, however, "ere i s the method: Use the above chart for designating the i/alue by positioning the f i r s t two cards, As before - the ]."st 2 cards show high-low or low-high s i g n a l s . BUT: In thia case low-high indicates clubs or diamonds in contrast to the opposing f i n a l high-low which we find indicates

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spades or h e a r t s * Color i s i n d i c a t e d by the p o s i t i o n of the hole c a r d .

I f hole

card is f i r s t - i t indicates red - if l a s t - blackt Here is the designation for reading the hole card IOC using the same set of face-up cards: 10H - QS - '2D - 3C - (HC) Suppose the hole card is QH - It -would be designated as shownt KEY 4-2

...

(HC) - QS - 3C - 10H - 2D<

SUICIEE BUILD TOM RANSCMj

Here is a set-up that gets to an obvious end VERY fast - you might call i t a "SUICIDE" Build, because there is definitely nowhere to goI Set up 25 cards, reading from top of deck down: (Top) 7H 8H 9H KS 7C -

8D XC OH 9C JH -

XS KH XD AS XH -

QS 8S JS 7S 8C -

7D JD 9D AD 6D (Bottom)

Deal 5 poker .hands face-upj last hand, D flush beats pair, straight, 3 of a kind, pair* Put winning hand to one side, then pick up hand 1 on 2, both on 3, a l l on 4 - a l l faces up. Turn over packet and deal 4 hands face-up. Full house beats three "2 pairs", although until last card dealt dealer has low hand. Discard winning hand as before, and pick up as before* Deal 3 face-up hands - dealer's 4 of a kind wins. Discard and pick up as before, and deal 2 hands face-up. Until last cards dealt, result is in doubt, but dealer's royal flush beats King nigh straight flushl ADD-ED: TOM RANSOM is smart enough to know when to quit - when he runs out of cards - but not

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Kusduck - -who never l e t s well enough alone...If the 'five hands are placed in a single face-down pile as they are discarded they are in perfect preparation for the factor principle used in the Rusduck Run-Up... Pick up this pile of 25 cards - false shuffle and cut - r e taining the order intact - and have spectator deal 5 facedown hands in the usual manner...Each hand is shown with an average distribution of cards,.,As each hand is shown, i t i s taken into the dealer's hand, and each succeeding hand'is placed face-down upon it...Again false shuffle and cut, retaining the entire order, and deal 5 hands (face-up or down as you choose)...The five hands shown are a flush, full house, A's, straight flush and royal flush to dealer...Of course these are the same hands shown in the original effect, BUT: You'd better stick with Tom's original effect - don't be misled by ye ed's attempt to milk a good dealing effect I

SCORE MORE ON CHARLIE HUDSON'S "Sorcerer's Sevens in No. 3 SORCERER'S 7'S Cardiste has received quite a favorable r e sponse... I mentioned I could not fathom, .how or why i t worked...and several of you Mathemagicians including Charlie kirns olf sent me the know-how and why...TOM RANSOM that wily wizard from Canada writes: "I tried out your idea of using FOUR 7's, and i t works, but I always get another pair of adjacent cards that DO t o t a l 7 elsewhere in the deckl From theory, this unwanted result seems bound to happen if an EVEN number of cards are inserted - but i t cannot happen if an ODD NUMBER of cards are inserted into the twenty-four," So there you have i t : Experiment shows T. R. to be correct. This i s a beautiful mystery lending itself admirably to the raystic number 7, but somebody should come forth with a way to use only 3 sevens in the effect while s t i l l using a l l of them in the overall picture - like follow the leader, perhaps??? life promised you further developments on Sorcerer's Sevens in subsequent issues as developed by the originator CHARLES M. HUDSON:::I have a whole raft of TIP-TOP HUDSON material yet!I (8)

SORCERER'S SEVENS II CHARLES M. HUDSON

In doing "Sorcerer's Sevens you separate the low-cards (Ace thru 6) from the high ones, also remove the 7's and proceed to do "Sorcerer's Sevens using all four 7's as suggested by Rusduck, Why not carry on the "Magic 7" motif with the other packet in some way, 'since it may also be stacked??? FOR EXAMPLE j Stack the "high" packet in the following manner: Separate the 10's, 9's, and 8's from the court cards and stack them from the top to bottom as follows, without regard to suits: 10, 8, 9, 9, 9, 8, 8, 10, 9, 8, 10, 10. Below these stack the court cards as follows: JH, QC, JD, QD, KH, KD, KC, KS, C$, JC, (£, JS. The re.st of the deck is stacked for Sorcerer's Sevens, with the sevens inserted anywhere - preferably two in the top stack and two in the bottom* At thu oo^inning of Sorcerer's Sevens, the "high" stack is riffle shuffled once into the "low" stack, and then they are separated by sorting the highs from the lows. This procedure reverses the "high stack" as given above. These 24 cards are placed aside as the Sorcerer's 7 trick is done. When it is thru, continue with the patter about the magic of Number 7« Pick up the unused portion (the "high stack"), riffle to the JH in the center and give the packet a slow, honest riffle shuffle. Now separate the Court Cards from the rest, taking them out one at a time and reversing them as you do so. Your two stacks of court cards and the rest are just as they were at the beginning. Pick up either stack - say the 10's, 9's, 8's. Hold it facedown as for dealing, deal off the cards one at a time, dealing them face-up, and when you get to 7 (you are counting aloud as you deal) deal this card to one side; it will be an 8 ? Repeat; you will run out of cards before you get to "7"; simply pick up the packet, turn it oirer, and continue where you left offi The 7th card is another 8,::::::::':::-:::::::

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Continue until all four 8!s turn up. Then the four 9's will follow. And finally the four 10's will remain alone in your hand. You turn them over and show. Pick up the other (court card) packet. The deal proceeds in the same fashion, and this time the K, Q, and J of each suit come together in that order, ADD-ED: This should appeal to those of you who may think Cardiste top-heavy in poker and bridge effects,,. I believe this separation of cards is tops in card control and makes a beautiful stacked deck routine...More is promised in next issue...Readers are invited to supply their views and ideas for "Sorcerer's Sevensu Mysti-Magic Routine.

SNIBBETS RUSDUCK:

Snibbets being of course Stebbins in reverse ••- which is exactly what we are talking about now...I have long been amazed with the perfection of the Si Stebbins System and have both analyzed and discussed it (Linking Ring, Jan. 1955)* This mathematical perfection of rotating cycles keeps appearing in all permutations for repeat deals* The one drawback is the repeated evidence of the fpur and thirteen cycles with repetition of the deck order thru-out. For this reason I developed my own system based on the principle where instead of adding 3 for each .sequence - the addition consists of 2 for .spades, 3 for hearts, ^ for clubs and five for diamonds, with suits remaining in alternating color rotation...This too, is explained in the issue of LR mentioned above - and - if sufficient interest is evidenced it will be further developed in a later issue of Cardiste. The Rusduck System overcomes the •weakness of the plus 3 value sequence, and also has the suit values- in an ascending rather than a descending sequence - that is, A, 2, 3> 4 instead of 4,3, 2,A - A tremendous asset for calculations, (10)

However, this same effect of ascending values can be obtained by placing Si Stebbins in reverse...All that is necessary is to deal off the deck set in this order, one card at a time into the other hand,..or to set the deck in this manner originally: : :That is: For Example:- AS, JH, 8C, 5D, 2S rather than AS, 4H, 7C, XD, KS,etc. In addition to all other effects possible with the Stebbins System - this reversal makes possible an intriguing speller, I have always admired the Gwynne Speller -wherein the order of 4 aces, 4 deuces thru to 4 Kings allow for spelling any-value in sequence..."SNIBBETS" does the same -with the added feature of spelling the values of any desired suit in sequence... or permitting cutting to any desired spelling value. Cald values must be spelled by«fours...Five of the cards do so naturally: four, five, nine, jack and King. Deal one card underneath for each letter spelled* To spell the three lettered cards - Ace, two six, ten - show NEXT card AFTER spelling. To spell five letter cards - Three, seven, eight, queen place previously shown card back on ,TQP rather than on the bottom, and begin spell with that card. There is no change in the set-up with this system,,,It is also possible to spell suit and value with the use of a little ingenuity, since all cards can be spelled with either twelve or thirteen letters by means of various spellings...The 13 cycle of the Stebbins System requires only that you cut the card of the same value, but just previous in rotation order to the bottom, an.d spell your suit: and value, of card with 12 or 13 letters,,,showing last card or next one as required.«oGive this some practice and thought, and you will have added another valuable weapon to your repertoire of cardistry.,»Just give your imagination free reino