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hreeve

A Combination of Three and Five

written and illustrated by

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Acknowledgments

John Bodine
Bill Kalush
Dan Buck
Dave Buck
Elliott Terral
Mahdi Gilbert
Dorian Rhodell

David Ben
Julie Eng
Tony Chang
Rob Herritt
Ben Pratt
Brandon Duff
As Is

Dedicated to

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Copyright MMXVII by Ricky Smith
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Contents

 Nothing as it Seems
Introduction
Card at any Vowel
Dealing DPS
Learning Palming
Learning Second Dealing
Kepplinger Prediction
Multiple Card DPS Handling
The Bear Trick
Shuffle DPS
 A Few New Items
The Runcible Card Trick
The Bar on Spring Street
The Odds Against Us
 An Impractical Punch for Aggressive
Gentlemen
Introduction
A Brief History
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Some Applications
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 Introduction

Hello and welcome!

These are some special notes for today’s sale.

They include some items from Nothing as it
Seems, A Few New Items, and a reprint of An
 Impractical Punch for Aggressive Gentlemen.
Enjoy!

Thank you for your interest, and may Erdnase

be with you.

Ricky Smith

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Card at any Vowel

 Effect: The magician has a card chosen and

placed back in the middle of the deck. He then
asks the spectator to name any vowel. For
example, “u” is named. The magician spells to
this vowel, dealing the top card, only to show
that the card has arrived at the chosen position!

As a follow up, the magician cleanly places the

card back into the deck once more. Asking for a

new vowel, the audience says “i”. The magician
then deals a card for each letter while spelling:
“e”, “y”, “e”, or anything else that comes to
mind. The card is again found at the chosen
position.

 Method: This effect is about the least

straightforward way to show that a card has
moved from the middle to the top of the deck. It
is the result of me trying to add some sort of
effect
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Have a card selected and control it to the top. I

use the control formerly known as The Cherry
Control12 from Penumbra, Iss ue 53, w
Issue whi
hich
ch
equals 625.

Ask the audience for any vowel. Whatever

vowel they name, deal one card, and repeat the
named vowel, “sometimes ‘y’”, in this new
example. The card will appear!

While the audience erupts in undeserved

applause and admiration, get a break underneath

two cards.

Take the selection and use the Depth Illusion or

Tilt, depending on your semantics, to place the
1
 Goodwin, Bill. “The Cherry Control.” Penumbra, Issue
5. January/February 2003.
2
 Goodwin, Bill. “The Not Cherry Control.” Penumbra,
Issue 11. November 2009.
3  This sleight is a finessed handling of Jerry Andrus’
Panoramic Shift from Andrus Card Control. I came up
with this handling in late 2000 and it was subsequently
published
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The Circular Control, although many people use my
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many years later, just a very minor handling variation, at
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card third from the top, while it appears to the

audience as though it is going in the middle of
the deck.

My preferred handling is Daryl’s Convincing

Tilt4 whic
which
hwwas
as o
origin
riginally
ally in Jon
Jon
Racherbaumer’s Hierophant.

Ask the audience for any other vowel. They will

respond, and you now use your wits and your
second deal prowess to make the card appear by

way of spelling whatever vowel they name in

the least straightforward way possible. This will
give you the opportunity to deal some cards to
the table, or onto a spectator’s hand, and set you
up for a steal of the card for a production later
on in your set.

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4
 A fantastic description with an additional bit of finesse
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 Dealing DPS

Sleight: An efficient way of 5getting into position

for the
the Dia
Diagonal
gonal Palm Shift in thethe act of
scooping up a few cards from the table.

 Method: After dealing a few cards to the table,

use the card to be palmed, held in the right
hand, fingers below and thumb on top, to scoop
up the pile of cards on the table.

Instead of aligning the scoop card with the pile,

rotate the right hand slightly counter-clockwise,
angling the card to be palmed.

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5
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 Erdnase, S. W.. “The Diagonal Palm Shift.” Artifice,
 Ruse, and Subterfuge at the
the Card Table: A Treatise
Treatise on the
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Continue to pick up the pile and place everything

on top of the talon in the left hand. This will
leave the card to be palmed angle jogged,
sticking out from the inner-right corner of the
deck, ready for the Diagonal Palm Shift. Finish
the palm by completing the DPS. The palmed
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 Learning Palming
Palming

“The finished card expert considers nothing too

trivial that in any way contributes to his
success…”

- S. W. Erdnase

Many card men take up palming, but the number

of them who go on to use this profound skill for

anything more than pulling a truly lost selection

from their pocket is very small. I found myself in
the same category until I continued my study
beyond just successfully getting a card from the
deck into the palm.

This realization led me to believe that making

the effort to go beyond holding cards secretly in
the hand and invisibly replacing cards was key
to gaining the confidence to palm with impunity,
thereby transforming the palm from a sleight
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Here we will discuss some techniques which

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The first tip is to have a few extra cards in your
 jacket pockets, around the car,
car, in the kitchen,
and anywhere else you can put them. Before you
reach to open a door, go into your pocket and
palm a few of the cards. Use your keys while
you are palming. Pour your coffee. This practice
will get you accustomed to having cards in your
hands, learning what you can do and what will
cause the cards to fall out. Figure out which of
the actions that you try could prove applicable

for the performance arena (pulling out a chair

for an audience member making their way to the
stage, etc.) and keep note. A lot of good
suggestions are in Roberto Giobbi’s Card
College.

Second, although don’t tell Bill Kalush about

this, I recommend learning a few palm-to-palm
transfers. Probably the simplest and most
effective is The Professor, Dai Vernon’s method
in the third edition of Expert Card Technique6.
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6
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 Hugard, Jean, and Fred Braue. “Hand-to-Hand Card
Transfer.” Expert Card Technique
Technique, Third Edition. 1950.
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these moves practically never, the practice will

prove of great benefit to all of your future
palms. To warn off the habitual user, I would
like to tell a personal story.

For those that know, I am a palm-to-palm

transfer addict. Not only have I learned a lot of
the methods in the literature, I have also
invented a number of them and can be seen
doing them back-to-back continually in the
process of washing and wringing my hands at

the most inappropriate times. One day, I was

practicing these sleights with blatant disregard
to my awkward maneuverings when Bill Kalush
said, “I see you are practicing that Morse
move.” Taken aback, I thought, “Bill doesn’t
know his palm-to-palm transfer credits very
well.” I was clearly doing the Professor’s
handling from Expert Card Technique. My look
and subsequent, “What move?” convinced him
that it was time to drop the hammer. “The move
that telegraphs.” was his appropriate and
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serve a sparing purpose in your repertoire and

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Finally, I would recommend incorporating a
plethora of palm replacements into your sleight
of hand toolbox. Being able to replace cards will
help you feel comfortable getting the cards in
and out of palm and make it much easier to
create small practice routines where palming is
one of the feature techniques. When learning
these, always remember that many of the same
rules we follow when palming also apply to
replacements! For example, don’t stick out your

thumb. It acts as a flag and can be seen from the

back row of any performing venue, and it tells
everyone that something just happened. There is
a story of The Professor telling a performer at
the Magic Castle that they had this bad habit.
They refused to take his advice, and one time,
when making the palm, The Professor reached
over and grabbed their outstretched thumb to
make his point.

For replacing the bottom palm, you can do no

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For the top palm, I found that The Professor

had a number of great ones in The Vernon
Chronicles. Also, Guy Hollingworth and Aaron
Fisher have exquisite versions in their books. I
have a technique published in If an Octopus
Could Palm… that utilizes the mechanics of
Chuck Smith’s Option Palm to get a card
replaced to the bottom.

Good luck with your adventures in palming!

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 Learning Second Dealing

Dealing

In much the same vein as the previous essay,

here are some tips that may bring you from the
idle practicer of second dealing to an
accomplished performer with a perpetually dusty
top card.

One of the most intimidating aspects of including

second dealing in any performance of card magic

is whether or not you will be able to perform the

second deal at the appropriate time. First this
requires practice and second, I think, is the
ability to effortlessly switch from tops to
seconds and back.

Instead of just dealing seconds all in a row, pick

a small pattern of tops and seconds at random
(i.e. top, second, second) and try that to start
with, repeating the pattern over and over. Try a
new pattern every time, and even try alternating
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want to switch to something a little more

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random. Here is an excellent tip that I learned
from Paul Cummins. Shuffle the pack and hold
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the deck face up. Look at the colors of the cards.

You are going to use tops and second deals, and
the aim is to alternate the colors. This, of
course, is not always strictly possible, and you
 just deal seconds until
until you come to the next
color. For example, the face card is black, you
deal it and say to yourself “black”. Then you are
looking for a red. If it is the next card deal it and
say “red”. Now we are back to black again, and
if the next card is red, deal seconds until you get
to a black card, and say “black”. Keep this up

through the whole pack. You will get quite good

at switching from tops to seconds as well as
dealing random runs of tops and seconds.

The latter technique does have a drawback to

watch out for: you don’t want to get in the habit
of looking at the cards when you deal. This can
draw unwanted attention to the deck. You may
also start blinking every time you deal a second,
so make sure not to overuse this practice
technique.
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this involves using a needle to poke the face of a

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card, creating a tiny, braille-like bump on the
back. You can do this with a regular needle and
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a hard surface, although there are also special

devices made expressly for this purpose that will
make it much easier to mark the cards you want.

You can learn about some good techniques for

the deal from The Phantom of the Card Table,
The Phantoms of the Card Table, and Ray
Grismer’s The Punch Letters, and Ed Marlo has
a lot of work on the subject, mostly in Marlo
 Magazines.

My preferred technique is nothing more than a

regular strike second deal (one of the best
descriptions for learning this is in Bill Simon’s
 Effective Card Magic) combined with a
technique from Ray Grismer’s aforementioned
book. He suggests creating a little triangle of
punches to make sure that you don’t miss.

Accordingly I put a little triangle on the face of

the card. I punch the court cards in the upper
right quadrant, just about in the face of the king,
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Feeling the punch consists of dealing a card, and

as the thumb retracts to get ready to deal the
second card, it rubs along the top of the deck to
see if there are any marks. You now have to
quickly decide whether or not you want to deal a
topsuch
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them coming, you have to learn to respond

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No one will ever know that your cards are
marked, and you will probably never use the
punch deal for any tricks. However, it has
proven to be very helpful in gaining confidence
with the deals.

Another aspect of second dealing that I think

hinders it from being incorporated into many
routines is that, when learning, people often just
learn to deal the cards into little piles. Straight

down, to the table, little piles. Quite often when

doing this at a convention, an older gentleman,
who you later learn is some awesome card man
of days gone by you wish you had the
wherewithal to spend more time with, will come
up to you and ask you if you can sail the cards.
This means tossing the cards out, kind of like a
lazy frisbee.

They mention this because this is how most

people deal in games. Sailing will also help you
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To further this approach, you should also

practice using the second deal in many other
situations, like dealing a second and putting it in
the middle of the deck, as for an ambitious card
routine.

If you do a push off second and a push off double

lift, create a practice routine blending these two
actions. The combination will help both moves.

Ross Bertram has some excellent techniques in

 Bertram on Sleight of Hand, and David Ben

points out in Tricks that Mr. Bertram often used
to second deal and turn the card over on top of
the pack, simulating a double turnover.

Learn as many ways to utilize a second deal as

poss ible7, and the m
possible move
ove wil
willl fit more rreadil
eadily
y into
the routines you are working on. Don’t get stuck
thinking it is just a technique for dealing little
piles, and you won’t end up practicing a move
for hundreds of hours that you will never use.
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7
 Roy Walton is the best at taking a move and using it for
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Some of these techniques will prove helpful for

any of the false deals you choose to learn, so
keep them in mind, although I haven’t had much
luck with the punch bottom deal … yet!

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 Kepplinger Prediction
Prediction

(Reprinted from Card Men with permission from

the author)

This is an effect that I came up with mainly in

order to utilize a handling of the Diagonal Palm
Shift that is quite fascinating to me.

The effect is that the magician claims that they

have been working very hard on making people

pick exactly the card that he wants them to, and
he would like to try it out, as he thinks it will be
very effective in doing many of the effects that
he has seen other magicians doing. He then has
three cards selected and put back in the deck,
because, since he made everyone pick them in
the first place, they clearly aren’t needed
anymore.

He tells the audience that he “can prove that the

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settings. He then proceeds to squat down
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Lo, the cards are not in the hand. He excuses

himself, and states that he “forgot to attach the
thing.” Once the device is attached, he then
performs the squat maneuver, and this time the
three cards successfully come from the sleeve
and are produced from the right hand.

This foolishness does not in fact require a

Kepplinger!

Anyway, have three cards selected while talking

about forcing. These are free sele

selections,
ctions, feel
free to do whatever method you want. Before
continuing, we’ll take a look at the handling of
the Diagonal Palm Shift.

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 Multiple Card
Card DPS Handling

I heard that Charlie Miller was quite fond of the

Diagonal Palm Shift and used to ask people to
do it for him, and then would ask if they could
do it with multiple cards. He had a few very
clever methods for accomplishing this feat (for
those that don’t know, when doing a multiple
card Diagonal Palm Shift you have to work
quite hard to get them to come around into the

palm nice and square), although I am afraid they

are not published, as far as I am aware.

One day he challenged Paul Chosse to perform

the shift with multiple cards, and was surprised
when he was able to do it...perfectly. It turns
out that
that Mr. Chos
Chosse
se had an exc
excellent
ellent meth od8
method
that he had come up with.

Due to my great fascination and hero worship of

these two titans of sleight of hand, I tried to
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8
PersonalizationLandes, Michael. “Paul Chosse on the Diagonal Palm
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Basically, as you have each card replaced, you

cull it under
under th
thee spread9 (dia
spread (diabolic
bolical,
al, I know
know,, ok,
maybe it is cheating, but the ending is good).
Once you get all three, still underneath and with
the cards above them spread, you stick the
upper left corner of the group back into the deck
at an angle, so the free inner end is pointed
diagonally inward and to your right.

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Leave the top of the spread messy, and you will

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find that the top part of the spread will kind of
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follow the block of cards and keep them well

covered, as you push the right hand towards the
left, squaring the long sides of the cards slightly.

Press down with your right thumb so you can

hold everything firmly. You can now flash the
underside of the pack, as the selections are
hidden by the bottom cards and your right hand
fingers. This is extra great if you have cards
reversed or something else that might get
exposed.

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Turn the right hand back over so it is palm up

again. Next put the cards into left hand dealing
position and move the right hand over into
overhand grip, pushing the top portion of the
pack square, but not the jogged packet. You will
find that they are all neatly together and in
perfec
perfectt po
posit
sition
ion for the Dia
Diagon
gonal
al Palm
Palm Shift10.
Shift
 
Perform the Diagonal Palm Shift, swiveling the
cards into left hand full palm.

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 Erdnase, S. W., “The Diagonal Palm Shift.” Artifice
Marketing  Ruse and Subterfuge at thethe Card Table: A Treatise
Treatise on the
Science and Art of Manipulating Cards. Chicago, Il: The
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Author, 1902. 137-141.
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 Now back to the routine: Explain that you knew

they would pick those cards because many
hundreds of years ago, you put three cards in
your Kepplinger.

Perform the fake actions that are supposed to

maneuver the cards from the Kepplinger into the
palm, look disappointed, and show the hand
empty. Excuse yourself and affix the knee
attachment, meanwhile performing Ernest
Earic
Ea rick’s
k’s P
Palm
alm-to
-to-pa
-palm
lm ttran
ransfe
sfer,
r, cl
class
assic flatt11.
ic to fla

 
Repeat the Kepplinger actions, and then show
the three cards.

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Minch, Stephen. “Palm-to-palm transfer, classic to flat.”
 By Forces Unseen: The
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 Earick. Seattle, WA: Hermetic, 1993. 96-99.
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The Bear Trick

 Effect: The spectator selects a card, it is placed

back into the pack, and the pack is shuffled.

The magician snaps his fingers and informs the

audience that the card has left the deck and
traveled to the spectator’s pocket...then, using
the hoary old line, he says, “But it didn’t stop
there. It traveled to Alaska, where it met an

angry bear. Then to the ends of the universe,

would anyone like to go check? ...Oh, we don’t
have time. And it comes back to this room
where it is floating around and lands in this card
case.” He points to the box on the table and
reaches over, picks up the case, and opens it.

In dismay, he dumps out a bunch of pieces of a

playing card torn to shreds, and says, “Stupid
bear.”
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 Method: This effect came about while working

on the card to box and also being frustrated with
people claiming there is no motivation for the
torn and restored card.

To start, tear up any playing card into pieces

small enough that no one can readily identify
which card it is. They should fit comfortably in
the box and fall out easily.

Put them in the bottom of the box and put the

rest of the deck inside to hold them in place.

Take the deck out a few times to make sure
there are no pieces that got lodged into it, as you
want to be able to remove the deck quickly and
not have any bear confetti exposing itself
prematurely.

Remove the cards from the case, close the box,

and
using set it on the
Horatio table. Have
Galasso’s a card
favorite selected
manner. Take
the card back, and I like to say, “...and if you
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about giving back the card, as they seem to say
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Diagonal Palm Shift with a brief shuffle:
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Shuffle DPS

While experimenting with some of Paul

Chosse’s delightful Diagonal Palm Shift
methods, I realized that not only could you
dribble cards with the card in the angle jogged
position just before the steal, you could also
perform an in-the-hands riffle shuffle and
bridge.

You will need to make sure that you put the card
to be palmed in the lower half of the deck. Once
there, you go through the Diagonal Palm Shift
mechanics until the left hand has drawn the card
back at an angle, towards the rear of the deck,
and it has just hit the right thumb.

At this point the right hand safely holds

everything and riffles off half the deck onto the
left hand fingers. The riffled cards are tilted
over into the left hand, in the familiar action of
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The selection will go along for the ride and

remain hidden beneath the left hand. Hold onto
it with the left pinky, on the face of the card.

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You can now shuffle the two halves together

and bridge the deck. As long as the left pinky
maintains pressure on the selection, it will
remain in its diagonal position ready for the
steal later.

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 Back to the routine: Once the shift has been

completed and the card is safely hidden in the
left palm, set the deck on the table. Perform
some magical gesture, and begin the process of
relating the card’s treacherous and arduous
 journey throughout the universe.
universe. Don’t forget
the “angry bear” or the trick may not make as
much sense.

Reach over with the left hand, concealing the

palmed selection, and grab the box. Open the

flap, and dump out the contents. To yourself

say, “Stupid bear.”

This gives you a reason to restore the card: it

was clearly damaged by an angry Alaskan bear.

Put your left hand underneath the table’s edge

and slide the pieces of card with your right hand

off
cardthe willtable
act and
as ainto
slidethe
andleft
thehand. The
pieces palmed
will
continue
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Squeeze both hands together; for magicians I
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by showing that the card has been restored!

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A Few New Items 

still by

Ricky Smith

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The Runcible Card Trick

 Effect: The magician tosses out a folded playing

card held closed by a paperclip stating, “I was at
the future today, and I got this.” Next, he has a
spectator select a card and has it signed. On the
return of the card he notices that the card has
gotten bent during the signing process and tries
to straighten it out. Unfortunately everything
goes wrong...he accidentally tears the card in

two!

He apologizes and says, “I’ve got to stop

working out.” The torn pieces are thrown away,
and the trick is started again. A new card is
selected, but, wait, it turns out to be the signed
card!

The magician
spectators is very
amazing amazedand
abilities with the
wonders if it
could
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deck. Tensions mount! It is not the card.
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After a moment, the magician says, “Sometimes
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plans.” He then reaches for the paperclipped

card from the beginning and opens it. It is the
signed card!

 Method: This is just a nice combination of Bill

Woodfield’s “Torn & Restored Card” which I
learned from Michael Skinner’s Professional
Close-Up Magic and Jay Sankey’s “#*@!” from
100% Sankey.

I fold the card in the routine using Folding a

Card from Expert Card Technique. This is a one
handed technique that folds the card into 6ths.

Before the routine begins you need to prepare

the gimmick for “#*@!” which is a folded card,
make sure the fold is similar to the one you will
use in the routine, and put a paperclip on it. Put
this in a convenient pocket. Additionally, put a

one inch tear in the top card of the deck. It

should be near the center of the card and on the
short
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and toss it on the table.
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Have a card selected making sure to keep some

pressure on the torn card so the tear is not
noticed. Once they have the card say something
like, “Let’s make it official, can you sign the
card on the face, please?” Give them a suitable
pen and have the card signed. Take the pen back
and put it away, or leave it on the table to put
away later when you are holding out the folded
card, if you want additional cover.

Take back the signed card and hold it in top

change position. Blow on the ink and make a
comment, perhaps that the card has gotten bent
or there is some water on it. A Hofzinser style
top change is good here, but I have been using
David Williamson’s handling of the top change
on the off beat and doing the tear later,
whichever you choose change the signed card
for the torn one. In the action of fixing the bend

or brushing the water off, grab the front left

quadrant of the torn card with your left thumb
andsuchfingers,
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start the trick again. This time force the signed
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the spectator. Look surprised when they notice

and compliment them on their ability to pick
their own card.

Take the signed selection back and challenge the

spectator to find their card after a shuffle. Give
the cards a brief overhand shuffle and top palm
the selection into the right hand.

Fold the card secretly with the right hand using

the method from Expert Card Technique, while
you instruct the spectator to shuffle the pack,
spread out the cards, and push out a card from
the middle.

Have them flip over the card...it’s not the

selection. Say, “Sometimes the future gets in the
way of the best laid plans”, and pick up the
paperclipped card with your right hand, which

has the folded selection in finger palm. Execute

the switch from Jay Sankey’s routine putting
thesuch
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at any
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quickly put a tear in the top card and you are
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ready to go!
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The Bar on Spring Street

Effect: The magician has the cards shuffled by

an audience member and, on their return,
comments on the nature of their shuffle and
offers to show them a shuffle they may have
never seen and may never see again.

He perfectly shuffles the cards, only to explain

that his shuffle, while interesting, was not

nearly as random as the spectators.

Next he asks an audience member to call stop as

he drops the cards from hand to hand. The card
stopped at is put face down on the table for
later.

The magician explains that he is going to do the

same
younger thing, but he
crowds, hehas
hasbeen
to dodrinking
it three (or, for so
times),
he such
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He then points to the card the spectator selected
at the beginning and has them turn it over. It is
the fourth “a” and the magician compliments
them and is impressed that they were able to
find the card face down.

 Method: This is just a minor variation on Steve

Forte’s “Spring St. Aces”, but it has a few
points in it that are of interest and applicable to
all of your card work.

Begin with the four aces secretly on top of the

pack.

Spread the cards between your hands and, in

doing so, secretly cull the fourth card partially
under the spread creating a jog. Square the
cards getting a break under the four aces, made

easy by the jogged ace.

Ask the audience who is the best shuffler, and
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you leave them jogged counterclockwise
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underneath the break to the top, jogging these

cards even further counterclockwise. Due to
each successive jog, the four aces are now
almost perfectly in position to palm them in the
left hand.

Hand the deck sans aces to an audience member

for shuffling. Watch and see what shuffle they
do. When you get the cards back, tell them the
name of the shuffle they performed. Often they
don’t know that shuffles have different names
and this enlightens them while also covering
your bottom palm replacement. The four aces
are now secretly on the bottom of the deck.

Offer to show them a shuffle that they may have

never seen before and may never see again. This
will be an out faro shuffle, but I only tell them
that it is a perfect shuffle. Explain that you have

to cut the cards exactly in half and weave them

together. Show the result...they will be amazed
andsuchyou
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State that the perfect shuffle, while interesting,
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is not as thorough as the shuffle the audience
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Dribble the cards from hand to hand and ask an
audience member to stop you at random as you
go through the cards. Stop when they tell you
and do a one handed bottom deal tossing the
bottom ace onto the table face down. A good
description of this is in, of all things, The Magic
of Michael Ammar.

State that you will do the same thing but to

make it easier on yourself, you will do it face up.
Turn the cards face up and swing cut about half
the pack into the left hand. Swing cut another
portion on top of these holding a left little finger
break and finally put the remainder on top of
everything.

Grab the cards in order to spring them from

hand to hand, taking over the left hand pinky

break with the right thumb. When you spring

the cards you will find that the spring will
automatically
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Then point out the card that the spectator
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comment in reference to how talented the

audience member must be to have found their
ace without looking.

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The Odds Against Us

 Effect: An audience member selects and signs a

card with no prompting from the magician! Not
really, you have to prompt them. Once this is
done, the card is lost in the pack and they
miraculously cut to their own card!

The magician states that he did a lot of

mathematics for many hundreds of hours earlier
that day and that he discovered that the odds of
that happening are 1 in 52. He pulls out his
notebook to show his arduous calculations,
which turn out to not be that many. He goes on
to explain that even with ten shuffles, nay one
million shuffles, the odds become...still the same.

He then states that for really miraculous odds

they should really be hoping for one out of

infinity. He then takes a sealed envelope out of
thesuch
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 Method: This is of course a signed card to
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envelope routine. I was looking to perform the
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purchased many hundreds of wallets cleverly

made for this effect. All of them were not really
my style and generally much too bulky. I
thought maybe a leather passport holder or a
notebook holder might be perfect, but I didn’t
get around to doing it before figuring out, why
not just use a notebook. The small “Field Notes”
style notebooks are very common and could
work perfectly. I added some flaps for a loader
and put in some strips of metal to keep it open in
the pocket and am very pleased with it.
Additionally, the notebook can have notes in it
which you can reference in order to have a
reason for taking out the notebook, and hence
this routine. As a bonus, you can have several
envelope loaders ready in your notebook in order
to do the routine several times before having to
reset.

For this routine, write 1/52 and some other

pertinent numbers and symbols on a page in
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and put it into the loader. I use the envelopes

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Put the notebook in your inner left breast pocket

with the opening upwards and you are ready for
action.

Have a card selected and signed. Have it

returned and then control it to the bottom of the
deck. Then perform the Cross Cut Force. Do
some time misdirection by pointing out the
impossibility and then pick up the top packet to
show the signed card.

Bottom palm the selection and then replace the

packet on top of the tabled cards. Do some
explaining about your mathematical endeavors
and inquire with regard to how the odds would
change if the cards were shuffled more.

Load the card using the excellent technique

from Michael Skinner’s Classic Sampler.

Basically, you hold the edge of your coat with

your left hand (which is palming the selection).
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all hidden behind the jacket and since you are

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Show the audience your math expertise and
comment on making the odds more impossible.
Remove the envelope, secretly adhere the edges,
and hand the envelope to the spectator. Have
them remove the card and enjoy the miracle!

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An Impractical Punch
For
Aggressive
Gentlemen
Or, I’m a Fan of Bob White and Jared Kopf

By

Ricky Smith

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 Introduction
It’s true...this punch will not be of much use in a

fight.
many However, it will prove itself a valuable asset in
other ways!

The punch is one of my favorite secret devices. It is

entirely possible that a million monkeys, shuffling a
million decks, for a million hours, would never detect
this work in those decks...this is also true of most
magicians! I’ve been putting in the work regularly
for almost two decades and don’t think anyone has

ever stumbled upon it by accident.

I started out with a needle and the linoleum floor in
my parents’ kitchen and, several years ago, was very
lucky to have received the punch that comes with
this booklet as a gift from a great friend
(Anonymous shout out and thanks!).

The James Riser Punch is one of the best-made and

best-designed devices
devices in magic or gambling. It will
last you forever, probably never require sharpening,
is easy
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In this work I hope to give you a great overview and
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own studies and thinking will do the rest. More
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this wonderful utility device and use it secretly and

often!

Best wishes,

Ricky

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 A Brief History
A punched card is one that has been poked on one

side in an effort
subsequently be to
feltcreate
on theanother
indentation
side. It that canused
can be
to mark almost any kind of card or paper and is thus
not limited to playing cards.

Believe it or not, this kind of marking system was

developed many hundreds of years before braille.
What may be the earliest reference (the description
is pretty vague) comes from around 1552 in a

pamphlet called A manifest

vyle and detestable detection
use of diceplay  by of
G.the
W.moste
mYou
oste can
tell by the title the kind of treachery we are going to
get into…

Jonathan Harrington Green describes punched cards

a few hundred years later in his book An Exposure
of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling (1843), but we
run into the same trouble that is prevalent in almost
all books prior to Erdnase: The descriptions aren’t
particularly detailed.
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says, “Some players make a practice of marking
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as they happen to come into the player’s possession,

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for the purpose; and in the course of an hour the

principal cards can be readily distinguished.” It
would have been wonderful to read his thoughts on
the matter though, had it been of interest to him.
Probably he would have written at great length had
he seen The Phantom of the Card Table.

On June 14, 1930, the Phantom, Walter Scott,

performed a miraculous display of exquisite card
handling. In front of a number of the best magicians
at the time, including Cardini, Sam Horowitz, Al
Baker, and T. Nelson Downs, Walter Scott was able

to deal out astounding hands of cards from a

thoroughly shuffled deck while blindfolded. It must
have been amazing, as these gentlemen were
completely flummoxed.

This single event triggered a profound interest in the

deal. The best guys were writing back and forth
trying to get every detail on the method and a
number of the greats would make pilgrimages in the

hope to see him work for many years afterward.

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number of great resources on the topic. 
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 My Experiences
Dan and Dave Buck and I were very fortunate as
youngsters to be allowed to go to a number of
conventions in Las Vegas. At the time, I seemed
very responsible and our hoodwinked parents
thought that it was okay for the three of us to roam
freely around Sin City with no adult supervision. Our
hotel rooms were often nearly flooded with piles of
thrown cards that the hotel staff would kindly
assemble into an amalgam of piles each day while we
were out doing activities.

One such activity was to go to the Gambler’s General

Store and the Gambler’s Book Club. When we
learned about these glorious places we were in
heaven. The cab fare to get there almost always
nearly emptied our pockets, but we spent everything
left over on arcane cheating books, Steve Forte
videotapes, and mountains of cards. One of the books
was The Phantom of the Card Table.

Funnily enough though, I personally only read The

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My first experience punching cards came from the

work of Ed Marlo. He detailed a method wherein you
could just use a pin and a relatively hard surface
with a little give (you don’t want to just make a hole
in the card). This was something I was capable of
and used to punch my cards as he prescribed on the
linoleum floor of my parents’ kitchen.

Marlo had a very interesting take on the punch deal

that was an amalgam of Walter Scott’s work and his
own method of feeling for the punch that worked
great when I was starting out. His left thumb was

well across the pack, as in the Scott deal, and he had

developed a method of feeling the punch that
mimicked his action of pushing over the top card. He
has a lot of interesting work on the punch, and using
it, in Marlo in Spades and the Marlo Magazines.

This was how I did it until I started really

understanding naturalness.
naturalness. Years of studying the
work of Dai Vernon, reading the books and watching

the video tapes (I am so old!), ingrained in me the

importance of doing things as you naturally would.
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 Putting in the
the Work
Generally you are going to be poking the front of the

card in order to create the bump on the back of the

card. You can do this with a needle and a hard
surface with a little give, if you don’t have a punch
handy. The reason for the hard surface is you don’t
want the needle to go through the card, and the
reason for the give is you want to create the bump
on the back, so you can feel it.

There are many other strategies for putting in the

work. Youingenious
find some can checkways
the books
to puton
inWalter
the workScott to
during
play or during a magic effect and there are all kinds
of devices that can be used. For example, Sharps
and Flats by John Nevil Maskelyne details a
specially made ring with a small pin in it for putting
in the work.

However, since this booklet comes with a great

punch, you should be able to skip the pin and other
articles. The James Riser Punch is very easy to
adjust;
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be as
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Ed Marlo would punch court cards in the corner of
the borders on the faces of the cards. This was so his
cards were even less likely to be detected. This
worked with his style of dealing. However, I
recommend finding your own location for putting in
the work based on where your thumb sweeps back to
deal the next card. This will result in a more natural
deal, and I really think that going to the trouble of
hiding your punch work in the design on the face of
the card is a bit extreme and unnecessary.

Personally, I put in a trio of punches in a small

triangle. On the back of the card they would be in the
upper left and lower right quadrants (you want to
punch both ends of the cards so that you can feel the
punches no matter how the cards are oriented). I
learned this technique from Ray Grismer’s The
 Punch Letters; it was a tip for when you are starting
out, and I have never switched back to a single
punch. I like the casual and less studied deal this

allows, and it makes it much less likely to miss a

card.
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Which cards you punch depend on what you want to

accomplish. I like to punch the court cards and Aces,
as there are a lot of them, so I don’t often deal a
round without having a punch card show up and
generally get a nice-looking hand when I turn them
over for myself—although the hand is usually not
very good, only nice looking, since I have too many
cards punched. It is more fun to practice this way,
and I don’t usually do the deal for anyone anyway.
More on this later… 

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Utilizing the Work

For most applications, the first step will be to learn a
good second deal. The one I use is a basic strike
second deal, and I think the best place and method
for learning it can be found in Bill Simon’s Effective
Card Magic. He has a great step-by-step method
that will help you avoid many pitfalls and also get
the mechanics of the deal pretty quickly. There is
also an inexpensive paperback version of this book
called Card Magic for Amateurs and Professionals,
or you can get an ebook version from the Conjuring
Arts Research Center.

After obtaining a second deal, you can start working

on the punch deal. Generally the cards are
thoroughly shuffled and your punched cards are
scattered throughout the pack. Accordingly, as you
put the cards in your hand you should develop a
technique for ascertaining whether or not the top
card is punched or not. The position of my punch
work allows me to put the deck in my hand with the
thumb across the deck and to move it to the left side,
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where you are going to deal the punched cards.

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the punch on the second card down in the deck from

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feel the second card?), but it is true. You will be

dealing the top card, which gets your thumb into
position to feel the second card on its way back to
dealing position, as the top card is dealt away. You
are never just feeling the top card willy-nilly; it is as
the thumb retreats for the next deal that you get
your opportunity to find out whether the card is
punched or not. This is the secret to the work. Make
sure that you are never making multiple passes or
rubbing the card to try and find a punch; it is only in
the single sweeping motion of the thumb coming
back into position that you have an opportunity to
feel the punch.

Whenever you feel a punch, start dealing seconds

until you get to the hand where you want the
punched cards to end up. If you make it to that hand
and have not yet felt a punched card, deal a second
 just in case the next
next card is one of th
thee desired card
cards.
s.
You won’t know until you’ve checked your hand
whether it was or not, but since you’ve just dealt a

number of non-punched cards in a row, it is

hopefully the case that one was about to show up
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Some Applications
My favorite application for the punch deal is the
practice and improvement you will see in your
second deal. Dealing the punch means that you won’t
know when you will be switching from tops to
seconds and accordingly you will get very good at
switching between one and the other. This also
means that you will be able to start using your
second deal in much cleverer ways in your routines
(maybe having the selected card three cards down in
the pack and dealing a few tops before you start your
second deal for a stop trick) and that you will be less
likely to flub the first deal when starting dealing
seconds from the top.

In addition to marking cards for a dealing routine,

punched cards make excellent key cards. No need to
look at/look for the card. Mike Powers has an
excellent and diabolical routine in The PM Principle 
using this strategy. Dai Vernon even has some work
detailed in The Vernon Chronicles, wherein the cards
are punched on the faces for a very stunning routine.
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almost always disappointed when my hand doesn’t

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look amazing (I don’t really care if it actually doesn’t
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whatever I receive, and when they read the

prediction and it says, “I will receive my favorite
hand when I was little...all high cards.”

What happens if you are not so foolish, though? A

good strategy is to punch all the cards of one suit;
you get thirteen cards that have a possibility of
showing up and will often end up with a flush and
occasionally a straight flush. This can also be used
for a bridge deal with you and your partner getting
all of the Spades, but I haven’t found the
denouement to be wholly satisfactory. Another
possibility is two sets of four of a kind. In this
scenario you only have eight cards (in addition to
them possibly being low in the pack and never
coming up during your deal, they may also get dealt
out to other hands while you are dealing seconds, so
this is a risky ordeal). However, a three of a kind or
a full house often come up, both of which are good
hands. You could try three sets and see how that
goes as well.

Some good strategies are starting with the desired

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before the cards start mixing in with each other and

eliminate some of the chances of dealing one of the
desired cards to one of the other players. Anyway,
making sure the pack is well shuffled if you don’t
have any control is key. You want the desired cards
as spread out as possible!

Also, you can take advantage of the draw to try and

get an extra card and get rid of a card that was not
part of your desired cards.

I’ve often wondered what would be the best strategy

for punching cards that could leave you with an
impressive-looking
impressive- looking hand regardless of how the cards
end up after the shuffle. One strategy that I am not
sure is feasible was to develop a group of cards
wherein a random card might have a greater
probability of also helping the hand. For example,
instead of punching the 10, J, Q, K, and A of
Spades, which, if the Ace doesn’t show up maybe
you get the 9 just through sheer luck, if you had

punched the 9, 10, J, Q, K, you can have the Ace or

the 8 show up for a happy accident. Anyway, that is
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If you don’t want to resort to second dealing, the

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Finally, the punch is a tactile mark, so you can do it
without looking, like Walter Scott did with the
blindfold deal. This can add extra intrigue to your
performances and increase the impossibility of your
feats. 

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Conclusion
Hopefully this booklet has been helpful and given
you a good starting point for your travels with the
punch! You’ve acquired an excellent device for
putting in the work which will last you a lifetime.
Now all that is necessary is the practice required to
make it a useful tool in your arsenal. It’s one of my
favorites, and I think you will find that you practice
much longer due to the anticipation and excitement
generated turning over the amazing hands you will
be dealing yourself.

Best,

Ricky 

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 Recommended Reading
Reading
 Marlo in Spades by Ed Marlo
 Fred Braue on False Deals by Fred Braue
 Marlo’s Magazine, Volume 4 by Ed Marlo
 Marlo’s Magazine, Volume 5 by Ed Marlo
The Punch Letters by Ray Grismer
 Phantoms of the Card Table by David Britland and
Gazzo
 Phantom of the Card Table by Eddie McGuire
Secret of the Palmettos by Jeff Busby

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 Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Bill Kalush, Dan and Dave Buck,

Gary Plants, Conjuring Credits, Ask Alexander,
Denis Behr, Tyler Wilson, Mike Vance, Jared Kopf,
Ed Marlo, Gazzo, David Britland, Elliott Terral, and
two other people.

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