I recently wrote about using two Faro shuffles and an overhand shuffle to stack four aces for a five handed game of poker. (Obviously for a magic/gambling demonstration.) I kept playing around and here is another variation using second deals instead of an overhand shuffle.
Continue reading “Just a second, a five handed poker stack with Faros”Milking the Faro, 5 hand poker stack
This is something I am playing with. Start with four aces on top of the deck. Perform two in faros, which stack the aces for a four handed game. Now you can show the top three cards and the bottom three cards to the spectator to show that the deck is “well shuffled”.
Continue reading “Milking the Faro, 5 hand poker stack”Stacking a Royal Flush for a five handed game.
I just finished writing up the trick “Just Lucky“, which ends with you having found a Royal Flush. So I thought a good follow up trick would be to demonstrate how a card cheat could take those cards and stack them to be dealt to the dealer in a five handed game of draw poker.
Continue reading “Stacking a Royal Flush for a five handed game.”Free cut poker deal
This is not for everyone, but it is something I have been playing with. It is based on the “Free Cut Principle”, and sets up the deck for a five handed poker game, with the four aces going to the dealer. For more on the “Free Cut Principle” see:
Finnell, Gene. Free Cut Principle. Self-published, 1967.
- This booklet is a landmark publication. Gene Finnell independently rediscovered the principle and published several applications, including one titled “Aces at Random,” which is a direct application of the principle to find the four aces.
Marlo’s Stacking Two Sets of Three
This is from “Riffle Shuffle Systems”. I found it easier to do by swapping the right hand and left hand actions, so this is that description. This method sets up the deck so that in a five-handed poker game, the first player receives all three Kings and the dealer receives all three Aces. The instructions below have been rewritten to reverse the left and right hand actions from the original text.
Continue reading “Marlo’s Stacking Two Sets of Three”Marlo’s Two-and-Two Combination riffle stack
Ed Marlo was a prolific and brilliant creator, but his writing style was dense, technical, and often difficult to follow. He wrote for experienced magicians, using highly specific terminology and offering exhaustive variations without always clarifying the core method. As a result, powerful ideas—like his two-and-two combination riffle stack—can be buried beneath layers of complexity.
What follows is a clearer, more accessible explanation of Marlo’s two-and-two combination stack. I’ve aimed to preserve the mechanics and intent while making the method easier to understand and apply.
Continue reading “Marlo’s Two-and-Two Combination riffle stack”Practicing the 451 stack
Yet another overhand stack
I was playing around with some of my favorite overhand stacks. I realized that I can do an easy stack. It started with two aces on the bottom of the deck and two aces on the top.
Continue reading “Yet another overhand stack”A slightly modified Erdnase Stack
The one aspect of the Erdnase Stack that I have never liked is the undercut and throw during the second part of the stack. Below is the description of the four card stack for a five handed game with that step in bold:
FOR any game in which cards are dealt singly. Three of the desired cards are placed on top, one on bottom. Under-cut about one-third deck, injog top card, run two less than twice number players, out-jog and shuffle off to last card, so that it will be left on top. Under-cut to out-jog, forming break at in-jog, run one less than number players, throw to break, run one, in-jog running one less than twice number players, out-jog and shuffle off. Under-cut to in-jog and throw on top. Under-cut to out-jog, run one less than number players and throw balance on top. This gives the four desired cards to the dealer in four rounds.
Erdnase, Expert at the card table
Normally during an overhand shuffle you don’t simply cut a block off and throw it to the top. Instead, what I do is what was done in the first halve of the stack, namely, undercut to the out-jog and form a break at the in-jog. Then as I start the second part of the shuffle, I let the cards below the in-jog drop onto the top of the deck as I run one less than the number of players. This effectively hides the throw and reduces the right hands shuffling motion.
I think it makes the shuffle more deceptive.
Faro stack from a cull
In playing around with the faro stack I started to set the five handed stack up with a cull, instead of “losing” the aces.
Continue reading “Faro stack from a cull”