Going back to one of the first books on card magic that I owned, “EXPERT CARD TECHNIQUE: Close-Up Table Magic by JEAN HUGARD and FREDERICK BRAUE”, I took a look at their system of stacking a poker hand. They described stacking four cards for a four handed game. Below I have shown instructions, using their system, for stacking four cards to fall to the dealer on a five handed game. I recommend looking at the book for more information.
As noted in some of my other posts on stacking with overhand shuffles, this stack has some drawbacks. In particular, in step 4 you have a run of 20 single cards. Also, twice you have to manage an injog and outjog together, and throw a block of cards. After the description I will offer some modifications that I think make this better.
FOUR CARD STOCK
One card at the top; three cards at the bottom.
To stock the cards to fall to the fifth hand.
- Undercut half the pack, run 4 cards, injog the next card, the 5th, and shuffle off, bringing the three cards originally at the bottom to the top.
- Undercut at the injog, injog the top card of the left hand packet; run 5 cards, run 4 more cards and outjog the next, the 5th; and shuffle off. (a run of ten single cards)
- Undercut at the outjog, retaining a break at the injog with the right thumb, and throw the cards above the break onto the top of the left hand packet. Run 5 cards, injog the next card and shuffle off.
- Undercut at the injog, run 4 cards and injog the next card, the 5th; run 5 cards; run 5 more; run 4 more and outjog the next card, the 5th; and shuffle off. (a run of 20 single cards)
- Undercut at the outjog, retaining a break at the injog with the right thumb, and throw the cards above the break onto the top of the left hand packet. Run 4 cards, injog the next card and shuffle off.
- Undercut at the injog and throw on top. The cards are stocked at 5, 10, 15 and 20 in position to fall to the fifth hand.
Note that this is not a easy sequence to remember. Steps two and four set up injogs and outjogs. Step three is the first “throw” with a run of five cards. Step five is the other “throw” with a run of four.
How can we make the simpler?
Modifying it
Start with two aces on top and two on the bottom. Now do a tabled riffle shuffle, keeping the aces intact on the bottom, but adding four cards between the two aces on top. It only takes a little practice to be able to hold back four cards and then drop them between the two top aces. An alternative is to keep three aces on the bottom and one on the top, then riffle shuffle four indifferent cards on top of the top ace. Then use a double cut to more the bottom ace to the top.
You now have from the top down, an Ace, four x cards, an ace, the rest of the deck, and two aces on the bottom. Now to start the over hand shuffles.
- Undercut half of the deck and run four cards, injog the next, and shuffle off to bring the bottom two aces to the top.
- Undercut half of the deck while you injog the top card of the left hand packet; run 5 cards, run 5 cards, run 4 more cards and outjog the next, the 5th; and shuffle off. (a run of fifteen single cards)
- Undercut at the outjog, retaining a break at the injog with the right thumb, and throw the cards above the break onto the top of the left hand packet. Run 5 cards, injog the next card and shuffle off.
- Undercut at the injog and throw on top. The cards are stocked at 5, 10, 15 and 20 in position to fall to the fifth hand.
So for the price of a single riffle shuffle the overhand stacking is much simplified. There is only one long run of single cards, and only one injog/outjog/throw.
Additional thoughts
Instead of a riffle shuffle you could use a Braue technique to set up the cards. Start with the four aces face up on the table. As you patter, get a break under the top four cards of the deck, which is in your left hand. Your right hand picks up the face up aces and adds them to the top of the deck, but keeps a thumb break between the aces and the top four cards, which you right hand picks up. Now draw off the first ace and flip it face down onto the deck. As you right hand covers the deck, let the four indifferent cards fall on top the ace just turned over. Now, one at a time, flip the remaining aces over, face down on top the the deck.
To the spectator it appears as if you simply shown the aces and placed them face down on top. Now double undercut the top two cards to the bottom and you are set.
Below is a video of me practicing the stack:
Additional additional thoughts
Whenever a stack calls for a final “throw the block on top”, I prefer to add a small number of cards to the top of that block in the preceding step. Then instead of simply throwing the block on top, you undercut and run three (or whatever the number of cards you added) and then throw on top.