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obsidian52 Veteran user United States 372 Posts |
I am just getting into stacked deck tricks, but my initial thought is this...A Stebbins stack has been around what? about 50 or 60 years? I am as much for progress as the next guy, but if something has been around that long, doesn't it usually mean that it must be pretty good? just wondering
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Woland Special user 680 Posts |
The arrangement of the "Si Stebbins" stack has been in print since 1593. It must be even better than you thought!
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edh Inner circle 4698 Posts |
Curious as to why you named this thread "I was just thinking...uh-oh this may be trouble"?
Magic is a vanishing art.
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Nicolino Inner circle 2893 Posts |
Maybe because it's a great way to arouse people's interest?
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Dick Christian Inner circle Northern Virginia (Metro DC) 2619 Posts |
The Stebbins, 8 Kings and various other stacks have been around for years and they all work quite well depending on how they are used. The weakness of many of them, those two in particular, is that if the deck is spread face-up a cyclical pattern -- either cyclical rotation of suits (CHaSeD, etc.) or values may become obvious. Of course this is only a concern IF the deck is to be spread face-up. There are relatively few stacks that reveal no discernible pattern -- i.e., appear to be a randomly shuffled deck -- when spread face-up. My personal favorite, and IMO one of if not THE best of those, is Richard Oserlind's Breakthrough Card System (commonly referred to as the BCS).
Many, including myself, consider the best and most versatile of all possible decks is one that is both marked and stacked (so long as the marks are easily seen by the performer and invisible to others). The Boris Wild marked deck (at least the version formerly sold as the Demon Deck by Larry Becker and Lee Earle which uses the BCS stack) is one such and Roy Johnson's S.U.M. (Set-Up Marked) Deck is another.
Dick Christian
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Woland Special user 680 Posts |
An additional wrinkle might be provided by Jon Thompson's book, "Stripped and Stacked."
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Cain Inner circle Los Angeles, CA 1550 Posts |
The advantage of Si Stebbins is that there's an entire literature dedicated to the set up -- methods of getting into it from NDO, tricks specific to its arrangement and so on.
The disadvantage is that the pattern is simply too obvious. I don't think the pattern matters for 95% of the tricks I perform, but I just can't give up that other 5%.
Ellusionst discussing the Arcane Playing cards: "Michaelangelo took four years to create the Sistine Chapel masterpiece... these took five."
Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes: "You know Einstein got bad grades as a kid? Well, mine are even worse!" |
obsidian52 Veteran user United States 372 Posts |
Hmm...thank you Nicolino and Edh...you guys obviously know me better than you think, and yes the biggest reason I start threads that way is my slightly talk down about myself ( I forget the word) humor and yes if I start thinking, if the wood starts burning there might be trouble..
Hello Mr. Christian...we seem to be bumping into each other a lot lately, at Magi-Whirl in Springfield at Bob Sheets Magic Venue in Gaithersburg Md, and someplace else I cant recall...oh yeah..here |
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » Shuffled not Stirred » » I was just thinking..uh-oh, this may be trouble (0 Likes) |
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