I must admit to having a great liking for a few effects that use a full or near-full stack that is specific to just one effect. Two that I can give as an example are from Simon Aronson--Worker Bees from Try the Impossible and Simon-Eyes from The Aronson Approach. I am sure there are plenty of other examples.

I am curious as to how often folks here go to the trouble of setting up a full-deck stack that is really good for just one effect.

Of course, there are ways to make a specialized stack more generally useful. One can memorize it and use it as one's memdeck for other effects. Sometimes the specialized stack has other utility--Aronson's Simon Eyes stack is just a cyclic rosary stack and can find it useful in many effects where a rosary stack is needed but it doesn't matter which one.

There are some great effects out there that depend on a one-trick-pony stack. I am interested to learn how often the serious cardicians out there take the trouble to perform them.

Les

Generally I am not a fan of using a stack that only does one thing, BUT I have one exception.

I have an antique deck set-up and cased in an old metal card box. I bring it out for special performances of Woody Aragon's effect Grandpa's Poker from his fantastic A Book in English.

If the routine didn't involve a participant shuffling the cards and multiple mixing procedures I probably wouldn't recommend the approach of bringing out a special deck, but being a the great poker routine that it is, it lends itself to using an old deck along with a good story. The routine can start with explaining the outcomes (the exact hands that will be dealt in a game), then have a participant help to mix the cards, then more shuffling, then more shuffling, and then dealing. It's just too good an effect not to do, regardless of the one trick-pony stack.

Greg

In LAS VEGAS KARDMA, Allan Ackerman observed that he did not perform tricks that required gaffs as often as tricks that could be done with an unprepared deck of cards. The same phenomenon obviously applies to elaborate stacks.

Perhaps we can broaden the thread from stacks we take the trouble to perform to set up, to awesome tricks that require an extensive set up.

Sam the Bellhop (Malone's version)
Further Than That (Stewart James)
Vernon's Poker Deal (Dai Vernon)

I can't think of any others off the top of my head.

The great Mike Skinner originally memorized a stack so that he could perform two tricks he otherwise rarely had the chance to perform. One was from THE AMATEUR MAGICIAN'S HANDBOOK and the other was Vernon's Poker Deal. If anyone is looking to create a stack, you can build it around some monster stack trick. One obvious problem is that a lot of these stacks might not look sufficiently random if spread face-up, so you might have to faro to get into it.

Definitely my kind of thinking Cain

One of my favorite routines is based on Vernon's Poker Deal. I perform it all the time using my own stack, and have a version for the Aronson stack as well. It escapes the one-trick pony stack problem by resetting completely meaning you can do just as Skinner did and work a memorized deck set and still be able to perform this great effect.

Greg

Hi Greg,

do you think you could pm me your routine from the Aronson stack?

Best regards,

Zedd

Considering how much time we put into our practice, stacking a pack of cards isn't exactly time consuming. Unless you're table hopping, then I can see the point of routines that require a stack.

Stacks that serve for multiple effects or even a whole routine can be strong tools for the proverbial toolbox. Rusduck's The Cardiste is full of stacked work (mostly gambling related but not all) that is structured to cover multiple effects comprising an entire routine. If you're interested in getting the most bang from a given stack I would strongly recommend checking it out. Even if you never use the routines as written it can spur your thinking to come up with creative ways of getting more from a stack than just one trick.

^This. Aronson's uses one stack from Rusduck. There's a full deck stack
in there that's awesome that one day I'll look more closely into

And this: http://www.benjoffe.com/holdem is interesting.

Bob Farmer has some neat stuff too.

I'm really curious what Doug Dyment has come up with for Quickerstack.
I'll check to see if it's been added as a supplement when I get home.
If not, I know he has further work on it.

I wrote a post asking about stacks, asking about which ones can be
blended and which cannot. I'm still really interested in exploring this.
I think it would be super handy to have a chart/ program that can create
a stack that has all or most wanted properties desired by the querent.