This card trick is a very old gem which I'm trying to find.

from what I can remember the effect goes along the line of having the spectator shuffle the deck and then he is instructed deal pairs of cards face up at a time , if they are both red they go in 1 pile if they are both black they go in a 2nd pile and if they are different they go in a discard pile . then you show a prediction which all that I can remember about is that it states that the red or the black pile has 4 more cards than the other pile

does this ring any bells ???

Sounds like Stewart James' Miraskill.


Murf

That's the one , thanks a lot murf . knew it was in the encyclopedia of card magic , but didn't know where to start .

By the way, Tom Westerhide sells (at least he did a couple of years ago) an interesting non-card version of Maraskill. It uses colored balls in clear plastic tubes. The tubes stand vertically, like candle sticks, making a very attractive display.


Murf

Which is directly taken from the Stewart James books. The ONLY difference is that the routine found in James books uses candy. I am assuming Tom Westerhide obtained permission to market this routine? I will research it further as there may also be a permission issue in that the section of The James File which covers this effect contains variants by other magicians. Moreover, I believe that even though the effects in the first book (Stewart James in Print)only go up to the mid 1970s, they are not public domain. I am not accusing Tom Westerhide of theft. I am hoping that this isn't yet another case of taking an effect out of a book, tweaking it slightly and marketing it without permission.

Namaste,
Vlad