Any advice on some clever tricks that use the one way face cards?

Pardon my ignorance .... what's a one way face card?

I was just referring to cards like the 3 of hearts that have a pip on the face that would indicate whether or not the card has been turned 180 degrees or turned around before being reinserted into a packet. Maybe there's another name for them.

The most standard uses for that kind of an "indicator card" is for card locations effected by reversing the decks orientation when you switch the deck from hand to hand while asking they replace their chosen card into the deck. When the cards are fanned out the selected card is made obvious by its "odd" appearance. The best approach is to place all the indicator cards (I am sure someone out there knows just how many there are) in the top half of the deck, fan out just this set of cards when you offer the choice to the spectator. Another approach would be to use is as a reversible key card on the bottom of the deck.

These cards are called pointers and they work on the principle of the stranger card. I believe there are 22 in a deck. You can determine a selected card by a reversed pointer, or a non-pointer mixed with pointers, or vice versa. Many or your older, better known card books have information about this and related one way principles.

Thanks everyone. I'll look on learned pig for some old card material.

Scott Grossberg has a wonderful routine in Burton Sperber's book, MIRACLE OF MY FRIENDS, II, that could be easily modified for the principle discussed above. The whole book has some great stuff in it!

Enjoy the search!

Happy Holidays!

Paul Green

For a whole deck of subtle one way face cards, check out Card-Shark's Phoenix deck.

John

In the past I combined "pointer face cards" with "pointer backs" for a corporate event. you see many of the old decks (30s & 40s) had pictures on the back instead of patterns. They would be things such as airplanes, car, race horses, all kinds of things. By augmenting the 22 face pointers with selected back pointer (pointing no by direction as much as by a "style" of car, plane etc) I could apply a simple mnemonic code and use the deck for seance work. Plus the decks are very pretty to look at and make a great nostalgic visual distraction.

There is also a bit of work on this in Steranko on Cards. One of my favorite books, but I've never played with this concept.

Rick Maue has an effect out that uses this principle. I think he has some other uses but don't know if they've seen print. Sorry can't remember the name of the effect but contact Rick and he'll advise you. Try Deceptionsunlimited.com
Rick is a good guy and will be happy to help you. Tell him I sent you. I might get Brownie points!
Shooz

There is very skilled Cardman in Toronto named Jeff Hinchliffe who has two manuscripts with ideas on this principle. You can find them at the Browser's Den Magic Shop.




Kelly

I haven't played with this concept for years but when I did I combined it with some face cards. What I did was find some face cards that were not printed exactly square and as a result one of the narrow margins was thicker than the others.

Gil Scott

Not only the back also the face is one way?

In each deck of 52 cards you'll find 22 one way cards looking at the faces. Jan

Sure that was something I already knew. Just looked like that all faces were one-way

Yes, but only in the Phoenix Deck. You will discover it when you look closely. Jan

I have it but except for the back one, on the face I really can't figure it out!!! I'll try harder now that I'm sure there is one!

Check the indices, they can align or not. Jan

Rick Maue's work is amazing! Look into his work, specifically The Road manuscript!