Being legally blind. I am looking for ways to overcome the use of glimpses and haveing to look at key cards. I can easily do key cards because I can say really look at your card and memorize it. I then demonstrate by bringing the cards close so I can read the key card.

I have been looking at stacks to have new ways of knowing what card they choose. I was able to get info on Si Stebbins. I like it because with some quick math I always know what card they have. And I am working on knowing how many cards are cut by feel alone so the stack is helping with that. I am also working on finding a way to get from Bicycle NDO to Si Stebbins. It has been a fun puzzle. I am close but not quite.

Could anyone offer information and advice on the Tamariz, Si Stebbins, Aronson, and Mnemonica stacks. Where to find books or articles on the stacks? What are the differences between the stacks? Given my situation what stacks would be best to use? And why? What type of affects can you do with each?

Thank you all in advance for any help you can provide.

Its fairly easy to shuffle directly into Si Stebbins. Look up Darwin Ortiz and his "Si Stebbins Secret", he teaches it in one of his books (At The Card Table I think) and on his DVD set which goes with that book.
Also I believe it is taught in a very reasonably priced PDF download all about Si Stebbins.
Also I think Bro John Hamman has a technique called The Chinese Secret which can allow you to get into Si Stebbins from any order (not just new deck order)

Also, I think there is a lot to be said for using new deck order as your stack. Nobody can see the faces, but with careful handling that's OK.

Tamariz and Mnemonica are the same. I've never used any of the built in features.

I really like Mick Ayres stack (ASS). And I think it would be worth memorising something like this as it has in built method to know the next card... so if your memory ever fails in performance you have a fallback option...

And if you're looking at Mick's ASS Stack, I would also encourage you to investigate the DAO Cycle, which is an improvement over same (and published with Mick's permission).

Also (and I know that this is outside the bounds of the original question), be sure to check out Steve Minch's Eyeless in Gaza, which is an entire book of effects that can be done without sight.

Not sure how poor your eyesight is but have you tried the Brooklyn 101's by Jeff Kellog? Or the marking system in Ted Lesley's Paramiracles?

Hi Blind Wizard,

There are many ways to mark cards with markings that can be felt - edge nicks, punches, short/long/cornered cards, rough and smooth, not to mention stripper decks. Check out Mike Powers' free PM principle PDFs! Brilliance: http://www.mallofmagic.com/videos.htm

When you know a stack cold, meaning you can immediately recall the position of any card, the card at any position, the whole forwards, backwards and sideways, the location of every four of a kind, etc - it doesn't matter what stack you use - the impossible is possible. Si Stebbins is great but it is possible for an observant spectator to detect a pattern.

The Redford stack, which you can learn from Patrick Redford's book Temporarily Out of Order, can be quickly overhand-shuffled into Si Stebbins and vice versa - an incredibly useful feature. It is a great book and well worth its cost. Most features of other stacks are built in as well, except of course effects that are dependent of the particular order of the stack. That said, the most common effects that are baked into full deck stacks are gambling tricks or tricks that involve the "magical" appearance of certain cards of interest. The Redford stack has plenty of these types of effects built in.

Mnemonica by Juan Tamariz is back in stock at penguinmagic.com and what many consider to be the top work on the memorised deck and a beautiful work on magic in general.

Mnemonica and Simon Aronson's stacks in particular have mountains of effects created by other magicians, but many or all of the most astounding memorised deck effects are possible with any stack.

Simon Aaronson has written an excellent, free intro to general stack work called "Memories Are Made of This" (direct link to PDF): http://www.simonaronson.com/Memories%20A......This.pdf

Hope this is helpful.

I moved from using Si Stebbins to Doug Dyment's QuickerStack. One reason is that it eliminates the numerical progression of the values and the rotating order of the suits (ie chased). This makes it much harder for spectators to detect in routines where the faces of the whole deck or packets are shown. But a simple mental algorithm gives both value and suit.

On the subject of "What type of affects can you do with each?", Dyment's 'The Immoderate Deception" routine is one you might want to explore. It is a three stage "Pick a Card" routine where each stage builds on the next. Three spectators choose cards by cutting packets and you are able to reveal them in a way which gets more and more perplexing. But here is the important part, you don't have to view the face of a single card to know each of their selections! It uses an approach similar to what you mentioned but the presentation makes it natural and easier to do than estimating by feel.

One advantage of a cyclic stack like Si Stebbins or Eight Kings that might be useful to the Original Poster is that two faros will bring all the four of a kinds together. The banks of four make it very easy to cut to--or classic force--a desired value.

Https://coolotis.wordpress.com/grifterman/

For the OP who was looking for a way to get into Si Stebbins from Bicycle NDO:

https://jackshalom.net/2015/03/03/uspcc-ndo-to-si-stebbins/

It's not as good as Ortiz's method, but it's free.