Greetings all!

The pinky pulldown. Although I've been doing it for years, it's not very reliable for me. There are times where I can't seem to pull down the desired number of cards even if my life depended on it! And then there are times where I can hit it well. Do you guys find it best to bevel the deck in a certain way or not? Do you successfully hit it all of the time?



Roberto

The Pinky Pulldown is usually done with a single card at the bottom of the deck, and yes, a slight bevel helps.
If you are referring to the Pinky Count, Darwin Ortiz recommends a bevel in his excellent description of the move.

I have this annoying problem too, as I strive to get many basic sleights under my belt, and, having even mastered -to a degree- such sleights as the Side steal and DPS(Work in progress, I will not claim to have 'mastered' this when I am a less than 2 years beginner) yet, I just keep on getting bloody messed up when I am attempting to pinky pulldown 3 or 4 cards or even jjst a single card. In the case of the single card I invariably end up accidentally pulling 2 cards because they are stuck to each other. Or I find I have pulled down 3 cards and even though I'm aware of it I still cannot fix the *** issue and so have to move forward in the effect and adjust for it on the fly. Not the most complex error to get out of but I would prefer not to keep missing it!
In the case of my needing to pulldown 3 or 4 cards for some effect again the error is in getting the wrong number of cards by accident, like by pulling down 5 thinking you got 4, or, simply being completely unable to get the correct number due to the cards sticking together!

Am I overthinking this problem? What I mean by that is, should I rely on practice and more practice getting me to master this eventually, as I have found with other -often much more difficult- sleights. I guess I am asking, or is this annoying little move idiosyncratic in the mechanics requiring the pinky to pull down and count some cards, is it inherently going to fail a number of times?

magic fish,

I'm referring to the Pinky Pulldown, not the Pinky Count. There are several routines that involve pulling down more than one card with the pinky. I can pull one card easily, the problem is pulling down a set number of multiple cards.



Roberto

I see, thanks for clarifying. Where did you learn this technique?
As a side note, I use Marlo's Pull Down for one card. For 2,3,or 4, I use a multiple buckle.

Magicfish,

I can't recall where I learned it, I'm sure it's widely available in print. I used to do the buckle until I realized that in some instances, it doesn't look too good from the front.





Roberto

"I'm sure it's widely available in print"
Could you give me a reference for a Pull Down of a specific number of cards?
If possible. If not, no worries.
I can scroll through the entire deck at the inner right corner, card by card from top to bottom- but without a reference point, I'm not sure how youd pull down a specific number from the bottom without pure blunt constant practice and then working by feel.
Estimation almost. Unless of course you have motivation to look down, pull down say.. 10, and then release cards until your eye sees you have the correct number. Yikes.

Here's an old thread on the reverse pinky count. I didn't read the whole thread but it may give you a few reference points. https://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/view......&start=0

Yes, I was involved in that thread.
Thanks Bobby.
Andrew Wimhurst claims it is an unpublished technique. Sounds very interesting, and would be very useful.
@Roberto, best of luck.

I'm far from being an expert, to put it mildly, but I just tried the pulldown with a nearly new deck and had no trouble. So I'm guessing that using a newish deck will help. I tried pulling down two cards by pulling the bottom card with the outer phalange, nearly at the outermost joint, and then pulling the second card with the pad of my finger. I was able to do that, but not consistently. Then again, I haven't practiced much.


About the bevel: it seems logical to me that you'd want to bevel the deck to the left; that is, so that the deck's top card is to the left of its bottom card. That exposes the right sides of the bottom cards.


Finally, I've found the pulldown to be harder with a packet than with a full deck. I guess you can sort of bevel a packet the same way that I just described for a deck, but I find it much harder to create the bevel.


Glad you brought this up, mrmagic; I've been wondering about it too, and this gave me the impetus to experiment.


fwiw,

Bob

P. S. Just tried again and realized I wasn't accurately describing the parts of the pinky that made contact with the cards. But probably this is the kind of thing you have to try for yourself to find out what works for you.

Thanks Bob.

You're welcome, HF; hope it helps.

Bob

Hey Bob,

I agree, trying to do the Pinky Pulldown with a packet of cards versus a full deck is much harder. So, I've been putting in more work on this move and I realize it's one of those moves that it's success depends more on "feel". I can certainly do it but I find at times it's not always reliable. There are times where I wind up pulling three cards instead of two. It's very knacky but you can improve it with the necessary practice. The beveling of the deck certainly does help.



Roberto

Hi there Roberto,


Good to know that practice can make a difference with this move. Some people buckle the cards instead. I haven't practiced that very much. Do you have any advice on beveling a small packet? I can never tell when I've succeeded in creating a bevel. Maybe that's practice too, getting a feel for it.


Bob