I've recently finished reading Scarne on Card Tricks and am pretty excited about some of the tricks that involve stacks. I'm trying to take inventory of the options I have for preparing stacks mid-routine. I have built a cull into my routine (currently using Hofzinser Cull), but I'm looking for another method (so as not to repeat the load) that I could use to prepare the deck.

Which books would people recommend I look into? I currently have the Card College series and ECT, but I haven't really found that elusive second method that would feel like it would work for me...

Currently, I am just preparing the second stack pre-routine and am not allowing the spectator to shuffle until I've unloaded those cards, but I'm hopeful there are other options.

You might ask this in "Shuffled not Stirred", where all the stack folk hang out.

Apparently, some of the stack folk DO hang out here!!

I heard the word stack. Is someone talking about stacks here?

Copperct - Stacks is a huge topic. What sort of stack are you using? Full Deck Stack? Half Stack? Packet Stack (like zensational or 10-card poker deal)?

ps - I always check”workers” and “shuffled not stirred” for stack conversations.

Thanks for the help! This would be 4-8 cards, on the top/bottom of the deck. No full suit tricks, but I'm looking for a clean way of pulling the required cards out of a shuffled deck so the spectator may handle the deck earlier in the routine.

Not sure if this is helpful at all since I know you're already using one cull, but Kostya Kimlat sells materials on something he calls the Roadrunner Cull. I haven't bought it because simply watching him perform it screams to me that it's more advanced than what I'm ready for.

Funny you mention that DerekG, I was just looking into the Roadrunner Cull last night...

I think I scared people away with the wording using 'stack'. Really, I'm just looking for sleights that will allow me to re-arrange cards' placement within a deck! Nothing related to memorization here

What about ULTERIOR by John Bannon? (Not sure which book/DVD it is in)
Ostensibly it is just a standard pick-a-card-find-the-card effect. But while performing that effect you set up the next one.
You don't even need to do any culling or other sleights - you just search through the deck looking for their card.

I will have to look into that. I think I found that trick on his Move Zero DVD. Very interesting. Thanks for the lead Nikodemus!

Here’s another ploy if the stack order is unimportant and your audience is made of 4 specs or more:

Have a break between your stack (8 cards) and the rest of the deck. Give the 1st, 2nd & 3rd specs about a ¼ of the deck each and the 4th spec your stack to shuffle.

Reassemble the deck and give it a last false shuffle. Your audience should be convinced that the deck has been thoroughly shuffled.

Even if your stack is only 4 cards, this will work. Hand 8 or 10 cards (included your stack) to the 4th spectator. After the shuffle, you can cull your stack out of the 10 cards and it should take only a few seconds.