I know my deuces aren’t exactly gorgeous… but they fly when they need to.
Excuse the sounds of the cards hitting the microphone. I didn’t think muting would be right since its a false deal and sound is important.
Cool beans.
Well, I filmed some deals just for the hell of it and as something to post on this thing whilst my brain attempts to think of something creative and worth mentioning. 
Wahey!
At any rate, this is just a video of two bottom deals, and two greek deals. The camera is low and thus, difficult to avoid finger flash. The sound is unedited (which, as you can hear, is rather a problem on the first greek deal demonstration.)
Its not perfect, but I think its worth showcasing as way of filling space and pretty much just showing everyone out there in internet land that I do practice these things and I’m not bullshitting
Wahey!!!
Here ’tis…
Bottoms and Greeks 5th December ‘08 from Arthur Pitt on Vimeo.
–Arthur–
… is in a lot of pain.
When you try and use it to push out cards for a centre deal with a deck which is sticky, it becomes a hell of a lot harder than I ever thought possible.
That said, I am very optimistic about how the deal is coming along. As with many middle deals, a stud style turnover aids in the deceptiveness of the whole affair, whilst a normal deal is a little harder.
The matter of bowing the bottom half of the deck – so as to eliminate the need for a break – is a bit hit and miss at the moment. The real problem will come with trying to establish a way of getting that bow in just that half of the deck when someone ELSE is cutting the deck. One way is to bow the deck after “shuffling” and then when completing the cut, bow the other half the other way.
The problem comes when you realise that the easiest combinations (convex on the bottom, concave on the top) means the break is visible anyway so it HAS to be the difficult way around. Then again, who ever said a centre deal was easy.
I’ll get a preliminary video up soon of what I’ve got so far.
Regards,
Arthur
If you can do a greek deal, do it but instead of holding back one card on the bottom, hold back as many as you can.
Thus, an easy centre deal is born.
Granted it would only work when the cutter cuts very shallow – but people tend to cut in the same place every time so if you pick your person carefully, then you have a nice way of dealing from the middle.
Hooray.
Its a helluva lot easier than real centre deals…
–Arthur–
How difficult can it REALLY be dealing from the middle of the deck? I mean REALLY?
Turns out, its incredibly difficult. So much so that if I do chose to commit myself to 20 years of practice to get it flawless, I’m kind of hoping I’ll get the best technique for me and my hands.
So begins a sort of progress diary of centre dealing on this blog. I can already do a PASSABLE kennedy centre, but its really quite awful – so I’ll start today on a brand new deal.
On this cold August day (no surprise there) I’ve been trying to come up with my own variation of centre dealing simply because I don’t feel that any published ones I’ve seen really suit my hands. Kennedy’s deal has the immovable thumb, something I despise in false dealing. I’m sure it works for some, but also due to its grip my thin fingers flash the buckling of the bottom half of the deck. So thats out. Searching through Revolutionary Card Technique presents ideas which I like, although nothing that seems to click. Also, the less said about the deals in Expert Card Technique, the better.
So I’ll do it myself.
But what do I opt to adopt? (so to speak)
I want a flawless deal, and therefore I cannot be happy with a deal where the break is on show at the sides such as in Gene Maze’s centre deal. I have found that with a little bit of practice, it is possible to not hold the break at all, but to use a crimp identical to Erdnase’s first method of indicating the position for the cut. My hopefully-soon-to-be-ultra-sensitive fourth finger will serve me well as it now needs to feel for the crimp. Not only that, but the pinky is also the finger doing all the work. It pulls down, and it pushes out. It also really hurts. These are the 3 things it does.
But strength will come in time. I don’t think I’ll resort to Kennedy’s method of strengthening his fingers, as cited by Vernon in Revelations Vol. 12 (I think its 12)
I have actually made the deal harder by opting also to use a sort of Erdnase grip. This makes it more difficult to control the top portion after the push out, and also means the pinky must be stronger. But the advantage is much greater – there is no flash of the break during the deal at the FRONT of the deck.
Plus I deal in Erdnase grip for tops, greeks and bottoms (and rubbish seconds) so it makes sense to have some sort of continuity.
If you read all that, you probably know what I’m going on about. If you have no idea how to centre deal, then you didn’t read it.
Interesting.
–Arthur–
Filed under: On The Deal | Tags: aces, centre, deal, faro, middle, ortiz, strike
Or ESCDD for short of course.
But then, who cares about a name.
Now I am entirely sure someone somewhere has thought of this. But at the same time, if they have published and are proud of it, then I’m shocked by the simple level it is at.
Anyway, so long as you do a good strike second deal, you can do an easy centre deal demonstration. Here’s my simple simple way of showing it off.
Effect: Performer takes a desirable four of a kind face up and shuffles it into the deck thoroughly. He announces that he knows exactly where the aces are and will centre deal them to himself, in true ruffian style. He deals a 4 handed game of poker, dealing visibly from the centre of the deck every time it comes to him and receiving a face up ace, or king, or whatever.
Method: Take your 4 of a kind (lets just use the aces) and place them face up on the top on the deck. Begin a casual overhand shuffle and run one, injog, shuffle off, cut, shuffle to the injog and throw. In other words, get one card on top of the aces. Mention about the centre deal and how you need the cards mixed thoroughly. Then say: “Lets mix them up more professionally.” Do two out-faros. The aces should be positioned 5th, 9th, 13th and 17th. Now deal four hands of four cards, dealing a second when it comes to your hand. This way the aces seem to appear from the centre. Ta-da.
The effect is rather simple, can play well if presented properly. You just need to convince the spectators that the aces are lost in different parts of the deck, and thus they MUST be coming out of the middle.
If you like this effect, you should definitely check out “God of Gamblers” from Darwin Ortiz’s “Scams and Fantasies with Cards” book (if you can get a copy.) Its the best centre deal demonstration I have ever encountered – better perhaps than genuine centre deals.
–Arthur–
Filed under: On The Deal | Tags: bottom, deal, easy, erdase, false, greek, Magic
Yes, you read correctly. An easy Greek Deal.
Now naturally, to have a disastrously difficult move like a Greek Deal and make it easy means sacrificing the decency of the move. In this case, it looks exactly like the proper Greek Deal I use from Erdnase grip (what else) but only from the front.
So its angly. Fine for demonstrations and tricks. Awful for use at the card table. A video……..
VIDEO REMOVED FOR FEAR OF IT BEING TOO GOOD
Not the most polished thing in the world, but workable and with practice, very deceptive I hope.
Now, I should point out that when I call this deal EASY what I mean is that its easy if you can do an Erdnase bottom deal already. Not only that, but you need to be able to do away with the push-off and strike the bottom card. However, any other grip of strike bottom deal will work for this. Whether it be Walter Scott’s, Gene Maze’s, Marlo’s Master or mechanics. Although NOT straddle grip.
- Firstly, this is a view of the back of the deck DURING the deal.
- As you may or may not be able to see from this shoddy sketch here, the bottom card is simply injogged by roughly a 3rd. To get into this position in the video, I gained a break above the bottom card and slid my hand under the deck, almost copping the card, but retaining it under the deck. You will need to do this without much fidgeting or it becomes too finickity and will be less impressive.
- Now that about a third of the 2nd-from-bottom card is exposed. You need to simply bottom deal normally taking care to strike the correct card out.
- At the end of the deal, square the deck up and you’re clean.
