the break (six cards) and turn the deck face down into a dealing grip. Place the Aces (and the two extra cards) on top and re-spread the first three Aces, keeping a break under the six face-up cards on top of the deck.
Someone will usually acknowledge that they’ve heard the expression “stacking the deck.” If so, look at that person and ask, “Really? Who’ve you been hanging out with?” Square the Aces and turn ev- erything above the break face down on top of the deck. Spread off the top four cards, square them, and place them face down on the table.
“Stacking the deck means rearrang- ing the cards the way you want them. One way to do it is to steal the deck off the table, excuse yourself to the bathroom for about half an hour, and put the cards in the order you want. Then you return to the table, deal a round of poker, and John Wayne punches you in the face.” As you’re talking, illustrate this by fanning the deck towards yourself and moving groups of cards around in the fan. In the course of this, take a group of cards from the top (with the Aces on top) and stick them in the middle of the fan without separating the Aces. Then take any group of four or five cards and move it somewhere else in the fan. Next, take the uppermost Ace and the four cards above it and move them to the top, then another group of three cards from anywhere else and move them anywhere else, then the remaining Ace in the middle and the two cards above it and place them on top. When you’re done, the top eight cards of the deck should be: X, X, A, X, X, X, X, A.
Place the deck face down on the table and return attention to the “Aces.” “A better way to do it if you’re allergic to
beatings is to actually shuffle the cards into position.” Pick up the packet from the table without spreading it and take it face-up in dealer’s grip. Take the Ace off the face of the packet and flick it with your thumb, revealing the other Ace under- neath. (The red Ace on the face will have changed, but this is not something people will notice.) This reinforces the earlier switch, and your audience should buy that all four Aces are in your hand. Turn the packet face-down, reverse count it, and then drop them on top of the deck. What all that preliminary handling has done is to place two Aces on top, and stack the other two for a five- handed game. From the top down, your stack is now: A, A, X, X, X, X, A, X, X, X, X, A.
“Let’s say we’re in a five-handed game of poker; Paula, you’ll be my partner. Let’s say you’re sitting at the first seat, on my left. Now, since I have to shuffle the cards into position, Owen, would you keep me honest and count how many times I have to shuffle to do this?” Split for a riffle shuffle and, as you practiced, hold back four cards in the left hand and one card in the right hand. The four cards go under the original top card (an Ace). The remaining nine cards of your stock must not be mixed as you shuffle. Square up (again, the descrip- tion in Erdnase has good tips) and turn to the person counting the shuffles.
“How many was that?” They should say, “One.” “Perfect! That’s not suspicious at all!” (This is a presentational gag I use whenever I want to sell the absurdity of ac- complishing a crazy amount of work in a single shuffle.)
“Remember, it’s a five-handed game, Paula’s the first hand, and all the cards come off the top...for once!” Deal the first card, start to deal the second, and pause. Look at the person who was counting the shuffles and say, “Wow, the way you’re watching me, you’d think we were playing for real money!” Take the second card, scoop up the first, and drop both back on top of the deck. “You seem like you don’t trust me, so here: you deal!” Hand the deck to that spectator and have him deal, turning over each card in the first hand to
show that the Aces ended up where they were supposed to.
This is, on the surface, a straightforward demonstration of card table skill. However, the handling allows you to get much further ahead than the audience realizes, and allows you to perform a superhuman display of skill with much less effort than if you were doing it for real. It was inspired by a riffle-stacking presentation by my friend Steve Ehlers on his DVD The Arizona Card Expert. It’s also related to a Roy Walton routine called Oversight, which uses a similar method to achieve a “no-shuffle” stack.
Once you’re comfortable with stacking to the first hand, you can add in an extra shuffle and offer the audience a choice of which hand to deal to. Give the cards a shuffle as before, putting four cards under the top Ace, saying “We’ll lose the Aces in the deck.” Then ask someone where they’d like to sit in a five-handed game (reminding them, of course, that the fifth seat is yours). If they say “one,” riffle shuffle one card on top (maintaining the stack), perform a slip cut (explaining that you cut after the shuffle), and deal as before. If they say “two,” riffle one card under the top card. Then as you begin to deal, stop at the second hand, look at someone in your audience and say something like, “Wow, the way you’re watching me you’d think we were playing for real!” Take the top card of the deck, scoop up the dealt cards in the order you dealt them, and place everything on top. Hand the deck to someone else and say, “Just to keep things honest, you deal!” Starting and stopping the deal in that manner places the top Ace in position to fall to the second hand, and the rest follow automatically. Likewise, if they say “three,” put two cards under the top card, deal to the third hand, stop, scoup, and start as described. If they say “four,” put three cards under the top card and deal as before, stopping at the fourth hand.
One thing to remember: Don’t make the mistake of presenting this as if you’re working hard. The point is for it to look effortless, as if you’re just shuffling the cards. You could present it as just that: you shuffle the cards and just “happen” to get the cards you want. Shuffle work is supposed to look like shuffling, not like bricklaying. As I’ve mentioned before, the secret to this style of work, real or fake, is that is has to look like nothing – just like in a magic trick.
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