Upon completion of the cascade, the cards will be lying flat in the

cupped hands. Hold onto the deck with the right thumb and fingers while the left hand moves away. Immediately, the right hand places the deck face

into the left hand which takes the by the sides with the left thumb and fingers, left forefinger curled under-neath. The right hand now comes above the pack to grasp it by the ends.

The deck is now squared, with both hands in the usual manner and again positioned as in Figure 1 for a repeti-tion of the Faro Shuffle if needed.

While the Two Hand Spring Shuffle, Figures to 17, may seem just like an added flourish it does have its impor-tant purpose in the Faro in that the eventual squaring of the cards becomes much easier and faster than

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THE FARO SHUFFLE

otherwise. This, plus the fact that it adds an air of abandon to the Faro Shuffle itself. Be sure to bend the pack upwards again, after the Spring Flourish, to straighten pack.

Here are a few variations on the First Technique that some may find to work better for them.

First Variation: Here the is exactly the same as before except that the packet, cut off by the right hand, is held at the extreme ends. Figure 18 shows the left thumb at the center on its packet but the right thumb and fin-gers at the extreme ends of the right hand packet. The shuffle is shown in the process of being completed.

Figure 18

Second Variation: This second varia-tion follows the exact proceedure for the First Technique except here both packets are held at the extreme ends.

The right forefinger presses down on top of its packet in order to slightly bow these cards along their length. The position of both hands is shown in Figure Many will find this variation quite easy under certain conditions.

Figure

Faro Aids

Before continuing into other tech-niques and phases of the Faro Shuffle, I think now is a good time to detail some Faro Aids which should prove helpful to the beginner and even those with some experience.

The Rock and

Many times in doing a Faro Shuffle one will find it meshing along smoothly, then all of a sudden it becomes broken up by a pair of cards meshing where there should be only one thus causing a discrepancy in the weave. If this I break occurs, the following proceedure | will often save the trouble of starting all over again.

1. With a break or discrepancy in the Faro Shuffle all you need to do is to rock, or move both hands inwards thus the packets also move downwards causing the upper portion of t h e cards to unweave themselves, This unweaving will send the discrep-ancy back into the portion of the deck.

2. The situation at this point is similar to Figure 6 in that the upper section of weaved cards have been unweaved but they are still weaved or meshed togeth-er near the bottom. Again, the unweav-ing is made only just past the discrep-ancy.

3. The two hands now move upwards and at the same time exerting a greater pressure with right forefinger, on the backs of its cards as the cards are made again to in a manner similar to Figure 8.

4. If the discrepancy is overcome, fine, but if it isn't, the hands again move downwards to unweave the cards, then once more move the packets upwards into each other to reweave them.

5. The backward and forward move-ment of the packets has all the

appear-159 FAN SPREAD AND WEAVE

of quickly rocking the hands back and forth as you attempt to gain a per-fect Faro. Do not, however, overdo this.

If the subsequent get worse, than the first weave, you should start the Faro over.

Fan Spread and Weave

Sometimes a Faro Shuffle will be per-fect but then for some unaccountable reason, the top four cards, two on each packet, will not weave thus spoiling an otherwise perfect Faro Shuffle. In this case instead of using the Rock and Weave, the is this:

1. Get the cards into the position of Figure 14 as for doing the Spring Shuffle Flourish.

2. At this point both thumbs press on the top cards of their respective pack-ets near the inner ends.

3. The forefingers of both hands curl around the front ends of the deck near their respective outside corners.

4. The thumbs now push or spread the top cards forwards to fan them as in Figure 20. The forefingers of both hands prevent more than the top four cards from fanning off the deck.

Figure 20

5. Now the thumbs pull back on the cards but at the same time weaving the four cards properly, as required for the particular In or Out Shuffle as shown in Figure

Figure 21

6. The pack can now be sprung as in the Spring Shuffle Flourish to finish the action.

the Packets

In starting the Faro Shuffle, the cor-ners about to be meshed may become This may be caused by dry hands, then again the fingers may not have held the packets firmly enough as the corners were placed against each other. Here then, are several methods for the packets or corners.

First Method:

1. Assuming the cards have slipped and the corners of each packet have become unsquared, simply turn the right hand packet inward, then place its inner corner against the outer cor-ner of the left hand packet which has been turned parallel to the floor, as in Figure 22.

Figure 22

2. Butt the corners against each other forcing them to square off properly after which you can try for a Faro Shuffle again.

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THE FARO SHUFFLE

Second Method:

1. In this case, if the packets become unsquared, place the right hand packet back alongside the left hand

not flush but separated as in Figure 23 which purposely shows two unsquared packets side by side. The packets meet at the front but are kept separated at the back only by the pressure of the left thumb.

Figure 23

2. The right hand now comes over the ends of the deck, squaring them between the left thumb and fingers as shown in Figure 24.

Figure 24

3. With the packets the

right hand cuts off the top packet to try again for a Faro.

Third Method:

1. This method is ideal when working at or near a table. Again assuming the packets have become unsquared, place the packets together as already shown in Figure 23.

2. This time instead of squaring the ends with the right fingers, the right

hand instead grasps the deck just below the left hand. The right hand position is similar to that used in the actual Faro.

3. The left forefinger moves over to the front end of the deck. With both hands grasping the cards, the bottom end of deck is tapped against the table top as in Figure 25 in order to square the packets.

Figure 25

4. Having squared the cards, another attempt at a Faro Shuffle is made.

Cutting At 26

The best way to cut at or half of any number of cards involved, is by comparison. The description to follow is made with the idea of a full pack of 52 cards in mind. However, the com-parison can be applied to a lesser or greater number of cards in order to cut perfect halves.

Start by breaking the deck as near 26 as you can in a manner to that shown in Figure 2.

2. Once you have made the cut, sepa-rate the packets at the inner side only, keeping the separation by the pressure of the left thumb as in Figure 26 which is the performer's view.

3. Now, visually, carefully compare one half against the other. At this stage, you can get to be pretty certain if you have exact halves. However, if you have made any error, this will soon become evident as you place the corners of the

161

26TH CARD FARO CHECK packets against each o t h e r , as in

Figure 3, in readiness for a Faro Shuffle.

4. If at this point, you find that one half is thicker than the other, then simply return the packets back to the identical position shown in Figure 26.

Figure 26

5. By now you should be pretty certain as to which half is the larger and you adopt a for correcting the situation.

6. If the right hand or top portion is the greater, the right thumb releases the necessary card, or cards, as in Figure 27 letting them join the lower half.

Figure 27

7. If the left hand portion or lower half is the then the right thumb pulls upward on the top card, or cards, of the lower section in order to join them to the upper section. The action is shown in Figure 28.

8. After the above actions of either those pictured in Figures 27 or 28, the cards are again rested in the position of Figure 26 for a quick comparison.

From here proceed into the Faro.

Figure 28

Right here is a good place to detail one further idea as regards cutting at cen-ter or 26. I call it the:

26th Card Faro Check

This is an idea of many years that I have used to be sure of cutting at exactly the 26th card before proceeding into any miracles dependent on it. The idea of peeking a 26th card for a 26th

card was a Bert

sub-tlety that won him a prize many years ago for the best card effect at a conven-tion.

The use of the Faro Check is my idea to insure that the 26th card is actually being used thus insuring definite suc-cess with the 26th card principle.

1. The 26th Card Faro Check consists merely in cutting the pack at 26, then starting a Faro Shuffle as in Figure

Figure 29

2. Remember, you only start the Faro Shuffle. If the cut and weave has been perfect, every card will be with no cards left over, thus you will be sure that the cards have been cut at 26.

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