The Expert at the Card Table
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| The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation | |
 Cover |
|
| Author | S. W. Erdnase |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Smith, M. D. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Card tricks, Sleight of hand, Magic (illusion), |
| Genre(s) | Non-Fiction |
| Publisher | Lybrary.com |
| Publication date | 2001 |
| Media type | ebook |
| Preceded by | 1st Ed., 1902 |
| The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation | |
 Cover of the 1995 edition. |
|
| Author | S. W. Erdnase |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Smith, M. D. |
| Cover artist | Ed Smith Design |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Card tricks, Sleight of hand, Magic (illusion), |
| Genre(s) | Non-Fiction |
| Publisher | Dover |
| Publication date | 1995 |
| ISBN | 978-0486285979 |
| Preceded by | 1st Ed., 1902 |
The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation[1] is a book on cards and magic written in 1901 by S. W. Erdnase, a pseudonymous author whose identity has been a long-discussed mystery for over a century.[2] The book is considered to be one of the most influential works on magic or conjuring with cards and card sharps.
The Expert at the Card Table is the most famous, the most carefully studied book ever published on the art of manipulating cards at gaming tables."
—the Foreword by Martin Gardner, p. vii.[3]
[edit] Description of the book
The author's identity remains an unsolved mystery, despite his widespread influence on the magicians' community. (See Gardner's Foreword, pp. vii-ix.)[1]
Although the author did not renew the copyright, the book has remained in print since 1902, albeit small private printings on occasion.[4] The influence of this book is such that it has been issued in annotated form;[5] translated into Japanese, German, Spanish, French, and Italian;[4] issued as a series of DVDs by a professional magician, demonstrating and explaining Erdnase's techniques and methods.[6]
Dai Vernon, The Professor, is credited with popularizing this influential text in the community of professional magicians. Well past ninety years of age, Vernon was fond of quoting from it, with page numbers, when discussing card techniques with his colleagues at the Magic Castle.[7]
The book is divided into sections. Each section describes individual card manipulation techniques. This article will describe the sections in précis form.
==== Foreword, Preface, .
[edit] Card Table Artifice
Professional secretes begins Erdnase's general discussion of card play with emphasis on card manipulation for the advantage of the reader, magician or card sharp.
[edit] Technical Terms
Erdnase defines important specialty words and topics to be used throughout the remainder of the text.
[edit] Erdnase System of Blind Shuffles
Sixteen shuffles and card cutting techniques are explained. Those are divided among eight subsections on different types of shuffles and cuts, with illustrations.
[edit] Bottom Dealing
The technique of bottom dealing is explained, with illustrations.
[edit] Top and Bottom Dealing with One Hand
The technique of bottom dealing is explained. Illustrations omitted.
[edit] Second Dealing
The technique of second dealing is explained, with illustrations.
[edit] Ordinary Methods of Stocking, Locating, and Securing
Techniques of arranging the order of the cards in the deck are explained, with illustrations. This is referred to as "stacking the deck" in modern terms. As Erdnase uses the terms, the "stock" is the portion of the full deck that has been "stacked" with "culled" cards.
[edit] Stock Shuffle
Techniques of arranging the order of the cards in the deck, while shuffling, are explained, with illustrations.
[edit] Erdnase System of Stock Shuffling
Seven individual techniques are discussed in detail, with illustrations. Each technique applies to a different number of cards to be stocked, from two cards to twelve and two methods of Euchre stocking.
[edit] Erdnase System of Cull Shuffling
Four individual culling techniques are discussed in detail, with illustrations. Each technique applies to a different number of cards to be culled. Erdnase defines culling as "the act of selecting one or more cards." The culled cards may be stocked, as described earlier in the text.
[edit] Erdnase System of Palming
Five card palming methods are discussed, with illustrations.
[edit] To Maintain the Bottom Palm While Dealing
The technique is discussed, with illustrations.
[edit] To Hold the Location of Cut While Dealing Shifts
Three techniques are discussed, with illustrations.
[edit] To Ascertain the Top Cards While Riffling and Reserve Them at the Bottom
The technique is discussed, with illustrations.
[edit] Mode of Holding the Hand
The technique is discussed, with illustrations.
[edit] Mode of Skinning the Hand
The technique is discussed, with illustrations.
[edit] The Player Without an Ally
The general strategies are discussed. Eight techniques for implementing the strategies are discussed in detail, with illustrations.
[edit] Three Card Monte
Techniques for both European style and Mexican style three card Monte are discussed, both honest and manipulated, from the viewpoint of the dealer, with illustrations.
[edit] Legerdemain
Twelve sections define and discuss over thirty techniques of performance magic, with illustrations. Erdnase defines "legerdemain" as sleight of hand with cards, as opposed to his definition of card tricks.
The techniques Erdnase presents, with illustrations, in this section are as follows:
|
Legerdemain (a general discussion of sleight of hand card illusions) SHIFTS
THE BLIND SHUFFLE FOR SECURING SELECTED CARD FORCING
CHANGES
TRANSFORMATIONS. TWO HANDS
|
TRANSFORMATIONS. ONE HAND
BLIND SHUFFLES, RETAINING ENTIRE ORDER
METHODS FOR DETERMINING A CARD THOUGHT OF
TO GET SIGHT OF SELECTED CARD
|
|
[edit] Card Tricks
Fifteen card tricks are discussed. Erdnase defines "card tricks" as including either or both sleight of hand and self-working illusion effects. The latter do not always require legerdemain for their performance.
The techniques Erdnase presents, with illustrations, in this section are as follows:
|
Card Tricks: Explanatory (a general discussion of card tricks)
TRICKS WITH THE PREARRANGED DECK
|
|
|
[edit] References
- ^ a b Erdnase, S. W [1902] (2001). The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation, 1st Ed. reprint, Cambridge, MA: Lybrary.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
- ^ Silverman, Rachel Emma. "Fresh Clues Could Reveal Magic-Trick Writer Who Pulled a Disappearing Act a Century Ago", The Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2000. Accessed January 13, 2008.
- ^ Erdnase, S. W [1902] (1995). The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation, 1st Ed. reprint, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0486285979.
- ^ a b England, Jason (2007). The Expert at the Card Table Editions. Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
- ^ Ortiz, Darwin [1991]. The annotated Erdnase. Magical Publications, 270 pages. ISBN 978-0915181216.
- ^ James, Wesley (2007). Expert at the Card Table by Wesley James (DVD). Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
- ^ Johnson, Karl [2005]. The Magician and the Cardsharp: The Search for America's Greatest Sleight-of-Hand Artist, Adapted edition, New York: Henry Holt and Co., 368 pages. ISBN 978-0805074062.
