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Expert at the Card Table
Artifice, Ruse and Subterfuge at the Card Table: A Treatise on the Science and Art of Manipulating Cards by S.W. Erdnase.
Later published as The Expert At The Card Table, it is a Card Magic Book containing a collection of sleights used, supposedly, by card cheats, including false shuffles, cuts, and deals, culling techniques, palms, and shifts. It also contained a section devoted to card tricks.
Contents
Highlights
- The Exclusive Coterie -- a four card assembly
Quotes
- Palming, page 84: " The art of card palming can be brought to a degree of perfection that borders on the wonderful. It is very simple to place one or several cards in the palm and conceal them by partly closing and turning the palm downward, or inward; but it is entirely another matter to palm them from the deck in such a manner that the most critical observer would not even suspect, let alone detect, the action."
Editions
- Template:Book First Edition Self-published
- ~1905 Drake Hardback (HB) Pictorial Green Cloth
- ~1905 Drake HB Plum Cloth
- ~1918 Drake HB Blue Cloth
- 1937 Drake Softbound (SB) w/indices
- Post 1917 Drake SB no indices
- ~1944 Fleming HB
- ~1944 Fleming HB (Includes Hoffman commentary)
- 1944 Card Mastery / Circle Magic Shop by Michael MacDougall's Card Mastery (contains the complete text of Expert)
- ? - KC Card Company edition (Chicago)
- ? - GBC Comb Bound / Gambler's Book Club
- 1945 Fireside Publications, Toronto, Canada. (Save cover as KC Card Company edition/Chicago)
- 1946 Card Secrets Exposed/ KC Card Company
- 1975 Powner perfect bound / The Charles T. Powner Co.
- 1980 Coles SB / Canada
- 1984 Casino Press SB/Casino Press, New York
- 1984 Revelations / Magical Publications - contains thoughts from Dai Vernon.
- 1991 The Annotated Erdnase/ Magical Publications by Darwin Ortiz. Contains notes, annotations, photographs, citations and references. Also contains two appendices: "New Moves" and "The Search For Erdnase" by Martin Gardner.
- ? GBC perfect bound / Gambler's Book Club
- 1995 Dover SB
- 2002 Facsimile Edition (unknown publisher) distributed by Michael Canick Booksellers. Gold stamped cover, hard bound
- ? Hardback GBC edition / Gambler's Book Club
- 2007 - Marlo on Erdnase, Jon Racherbaumer (editor) - A compilation of Ed Marlo's writings, both published and unpublished. This book is a preliminary effort to show how an annotation of Erdnase by Marlo might look like. As it stands, it is a partial, supplemental work.
- 2007 The Bible editon The Conjuring Arts Research Center - Pocket-size with an all new typeset and numbered lines for reference sleights via the Bible verse method. Printed using the same paper as a bible, gilt edges, a ribbon place holder and bound in soft leatherette. There are three color variations, green, red and black in order of availability.
- 2008 Pocket Expert at the Card Table from Houdini.com - The booklet consisting of 218 pages and measuring only 6 x 3.5 inches with space for the readers notes.
- 2008 Revelation by Dai Vernon from Mike Caveney's Magic Words. An update to the 1984 version that contains 160 long-lost photographs of Dai Vernon’s hands that were taken in 1961 specifically to illustrate this manuscript. Plus more than 100 pages of added material.
- 2008 The Erdnase Scroll by Miracle Factory - The book in scroll form with a handwritten calligraphy font on ivory parchment paper, maple-tone wood ornaments, suede tie cord, and a velour protective drawstring bag. Also includes Todd Karr's extensive research on Erdnase's identity.
- 2010 The Expert At The Card Table - The Classic Treatise On Card Manipulation, Publishers: Obscure Press, Hardback edition, Dover Edition text, 144 pages, 8.6X 5.6
- 2010 The Erdnase Journal - a notebook in the format of a reproduction of the original 1902 publication, with just the 101 drawings by M.D. Smith in their respective positions.
- 2010 Indestructible Erdnase - pocket sized edition printed on waterproof, tear resistant paper with a sewn binding by the Conjuring Arts Research Center.
Translations
- Japanese (1989)
- German - Der Experte Am Kartentisch (1991)
- Spanish - El Experto En La Mesa De Juego (1992)
- French - L'Expert aux Cartes (1992, 1994)
- Italian - L'Esperto Al Tavolo Da Gioco 1996)
A Man In A Room Gambling
A Man In A Room Gambling is a 1992 ten part series for string quartet and spoken word by Gavin Bryars created with the late sculptor Juan Muñoz, who included texts describing card tricks adapted "Expert at the Card Table".
Written as ten short pieces for the BBC Radio, Bryars music weaves in and out while Juan Muñoz narrates. Bryars envisioned creating a larger work for the theater based on Erdnase's life for the full music-theater piece called Who Was Erdnase? which has been commissioned by Peregrine Arts to open in 2010.
Expert at the Card Table Deck
These playing cards release in 2010 are printed using the same color green as the original 1902 "Expert at the Card Table" book on Aristocrat stock using the Bee® back design with white borders.
The deck include two custom jokers, a custom Ace of Spades, and two ad cards printed to look like pages from the book. The box looks like a miniaturized version of the book with the same texture.
Contents
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
PROFESSIONAL SECRETS
* Hold-Outs * Prepared Cards * Confederacy * Two Methods of Shuffling * Primary Accomplishments * Possibilities of the "Blind" * Uniformity of Action * Deportment * Display of Ability * Greatest Single Accomplisment * Effect of Suspicion * Acquiring the Art * Importance of Detail
TECHNICAL TERMS
ERDNASE SYSTEM OF BLIND SHUFFLES
POSITION FOR SHUFFLE
BLIND SHUFFLES
* To Retain Top Stock * To Retain Top Stock and Shuffle Whole Deck * To Retain the Bottom Stock and Shuffle Whole Deck
ERDNASE SYSTEM OF BLIND RIFFLES AND CUTS
BLIND RIFFLES
* To Retain the Top Stock * To Retain the Bottom Stock
BLIND CUTS
* To Retain Bottom Stock--Top Losing One Card * To Retain the Complete Stock * To Retain the Top Stock * To Retain the Bottom Stock * To Retain Bottom Stock. Riffle 2 and Cut 4
FANCY BLIND CUTS
* To Retain the Complete Stock-1 * To Retain the Complete Stock-2
FANCY TRUE CUT--ONE-HANDED
TO INDICATE THE LOCATION FOR THE CUT
* This is Located by the Crimp * This is Located by the Jog * This is Located by the Crimp * This is located by the jog
BOTTOM DEALING AND SECOND DEALING
* Bottom Dealing * Top and Bottom Dealing with one Hand * Second Dealing
ORDINARY METHODS OF STOCKING, LOCATING AND SECURING
STOCK SHUFFLE
ERDNASE SYSTEM OF STOCK SHUFFLING
* Two-Card Stock * Three-Card Stock * Four-Card Stock * Five-Card Stock * Twelve-Card Stock--For Draw Poker * Euchre Stock--Four-Handed Game-1 * Euchre Stock--Four-Hande Game-2
ERDNASE SYSTEM OF CULL SHUFFLING
* To Cull Two Cards, Numbers 8, 4 * To Cull Three Cards, Numbers 7, 5, 9 * To Cull Four Cards, Numbers 3, 6, 2, 5 * To Cull Nine Cards, Numbers 5, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 1, 7, 1
ERDNASE SYSTEM OF PALMING
* Top Palm--First Method * Top Palm--Second Method * Bottom Palm--First Method * Bottom Palm--Second Method * Bottom Palm--When Cards Are Riffled * Bottom Palm--When Cards Are Riffled-Second Method
TO MAINTAIN THE BOTTOM PALM WHILE DEALING
TO HOLD THE LOCATION OF CUT WHILE DEALING
SHIFTS
* Two-Handed Shift * The Erdnase Shift--One Hand * Erdnase Shift--Two Hands
TO ASCERTAIN THE TOP CARDS WHILE RIFFLING AND RESERVE THEM AT BOTTOM
MODE OF HOLDING THE HAND
SKINNING THE HAND
THE PLAYER WITHOUT AN ALLY
* Dealing Without the Cut * Replacing the Cut as Before * Holding Out for the Cut * Shifting the Cut * Dealing Too Many * Crimping for the Cut * Replacing Palm When Cutting * The Short Deck
THREE CARD MONTE
MEXICAN THREE CARD MONTE
LEGERDEMAIN
SHIFTS
* Single Handed Shift * The Longitudinal Shift * The Open Shift * The S. W. E. Shift * The Diagonal Palm-Shift
THE BLIND SHUFFLE FOR SECURING SELECTED CARD
FORCING
PALMING
THE BACK PALM
CHANGES
* The Top Change * The Bottom Change * The Palm Change * The Double Palm Change
TRANSFORMATIONS--TWO HANDS
* First Method * Second Method * Third Method * Fourth Method * Fifth Method * Sixth Method
TRANSFORMATIONS--ONE HAND
* First Method * Second Method
BLIND SHUFFLES RETAINING ENTIRE ORDER
* First Method * Second Method * Third Method * Fourth Method * Fifth Method
METHODS FOR DETERMINING A CARD THOUGHT OF
TO GET SIGHT OF SELECTED CARD
THE SLIDE
FAVORITE SLEIGHTS FOR TERMINATING TRICKS
CARD TRICKS
* The Exclusive Coterie * The Divining Rod * The Invisible Flight * The Prearranged Deck * The Travelling Cards * The Row of Ten Cards * The Acrobatic Jacks * A Mind Reading Trick * Power of Concentrated Thought * The Acme of Control * The Card and Handkerchief * The Top and Bottom Production * The Three Aces * The Card and Hat
External References
This page incorporated content from The Expert at the Card Table,
a page hosted on Wikipedia. Please consult the history of the original page to see a list of its authors. Therefor, this article is also available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License |
- Information about different editions available at Erdnase.com
- http://www.geniimagazine.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=148220#Post148220
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