Stack

A Stack is prearranged deck or part of the deck of cards.

Full-deck stacks

• Sequential stack permits one to determine the card following any given card. Such stacks are circular, sometimes termed rosary stacks. The pack may be given any number of single complete cuts without destroying the sequence. Examples include the Si Stebbins and Eight Kings stacks as well as Richard Osterlind Breakthrough Card System.
• Memorized deck permits one to know the position and name of every card in the deck. There are four basic approaches to learning a memorized deck:
  • Rote memory - Decide on the stacked arrangement and memorize it.
  • Mnemonic - Using well-known mnemonic alphabet (T/D=1, N=2, M=3, etc.) called the Peg system to devise images for each of the 52 positions in the stack.
  • Rule based - Enabling the learning of remembering the necessary relationships.
  • Algorithmic - Using a formula of some kind to relate card values and positions.

Partial-deck stacks

• Barrie Richardson and Lewis Jones have published algorithmic systems that cover only half the pack. For example, either all the even cards or all those of one color.

False Shuffles are usually a necessity when performing with a stacked deck. Deck Switches can be a valuable tool too.

Software

There are several software applications that help with comparing and learning stacks

• StackView (freeware, Windows software only, but Intel Mac users can run it using Darwine)
• Faro Shuffle Simulator (online freeware, includes set-ups for several standard memorized stacks)

Published Stacks

• Horacio Galasso described the Stebbins like progression in Giochi de Carte(1593)

• Eight Kings (sequential) in Appendix - Letter V from The Expositor by William Pinchbeck (1805)

• Stanyon System - Ellis Stanyon describes a system in his July 1913 issue of Stanyon's Magic (with no credits).

• The Thurston System by Howard Thurston in Howard Thurston's Card Tricks (1901) - Stebbin's incremented-by-four progression.

• Nikola Stack System by Louis Nikola (1927). Reprinted in Encyclopedia of Card Tricks (1937).

• Ireland Stack by Laurie Ireland in Ireland Writes a Book, L. L. Ireland, Chicago, (1931).

• 14/15 Stack - Stewart James credits this stack to an H. S. Paine release from 1922 in his Stewart James: The First Fifty Years (1989). Walter B. Gibson used such a stack in "A Marvelous Prediction," published Popular Card Tricks (1928)

• McCaffrey Stack by William McCaffrey was published in Greater Magic (1938).

• Joseph Card System by Eddie Joseph published in Fifteen Minutes with the Joseph Card System (1952)

• The Hungry Jackass. Setup by John Mulholland from his book The Art of Illusion (1944). Reprint in John Mullholland's Book of Magic (1963)

• The Steele Stack by Rufus Steele from 50 Tricks You Can Do (1946) - used in the context of a Bridge and Poker Demonstration.

• Collins System by Stanley Collins published in A Conjuring Melange (1947)

• Si Stebbins (sequential) in The Amateur Magician's Handbook by Barrows Mussey (1950)

• Audley's Best by Audley Walsh from The Phoenix no. 270, dec. (1952)

• New Card Tricks with the Mark Twain Set-up by Chauncy Yohe from The Linking Ring, Vol. 35, no. 2, april (1955)

• Stay-Stack System (or Mirror Stack or Reflected Stack) in The Cardiste no. 1, april and Zens-Ational Stack in The Cardiste no. 2, may 1957 by J. Russell Duck (Rusduck) (1957)

• The Memorized Stack - Ed Marlo’s approach to the memorized stack in Faro Notes (1958).

• Bart Harding's Stack Deck (in manuscript from Alan Shaxon) (Algorithmic) (1962)

• Marked Memory by Ed Marlo in Pallbearers Review, Jan., p. 152 (1968)

• Card Verb System - A unique system of mnemonics for the Si Stebbins Stack that, given only the bottom card, will allow you to know where any other card in the deck is located, or which card is at a given location in Genii 1970 October, page 75, Pat Hennessy.

• Aronson Stack by Simon Aronson in A Stack to Remember (1979) which is reprinted in Bound to Please (1994).

• Richard Osterlind's Memorized Breakthrough Card System (1983)

• Aldrick Stack by Steve Aldrich in The Stacked Pack, Zauberman Press, Lakewood (1991)

• The Rix Stack by Claude Rix from Claude Rix et ses 52 partenaires (1995)

• Skinner Stack from Classic Sampler by Mike Skinner (1996)

• The Berg Stack - A flexible card system that is simple in memorization, yet offers all the advantages of other memorized decks in Sleight of Mind by Harvey A. Berg (1997).

• Raven Magic’s Memorized Deck Made Easy - A simple memorized deck system, including some built-in poker effects, is taught along with effects using the system by Richard Raven (2000)

• The 15 Minute No Mnemonic Memorized Card System (aka the Charles Gauci Stack) - A card system that appears random, yet is easily memorized, from Reputation Makers by Charles Gauci (2002)

• QuickStack (a.k.a. The Half-Hour Memorized Deck) in Mindsights by Doug Dyment (2002).

• Hacker Stack (as Steven Youell refers to it) in Weapons of Mass Destruction Notes (2004).

• Mnemonica by Juan Tamariz in his book Mnemonica (2004)

• 8 Kings Combo - Robin Robertson's approach for using Karl Fulves’ Combo System in combination with cyclical stacks in Combo II by Karl Fulves) (2005)

• Orbital Stack and Magnum Stack by Peter Duffie in Card Secrets Unlocked (2005)

• Lazy Magician’s Memorized Pack - An excellent random-looking stack that easily allows the performer to know the exact location of any given red card from Concepts & Deceptions (Lecture Notes) and Act Two by Barrie Richardson (2005)

• Memorizing a Whole Deck in an Hour by Davide Brizio (2005)

Dates needed:

• Bob Klase's Stack from The Electronic Grimoire.
• Herbert Newell

References

• Dennis Loomis' Memorized Deck Page
• Simon Aronson's Memorized Deck Area
• Introduction to Full Deck Stacks
• Genii Forum thread on Memorized Deck Systems
• MagicTalk thread on Memorized Decks
• Memorized Deck Online Toolbox
• MagicTalk thread on Stacks
• Martin Joyal on the Memorized Deck
• Memory Effects (list of memory-related effects)
• WikiHow: How To Memorize A Deck of Cards
• Davide Brizio approach at Magic Cafe
• Joyal's System and Memorized Stack milestones