Has anyone experimented with altering the order and/or mix of cards (pairs) from the original configuration (i.e.: as bought) with an invisible deck?

As long as the "pairing" makes sense to you, the presenter, is it really necessary to keep the cards in their original order?

Thoughts?

No, any order that makes sense to you is perfect.

There's plenty of information out there with regards to "new" and possibly "better" pairings for the ID.

Thx Artie, much appreciated!

As Artie pointed out, there is a lot of info on this....and a lot on the Café. You can do a search for "invisible deck" or "ID" in the Café's advanced search.

One simple, no math set up is this:

Pair the cards with Hearts and spades on one side, clubs and diamonds on the other side. So you'd have, say a two of hearts backed by a two of diamonds and a
king of spades backed by the king of clubs. Now you take the deck from the box knowing what side will show the proper suite and you hold the deck eye-level, fanning the proper side to the spectators, and watch for the mate come by on the side you are looking at and reveal the "reversed" selection there.

Look up the Don Allen ID stack - the best ID set-up I've seen.

It's written up in Invisible Secrets Revealed, which is an inexpensive pamphlet by Don Allen.

Oh, and I believe another place to find some work on different set ups is Daryl's Invisible Deck vid.

I pair mine clubs:hearts spades:diamonds, and have each pair add to 14. Then I put odd clubs and diamonds with even spades and hearts facing one way. This way all four suits can be shown and odds and evens can be shown as well.

Edit: I also leave the jokers paired just in case someone decides to be a bit cheeky and tries to mess you up. You then come back by asking, "which joker," which usually stuns them as they haven't tripped you up one bit. If they complain about how they were next to each other, despite theirs being face down, explain that there was a 1 in 52 chance that they chose the joker and a 1 in 51 chance that the other one was on top of it. The odds of them being next to each other were higher than the odds of the spectator even picking the joker in the first place.

Johnny Thompson had pairing where pairs were always same suit but added to 13 like regular. So three of spades was paired to ten of spades ect. Easier to remember since you don't have to convert suits. Same odd/even sides as normal. Levent also shows many different pairings on his PotassyWave Dvd and most of his systems don't require any memory. Just do the whole thing at chest level and see the cards

I like the pairing idea. Would make it easier to focus on the audience, instead of doing the simple math in my head, which may distract me from creating the moment of wonder for the audience.

Just a thought.

I've paired mine (C - D S - H) & haven't looked back...and not once been called on it...simply isn't noticed by specs!

In his first Penguin Live lecture, Mark Elsdon drops a line about that. Basically, he is not fussing about it, just joining the mates back to back. Like DaveGripenwaldt wrote. Adding up to 13 or 14 does not add much value in my opinion.

Why mess with a perfectly good trick. It is a classic and unbeatable....no need to screw around with changing the routine. It can lead to trouble.

The effect and general method are indeed classic and unbeatable...but the card order isn't sacred. It makes sense to alter the specific method to suite your style, abilities, preferences and...in my case...brain wiring. I'm a word guy and am not wired for math...can't stand math tricks and methods. I didn't do the effect for years because of the addition, simple though it may be. Now I have a notebook full of ideas, applications and premises simply because of learning a math-less version.

Nothing wrong with that.

I think a lot of magic ist exactly about that: messing with a perfect trick until it becomes either better or something good that looks totally different. In that sense, there is no perfect trick.

The '13 ' sum works well enough for me but does anyone have a preferred order to stack the deck on each side? I mean some cards are popular choices with specs, the Ace of Spades, Queen of Hearts etc. I don't like giving too many instructions like "Don't choose the Ace of Spades" as I feel it weakens the effect so I have my own preferred order that puts less popular choices at the ends of the spread. I think the reveal works best when the chosen card is near the centre of the spread. So aces and queens are near the middle with seven of hearts, six and seven and eight of clubs and spades. David Blaine gives a list of commonly chosen cards by male and female in his book Mysterious Stranger. Do any of you guys have a list of commonly thought of cards?

Search this topic here on the Café.

Thanks. I might have guessed there'd have been some intensive research on the subject here at the Café!

It's imperative to change the 'new' order, otherwise the 5 is next to the 6 etc. and a pattern emerges which looks mythological. However, You don't need to 'rush' to the card so as long as you can do the maths in your head, it's never a problem if you don't know precisely where the card is within the pack. It's more natural if you yourself are looking for a FD card.

I think the order and pairing could matter, depending on the environment in which you are performing. If you are truly in a close-up situation, your audience can easily see if, for example, all odds are on one side of the deck, all spades are on one side, etc. So the set-up should be modified to suit (no pun intended) the situation. Just my opinion. Though after typing this I realize I never perform this in a parlor situation, and the original set-up has never failed!

David hitting the nail on the head there really.
If you had a deck which showed all odd cards, and in numerical order; with the cards either side of the reveal being one off from it. that would be massively obvious to the audience right? Right?!
Turns out, no.

I shuffle mine up anyway, for no reason other than it makes me feel more comfortable about it.