Hi All.

I'm trying to find easy memorized deck tricks that don't require doing math in your head (something I'm terrible at) or estimation; something easy to get my confidence up with the stack.

So far, I've found Simon Aronson's invisible card trick in Try the Impossible.

Can anyone recommend other simple memorized deck tricks (stack independent)?

thanks in advance,

-- Frank

I love Allan Ackerman's Opener (Las Vegas Kardma). I like the alternate ending that is in that book more than Allan's though.

There are many topics in this section of the Café on "favorite tricks with memorized decks". A simple search on "memorized deck" would be far more productive than starting yet another topic on this identical subject.

... Doug

I did that. I didn't see a clear answer to my question, possibly because the posts are older and I'm getting too many other hits for "memorized deck"-- I'm looking for EASY memorized deck routines. Can you please help?

-- Frank

That might be helpful if he were actually asking for "favorite tricks." He needs *easy.* I'd check out Joyal's six-hour memorized deck.

Aronson's Histed Heisted is excellent for letting you basically recite your stack, unbeknownst to the spectators, and discover what cards they are merely thinking of. When properly presented, it will astound your audience.

Ask someone to name a card and call out the stack number and let him count the cards when he rch the named card he will be very amazed. Very easy and pretty strong. Do a good false shuffle before.
This is a good training effect for memo stacks.

I do this effect. You think it qualifies as "easy"?

Gianni

Gianni,
you took the words right out of my mouth. Histed Heisted is certainly not easy, at least nor for somebody who just starts doing memorized deck stuff.

Histed Heisted is not easy to perform, but it is an easy and straightforward structure to keep in your mind. I have performed it about 30 times, and have had a few instances where things did not go as planned (always mental errors on my part).

However, an easy memorized deck trick would be "Center Cut Location" found in Aronson's "Bound To Please." It is very strong.

Check out Secret Sessions for my variation of this principle that plays well.
Nick

The poster said he did not want to being doing complicated math in conjunction with a memorized deck. There is no complicated math to do with Histed Heisted. You simply recite your stack in groups of ten and match the number of the person to the corresponding card. If you don't know your stack cold, you shouldn't be doing memorized deck magic: period. I believe my suggestion fits the criteria of the post. No memorized deck trick is easy. But all presuppose that you know your stack. Otherwise, use a a crib sheet on the front of the deck when you get it back from the audience. Then you don't have to memorize anything. Since Histed Heisted requires you to basically recite the stack while doing the trick, I think it fits the desire of the poster perfectly. If you disagree, so be it.

Actually, the part of Histed Heisted that I have the most difficulty with is in looking at each card directly, and miscalling it as I recite the stack. Everything else is easy. I want the eye contact on each card index to be perfect, and if I'm not concentrating hard enough, I have called out what I was actually looking at. If that happens, keeping track of the mistake and playing the odds get difficult.

Nick

Try "The Lusthaus Card System". The system can be mastered in a few minutes. there is little memory recall or mathematical computation.

Whilst it is limited for some effects, you immediately know the position of any card named - which is what I need it for.

Nick, I can relate, and found that shifting my eyes out of focus (the way you do when you look at those "3-D" pictures) works for me. It still appears that you're looking at the index, but you're not focusing on it which spectators can't discern. Of course, by the end of the effect, I usually go cross-eyed and pass out -- ah, the price of being an artiste.

Larry D.

Larry,
Good idea. Although now that I've crossed over the age of 40, having my eyes go out of focus is not that difficult!

Nick

Darwin Ortiz' Zen Master is a very powerful trick, and is easy to do. --- does contain a bit math though, but only adding and subtracting with numbers from 1-52, which is pretty easy!

Here are some good sources for easy memorized deck tricks, from my list of memorized deck tricks (if you want the full list, which is about 15 pages long, PM me and I'll PM the list to you):

Card memorization tricks:

“Pattern Principle, The” - A new, unique method for remembering the sequence of colors in a shuffled deck, “Semi-Automatic Card Tricks, Vol. 3”, Steve Beam (Article by Lewis Jones)

“Barrie’s Move a Card” - Performer memorizes a shuffled deck, one card is moved, and the performer can tell which one, “Theater of the Mind”, Barrie Richardson

“Red Alert 1” - A spectator shuffles a deck, and hands it to the performer. Performer remembers the order of the colors, and sets aside four cards to “transmit” to the spectator. After the spectator tries his hand at getting the colors, the spectator and performer switch roles. The cards are dealt into four hands, and the performer is able to recall the color of any card chosen, “Semi-Automatic Card Tricks, Vol. 3”, Steve Beam (Trick by Lewis Jones)

“Red Alert 2” - A spectator shuffles a deck, and hands it to the performer. Performer remembers the order of the colors. The deck is then cut into two halves, with one given to the spectator and the other retained by the performer. Performer is able to successfully able to determine when cards will match or not, “Semi-Automatic Card Tricks, Vol. 3”, Steve Beam (Trick by Lewis Jones)

“Red Alert 3” - A spectator shuffles a deck, and hands it to the performer. Performer remembers the order of the colors. The performer is then able to determine whether each pair (from the top down) will match or not, “Semi-Automatic Card Tricks, Vol. 3”, Steve Beam (Trick by Lewis Jones)

“Red Alert 4” - A spectator shuffles a deck, and hands it to the performer. Half is given to the spectator. The spectator mentally chooses a card from their pile. Performer then remembers then entire pile. Spectator then takes the pile face-down, deals off cards face-down one at a time while naming their color. When spectator comes to mentally-selected card, they intentionally mis-call the card, and keep going through their pile. Performer is able to recall which card had the miscalled color, “Semi-Automatic Card Tricks, Vol. 3”, Steve Beam (Trick by Lewis Jones)

“Celebrity Feat, The” - The performer leaves the room, and several spectators decide on any famous person. The performer returns, and asks each spectator to name any three cards. The performer develops a reading based on the named cards, and is able to name the celebrity, “Secret Ways of Al Baker, The” & “Al Baker’s Magical Ways and Means”, Al Baker


Memorized deck tricks:

“Birthday Book, The” - After a spectator names her birthday and selects a card without looking at it, she looks up her birthday and notes which card is written in it - the same card she selected, “Workers 5”, Michael Close

“Case of Simple Logic, A” - A spectator’s selected card is quickly and cleanly named, “Desert Brainstorm” - Vol. 2, Larry Becker

“Remote Control” - Performer and spectator each shuffle a deck. Performer’s deck is placed in spectator’s pocket. Performer then has spectator peek at a card from the other deck. Performer then mentions a location in the deck in spectator’s pocket, which proves to be the location of the spectator’s chosen card, “Scams & Fantasies With Cards”, Darwin Ortiz

Which stack do you prefer.... and why?

Personally, I prefer (and use) the Tamariz Stack because of the ability to get to the stack from NDO.

The best stack for anyone is the one you know by heart!

The two stacks that I know (of) and have played with are the Si Stebbins stack (requires an ability to do the 3 times table i.e. 4 threes are a queen lol)

And the one that I found easier was the 8 Kings stack. I haven't put enough work into either of these to know by heart the card at position 32 or 18 for instance. But for deck recitals, the second stack fulfills the critereon for no maths ability.