I really don't know who to give credit to for this line of patter. I've used it for years. When people ask me to teach them a trick, I teach them the Riverboat Shuffle.

Patter:
Okay, let me teach you a card trick. It's called the Riverboat Shuffle.
Now before I teach it to you it would be helpful to know where this trick came from.
Are you familiar with the Riverboat Gamblers?
They used to work on the paddleboats on the Mississippi river. The river moved slowly and the paddleboats were not much faster. So the passengers would get board and the Riverboat Gamblers would entertain them with games of chance.
If you remember Kenny Rogers and his hit song "The Gambler", then you remember the way he dressed. Very flashy clothes.
And that's the way the Riverboat Gamblers did everything, very flashy, and different from everyone else.
Now, almost everyone else would shuffle cards using a "Riffle Shuffle".
(Show a normal end-to-end shuffle)
But again, the Riverboat Gamblers did not like doing things the way that everyone else did them. So they developed their own shuffle, and they called it "The Riverboat Shuffle". And that is what I'm going to teach you to do.
(Lay the deck in front of the spectator, faces down)
Since you are the one learning this, I want you to do all the card handling. But since you don't know how the trick is done, I will teach you and you will follow my instructions.
Now the first thing you do is cut the stack into four roughly equal stacks. This was their first step.
(Can’t give away the trick on line, sorry. PM me.)
(Have them follow along to the end of the routine.)
You did great! This was your first time, but trust me. If you have ever watched a Casino Dealer handle cards you can just about imagine how good the Riverboat Shuffle would look with a fair amount of practice. Trust me again, it really looks sharp, so practice this after you leave.
Now another thing that the Riverboat Gamblers were often accused of was cheating.
Now if you wanted to cheat, what is the highest point card in most card games?
(It’s the Ace)
Very good, and of the Aces, which is the highest?
(Ace of Spades)
Very good! Before we go any further I would like you to point to any one of these four stacks of cards that just happens to appeal to you more than the others.
(Spectator chooses one)
May I remind you that you have done all of the card handling here, so if you are a good student you would have controlled the Ace of Spades to the top of that stack.
Turn it over and let's see how you did?

When it is all done, they controlled an ace to the top of every stack. They are amazed. You thank them for being a very good student and once again encourage them to continue practicing so they get very good.

Of course, the next time they try it on their own it does not work. We did not teach them the proper stack for the deck. They felt like they were learning a trick when in reality they were just being tricked.

I like the story and the effect is cool. I love making my wife cut the deck and showing the four aces, she has no clue. It's great. Gotta learn your handling as well I guess.

Seeing as I am absolutely horrible with cards, I will probably never learn this...

However, I LOVE the way you structure the trick with the story and how, in the end, the 'student' has been bamboozled!

THAT is what magic is about!

Good Show Kipp!
:applause:

Prof. Piper
:juggle:

Kipp, a fun and involving routine. Thanks for sharing. Chris

I like it.

Since I do an old riverboat gambler at a goldrush venue, I thought, "Hey, great!" Then I saw that the tread is ancient.

It dose not matter if it old , it's still good.

Get the trick here http://www.kippsherrymagic.info/sales/riverboat.htm

I am glad this thread was resurrected. I've been searching for something like this.

Yes, me too. I bought the full description and tried it yesterday on my kids (who happen to demand beeing taught tricks).
They where quite impressed but could not figure out why they cannot redo it by themselfs. The story is as if made for me since I
already told a couple of storys about my travels to a town at the Mississippi, so I just added that I learned this from an old man in "Muddys bar"
down at the river. I did tell storys about "Muddys" before (mainly about the cajun spiced Fish I ate there) so it all fits well into my presentation.

Kipp

Well done I got the routine and it's great I really like the spectator involvement and the river boat gambler scripting really fits this well. Thank you for making this available. I highly recommend this to any performer that does card magic it's a great effect.

Cheers

Adrian

Just want to say that I am having a great time with this routine. I love card routines where the spectators do all the work. I paired this up with another routine involving dealing cards into four piles and it went over great. The person that was handling the cards spent the rest of the evening mutter about it.

Thanks for the effect, sometimes the simplest effects bring down the house.

I've been playing around with this for a month now and really love it. I've just combined it with Rick Lax's Interactive Poker Deal so now have the spectator produce the ace's with the shuffle, seeming lose them back in the deck and finally deal themselves the aces in a final hand of poker. I have tried it on a couple of people and it has gone over really well.

I have always been a big Mark Twain fan and working out a set based around the riverboat has been awesome.