Im looking to purchase Ackerman's Advanced Card set, I can only afford to buy 3 DVDs from the set for now. I am going to purchase Volume Two - False Deals. Can anyone recommend 2 more volumes from the set that will be good to buy first? The 2 others I want to purchase are out of these 3.

* Volume three - The Controls
* Volume Five: Shuffle Work
* Volume Seven: False Counts

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I have volume 3 and volume 4 on lifts. So far after viewing these two DVD's I am happy with my purchase. However, I feel, that just like the Daryl Encyclopedia, explanations are a bit rushed at times, thus lacking detail. I need to buy a couple of more of the Ackerman set to fully compare them to Daryl's.

I will say this, I have truly enjoyed Ackerman's new DVD reprint of "The Las Vegas Card Cheat". This DVD offers material that is better than almost any other DVD for card tricks that I have ever seen and is well worth a $30 investment.

Thank you for the reply LeConte. Where can I buy and read a review of "The Las Vegas Card Cheat"?

I will post a brief review of the DVD since many people don't seem to be talking about it that much in light of the recent Ammar ETMCM release and I feel that they should. I'll try to get it up tonight after the basketball game!!!

Either the Daryl set or the Ackerman DVD's on sleights are a great visual reference for the Card College (Giobbi) series! Neither should be used as a primary source for learning sleights over classic texts, such as Card College, or Royal Road, Stars of Magic, etc...

I actually have the same question.

volumes 2,3,5, seem to be the best tapes, or the tapes that I think I will get the most mileage out of. but what about the other ones. Why doesn't Allan Ackerman have the same type of prescense on this site as Daryl, Ammar, or Bill Malone.

If I were in your shoes I'd go with Volumes 2,3,5.

I found that you will still need a good reference book for more detailed explanation of some the sleights.

You'll really enjoy the False Deals and Shuffle Work DVD's, they're probably my favourite ones.

The whole series are excellent! Each dvd teaches probably everything there is out there on card moves and are my best purchase in card magic dvds for a long time! Highly Reccomend them..