My favourites card tricks are :

- "not blind nor stupid" Tamariz
- "Out of this world" version from Helder Guimaraes !
- "Tempete sous un crâne" (=brainstorm ?) from Duvivier
- the Triumph from Derek Dingle (I don't know the real name of the trick)

A card trick without a good presentation is not a good card trick !

...which are not packet tricks Jan

Only his/her 6th post Jan. Can be a confusing place the Café.

I've changed my mind now and Twisted Sisters has been removed from my set list. Oddly enough for the very reasons some have made recently. The removal of some cards from a neat looking wallet....

("Why didn't he use the cards from the deck he's been using...")

And, I can't use the excuse here that one set are a different coloured back - as I'm generally running with two decks of similar!

French Twists remains a firm fave as a packet trick from an in-use deck whilst the neat looking wallet now houses five blanks for Dave Campell's Beyond Belief - a lovely piece of visual magic and a good reason to bring out said wallet late on.

But, my most used packet effect is Eight Card Brainwave which is permanently in my normal wallet (Pimpernel) for that moment's notice kinda thing, and where, maybe, there's no deck of cards in sight!

I enjoy QOOC.

I never understand the problem magicians have with pulling certain cards out of a wallet or envelope.

You can easily justify removing cards from a wallet if the cards are special in some way. For example, if you remove four Jokers from a wallet, well, it makes sense. Most decks don't come with four Jokers in them.

If you are working from a red deck and pull four Kings from a wallet. Makes sense. You don't have a blue deck.

If you pull blank cards out of a wallet. Makes sense. No blank cards in a deck.

Many was to justify pulling out cards from a different place. Most of the packet tricks I've created have built-in justification for pulling the cards out of a wallet.

Re: Twisted Sisters, the trick uses four red cards and four blue cards. You can certainly imply that it's just easier to carry the cards separately rather than carrying two full decks at all times.

I'm with you Cameron. It's a difficult one to explain but I'll have a go.

I'm in complete agreement that removing cards from a wallet, makes perfect sense for cards which wouldn't normally be contained in a deck. (I sometimes use a mini-Himber for Dave Campbell's Beyond Belief but more often than not, a mere pay-envelope.) As an example, Queens Out of Control fits perfectly here as a "Collection of my favourite cards" or whatever.

However, for something like Ultimate Three Card Monte, or, off the top of my head, Double Back, I just think it begs a question to be asked if you take three or four cards from a wallet WHEN there is, or has been, or about to be, a reg deck in use - where these particular cards could have logically come from - (from a spectator's perspective of course.)

The point I was trying to make about me dropping Twisted Sisters from my card routine is:

A) I use two, none-gaffed, red and blue backed decks - as my (sometimes) opener needs two decks. I then flit between the two, so both decks have been seen and accepted for a while. So, to me, it just seems a bit odd to, then, remove four cards each from another source - of those very same coloured backs - after, before, or whilst, those very decks were/are in use. Especially, if you are announcing that, "I've taken these queens from two decks of cards...." (or whatever words to similar effect - I'm sure you get my point.)

B) Another (none-normal card) walleted/enveloped effect has, or is about to be deployed! (Beyond Belief.)

However, if no deck of cards is part of a routine (heaven forbid!) then I guess ANY walleted packet trick will make sense. (I use 8 Card Brainwave in such circumstances and they're in my normal, everyday, regular, non-plastic, non-magic wallet. )

Aaaaah - I need a lie down now. (Don't get me started on Colour Monte, which I detest (and yet it seems to be the most popular!) and utilises THAT move which, to me tells the World, "Look everybody, I'm up to something...")

The great packet trick debate lives on. They're great and they're here to stay. I just wish folk would think about their routines and use them appropriately and sparingly.

Has no one mentioned Ultimate Carte Folles by JP Vallarino? I've been working on this incredibly beautiful routine for a month now and it's a joy, a wonderful routine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BjK_n7UHwE

For my sins I have done full deck tricks and then ridiculously and blatantly followed them with a packet trick. I don't think it ideal and don't make a virtue out of doing it. Its a bit tacky I suspect, I avoid it usually- however sometimes, in a restaurant for example, you adapt on the hoof to meet the demands of the moment and you try stuff out too.
In my experience the spectator doesn't care where the next effect comes from so long as its good, captures their imagination & they feel entertained.
If a spectator were to say 'Hey Buddy, hang on..wait a minute are those cards special!!!' I would respond with great warmth 'Yea of course they are, they're MINE, that's enough to make them special to me!'. Anyway what are we worried about, what can the spectator deduce incontrovertibly? Not all packet trick cards are 'special'. I carry the four regular aces in my wallet, just so I am never completely without a strong effect to share. I don't mind if the spectator thinks they are special. The mystery is only deepened, the entertainment made to resonate for longer- they can't know for sure. What great fun we are allowed to have.

Thanks for sharing that. It's amazing. I'm tempted to drop the $25 and brush up on my French to learn it.

Jason

There's supposed to be an English version out soon, but I picked up the essence of the routine by watching the video (sort of like learning from a Ponta dvd). Nothing that an intermediate card guy couldn't do.

Open Travellers.

Twisted Sisters has my vote.

I agree with Roger on Colour Monte I've never bothered with it. Though with Twisted sisters your asking the spectator to use their imagination anyway, there is only one fair looking count, so it still plays out well from a packet.

Ja

Three Card Monte
Twisting the aces
Jazz aces
Open travellers
Wild cards
The Homing Card
Ten card poker deal
Six card repeat
Derek Dingle's Too Many Cards

Now with due respect to Cameron Francis who I deeply respect, I find a definitive need to justify in a casual and very convincing way that taking a packet out is normal. For example, I could not get by with Tommy Wonder's Tamed Cards buzzer system and, as a result I had to redesign the trick for the back of the cards to change from various Casino photographs to standard Bycicle backs explaining that we have formed a club of magicians able to steal a given card from any casino run by the mafia (at the risk of having a hand chopped off): the membership to this very select group justifies the same faces on cards with different casino backs. The spectator is then forced the same face but naturally the back is not satisfactory and I propose them to make them a honorary member of the club. It doesn't work and all the cards change to Bicycle backs as per Tommy's routine.

For Twisting the Aces, Open Travellers or Jazz Aces, I do the trick after letting the spectator cut to the aces without him knowing what he is about to cut the cards to.

For the three card monte, I take two similar jokers out (as if they were sold like this with the deck which naturally is not the case) and, as a second thought, I ask them if they have ever seen street guys doing the three card monte... and I pull out an ace of hearts.

For the ten card poker deal, I do a Truffle shuffle then a Zarrow shuffle on the table and then a flase cut from Roberto Giobbi's Card College, and then I deal the ten cards. Naturally then I keep the 10 cards but for the finale, I take the deck back and false shuffle again and cut to the bridge to get to my set up for a Hold'em Poker with as many hand as the spectators choose.

For the Homing card, after two Truffle shuffles keeping the deck's set up, I start with Derek Dingle's Fabulous Jumping Card Trick where the spectator is requested to count ten cards in my hand (unknowingly all red including the one to five of hearts except for a black king). After four phases of Braue's Homing card and the reverse (a Carlyle's Homing Card to the Pocket variant where I secretely collect the five of spades), I move into the very entertaining Senator Crandall's six card repeat variant, keeping only the 1 to 5 of hearts and the additional 5 of spades at the end and finish with Dereck Dingle's Too Many Cards
... and so on.

I just hate to arouse suspicion at the initial step and want to put my audience in a relaxed frame of mind so that, somehow, everything is happening in their heads and by magic rather than skill. Now there is more than one way to skin a cat.

I knew I was forgetting Oil and Water and Follow the leader (who by the way blend well if one starts with O&W and finishes for the last cards with the follow the leader plot)

I would argue Skinner's Ultimate Three Card Monte. Bill Malone has a great routine with it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qju5s9IEKow

It is a long routine, given only three cards and a simple premise. It is easy to understand as everyone has seen/played/heard of the Three Shells game. In addition, there are no fancy or suspicious moves--creating an effect that seems to be pure magic. Even with the audience members burning their eyes on your hands and cards, the visual routine can be done openly and with little touching of the cards. Moreover, it is interactive.

One point I would like to make is that I usually allow the spectator to win for the practice part of the routine in the beginning. This will establish further that it's possible to win at the game and that there are no gaffs. Once the spectator(s) establish that mindset, I carry on with a routine very similar to Bill Malone's.

I don't know if it has been mentioned already, but John Bannon's Royal Scam has worked greatly for me...

-NFW
-It's Done With Mirrors
-The Color Monte

Back Flip- Sam Schwartz
Did You Get The Odd One? - Randy Wakeman
Psychic Twins- Max Maven

Is that the same as his Wild Card routine? ...