Max Maven - A Credit To His Race, Ultimate Magic eBooks Collection
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//-->.!l!m'!" .IRI"DdiT 1'0iEi."dl'ia.RIii1iI'ilLl!Cfn.J!.,p1JluUllfflIii!!dlii,~.....BI!=;Iii..illlJ'jj •.In 1952, Tony Koynini'sDerbywas published in England. This was anextremely clever gambling effect, based on a legitimate (albeit relativelyobscure) card game. The plot has been largely overlooked, although therehave been good versions released by Nick Trost, Sam Schwartz and,most recently, Bob Neale. I was introduced to the premise by RickJohnsson, whose wonderfully raucous version livened up many conven-tion close-up shows in the 1970s. Over the years I have explored severaldifferent approaches. What follows is the most interesting of those, as itmeets the following conditions: A full ungimmicked pack is used; it iscut and shuffled by a spectator; the participants decide who will be repre-sented by which suit; the magician does not know in advance which suitwill be his; the performer never touches the deck.The effect is this: A "racetrack" layout is used, as shown in theillustration. With this method the length of the "track" is moot; it willwork with any number of spaces up to eleven; in fact, you could allowthe audience to dictate the number of spaces, as you do not need to knowin advance how many there will be, and no adjustment is required. Hav-ing said this, ] think allowing that choice would simply complicate thepresentation, and it's best for the performer to specify the length. ] rec-ommend using just five or six, as a longer track risks tedium.FINISH•'"The pack is mixed by three participants, who also determine who will be playing which suit. Eachplayer, performer included, puts a personal token (a ring, key or other small object) on the starting positionof his/her suit. The top card of the deck is turned up. Whatever its suit, that player's token is moved for-ward one space. The next card is turned up to direct which token will now advance. This continues, untilone token reaches the "finish line." Despite the fairness of the conditions, the performer wins.'"The method makes use of an idea that I began exploring in the late 1980s, the "Interrupted Gilbreath"(some applications were published in my bookletFifthin 1988).Inthis case, the cards are arranged withthe suits in cyclical rotation; values are immaterial.Begin by inquiring as to who in the audience enjoys gambling. Several will respond. (If none do, per-haps you've chosen the wrong routine for that group.) Banter a bit, asking what games they like. Selectthree to participate; at least one should have named Poker or Bridge as their favored game, thus providingyou with a spectator who can Riffle Shuffle.Display the racetrack layout and explain the rules. Ask each participant to provide a token. Explain thateach person will be using a different card suit, the distribution of which will be random. Bring out the pack,false shuffle if you wish, then hand the cards to a player.Tell that person to give the pack as many complete cuts as desired. The deck is given to another player,who is told to start dealing cards from the top of the pack into a tabled pile. After about a dozen have beendealt, state that the person may stop dealing at any time, and the suit of the card that has been stopped uponwill be the one they will use. (Try to time this explanation so that the person will stop somewhere near themid-point of the pack. The trick will technically function no matter where they stop, but the subsequentshuffle will be more easily handled and seem more convincingly thorough if the two portions are of similarsize.)When the person stops dealing, offer a choice as to whether the top card of the talon or of the dealt pilewill be used. Whichever they indicate, that card is removed and turned up. The dealer's token is placed onthe appropriate pip in the starting row of the racetrack.Turn to another participant, explaining that this person will choose a suit from this same random loca-tion determined by the previous player's actions. The person is invited to use either the top card of the talonor of the dealt group. Explain that if this happens to be of the same suit as the prior selection, anotherchoice must be made. (It is, of course, impossible for this to happen, but with an unstacked deck it could;therefore, it ought to be mentioned.) That card is removed and turned up, and that player's token accord-ingly set onto the racetrack.The third player is invited to again choose from the top of either portion, removing the desired card andusing its suit to dictate the placement of that person's token. Your own token goes onto the starting positionof the remaining suit.Direct the participant with card playing experience to gather the three turned-up cards, tum them facedown, and deposit them beneath either half-pack. Now, the person is told to "shuffle the two portions to-gether." Using that phrasing along with mimetic hand actions will steer the person into doing a Riffle Shuf-fle. This done, the game commences. The top card is turned up, and the player whose token is on the start-ing pip of that card's suit is allowed to move his or her token forward one space. This is continued. Thanksto the mathematical results of the shuffle you are guaranteed to win-but, happily enough, those samemathematics make certain that the race will be close, thus sustaining interest as the race proceeds.
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