This update is a whole week late—sorry! I was planning on publishing it earlier, but as the weekend approached, it made more sense to skip a week and publish this update today as per my intended schedule. I’ll try my best to keep to my weekly publishing schedule moving forward. But I’m not making any firm promises!
On a more positive note, I’ve finished converting The Expert at the Card Table into a web-based book. Because it is built with a Google product, it has an excellent built-in search function. You can search for a keyword or phrase using the search bar in the top right-hand corner of the site (you might need to scroll down to make it appear). You can also access this search function through the site’s left-hand navigation.
S.W. Erdnase shares several “systems” in his book The Expert at the Card Table. The first one is his system of blind shuffles. In this article, we will look at this system and discuss how it can improve almost any card trick.
According to the author, “The objects of blind shuffling are to retain a top stock, i.e., to retain in the same order the upper portion of the deck which has been prearranged for dealing or to retain a bottom stock.”
On pages 28 to 33 of the first edition, the author shares the correct position for an overhand shuffle along with three false shuffles. Note: Erdnase doesn’t use the term “overhand shuffle”. He refers to it as the “old fashioned”, “hand shuffle”, or simply “shuffle”, with no qualifier. He uses the term “riffle” to distinguish methods and techniques that use a tabled riffle shuffle rather than an overhand shuffle.
Later on, in the Legerdemain section of the book, Erdnase suggests that this system of blind shuffling is the best place for the beginner to start:
To the student who wishes to make the most rapid progress towards the actual performance of tricks, we suggest that he first take up the study and practice of our “System of Blind Shuffles” as taught in the first part of this book, acquiring thorough proficiency in forming and using the “jog” and “break,” which make this style of shuffle possible.
The first two blind shuffles mentioned in The Expert at the Card Table retain the top portion of the pack, while the third maintains the bottom stock. Here are the relevant pages in the web-based edition of the book, in case you haven’t read them yet:
Position for the Shuffle
Erdnase starts by highlighting the correct way of holding the pack for an overhand shuffle, as illustrated in Fig. 1:
He stresses the importance of this grip. In particular, Erdnase mentions the importance of the first and little fingers of the left hand, which help keep the jogged cards in position during blind shuffles:
"This position, and especially that of the first and little fingers of the left hand, is essential for the process of blind shuffling and stocking."
He also points out that this is also the best position for a regular shuffle:
It is an excellent manner of holding the deck for the true shuffle, and should be strictly adhered to on all occasions.
The accompanying illustration is very helpful. It makes it much easier to understand how to correctly hold the cards for an overhand shuffle. This grip was the natural way I held a pack when I first learned to shuffle as a young child. Years later, when I first read The Expert at the Card Table, it was reassuring that an accomplished card expert like Erdnase also used the exact same grip.
The description of the grip is excellent. However, I have one small addition: I sometimes curl the little finger of my left hand inwards so that it contacts the face card of the pack. As I shuffle, the edge of my little finger repeatedly taps the top edge of the pack, which prevents the cards from getting too messy; this is especially helpful when running single cards because they have a habit of rising upward or even rotating as you complete the shuffle. While some messiness helps improve both the naturalness and deceptiveness of the blind shuffle, too many side-jogged cards can cause you to lose your injogs or breaks. An abundance of kinetic energy can also cause you to drop a card or two.
Once you have mastered shuffling the cards using this position, it is also worth learning how to manipulate the cards from dealer’s grip into an overhand shuffle position using only one hand. There’s no real technique to this. Simply move your fingers into the position for an overhand shuffle as you hold the pack in dealer’s grip.
I encourage all budding cardicians to spend some time studying the illustration in Fig. 1. Using the correct grip for the overhand shuffle makes the blind shuffles in the book much easier to complete.
Basic Blind Shuffle
Erdnase describes this false shuffle as the “very simplest form of the blind shuffle” and calls it the “first lesson in the A, B, C of card manipulation”. Most magicians refer to this particular false shuffle as a “jog shuffle”. Once the correct position for the overhand shuffle is fully understood, the mechanics of this basic blind shuffle are easy to learn. In fact, it is described by the author in a single, short paragraph:
“Under cut about half deck, in-jog first card and shuffle off. Under cut to in-jog and throw on top.”
Erdnase provides some more details to help the beginner with this rudimentary blind shuffle. While I use this shuffle all the time, it has one big weakness, as pointed out by Erdnase:
“The weak point about the foregoing blind is that the last movement is a throw, or under cut, and it may be noticed that only part of the deck is actually shuffled.”
This is why it is vital that there is no pause between the shuffle and the throw. Any amount of hesitation will ruin its deceptiveness. To avoid this problem, the location of the jog should be found by feel alone or, as Erdnase puts it, “solely by the sense of touch”. Although he doesn’t implicitly say it, Erdnase is suggesting that you do not look at your hands when you complete this blind shuffle. This makes the motion more casual and reduces focus on the final throwing action.
Another way to avoid the final throw is to allow the pack to sink back into dealer’s grip. As you square up the cards, establish a break below the injogged card. Cut half of the cards above the break to the table. Next, cut to the break, placing the cards on top of those already on the table. Finally, drop the cards remaining in your hand on top of all. This triple cut to the table is also a good way to terminate a series of blind shuffles.
The jog shuffle is very forgiving. If the cards are in poor condition, there is a good chance that you’ll accidentally injog more than one card during the blind shuffle. So long as this block of cards is injogged, the additional cards do not interfere with the workings of the shuffle. This is helpful if you find yourself in the unfortunate position of performing magic with a sticky deck. In fact, purposefully pulling a block of cards onto the left-hand stock when creating the injog better disguises the blind, in my opinion. This is because it is unusual to see a layperson run single cards during a regular shuffle. For this reason, I’ve started to injog a small block, four or five cards, rather than a single card. This approach has the added benefit of making it more difficult to lose control of the jog (sometimes, a single injogged card will rotate or accidentally slip flush with the rest of the cards). Injogging a block also helps you avoid hesitation when performing this blind shuffle.
A More Refined Approach
The second blind shuffle in the system attempts to fix the weakness caused by the final throwing action of the previous method by using a break. The title of the blind shuffle—To Retain Top Stock and Shuffle Whole Deck—is a bit of a misnomer because if the whole deck were really shuffled, the action wouldn’t be false! However, the shuffle produces the illusion that the entire pack is thoroughly shuffled.
Again, the description from Erdnase is very clear. One point about this blind shuffle, which is often overlooked, is that you do not need to perform it quickly. You must maintain a constant rhythm, but the shuffle itself is still deceptive when done slowly, as the following quote from Erdnase indicates:
“Above all, a uniformity of time and action must be maintained, though it is not at all essential to the blind to shuffle rapidly.”
This is one of the most useful false shuffles that you can learn.
Retaining Bottom Stock
The final shuffle of the trio maintains the bottom portion of the pack. This strategy of controlling the bottom portion of the pack is less common among magicians, but it has a few advantages. People tend to expect that you’re controlling their selected card to the top of the pack. A more subtle approach is to control it to the bottom and use this blind shuffle to keep it there. You can then show that the selected card is not on the top of the pack.
If your setup is on the bottom of the pack, you can also perform an all-around square-up to peek at the bottom card to check that you have completed the false shuffle successfully and that your setup is still intact. This is something that isn’t possible when retaining the top stock (unless you’re using marked cards).
During the explanation of this blind shuffle, Erdnase makes a very important observation about how you should handle the jog during any blind shuffle:
When a jog is formed during the process of any shuffle, and the right hand is shifted a little in or out as the case may be, to allow the jog card to fall in the proper place, the right hand does not at once return to its former position, but gradually works back as the shuffle progresses. This leaves the cards in the left hand a little irregular at the ends, and effectually conceals the fact that any one card is purposely protruding. The ablest shuffler cannot keep his cards quite even, and the irregularity appears even more natural than if in perfect order.
Erdnase finishes this section of the book by saying:
“The foregoing shuffles are simple and easy, and when perfectly performed, absolutely indistinguishable from the true.”
Benefits of the Blind
Most card tricks that rely on a prearrangement will benefit from including a blind shuffle or two. From a layperson’s perspective, a thorough shuffle destroys any secret setup and makes it impossible for you to know the order of the cards.
A good blind shuffle also strengthens standard card forces. For example, you can peek at the bottom card and shuffle it to the top. Then you can perform a blind shuffle to keep the force card in position before executing the forcing procedure.
Also, once you have controlled a selected card to the top or bottom of the pack, a blind shuffle will help convince your audience that their selection is hopelessly lost.
What Next
Next week, we’ll take a look at the Erdnase System of Blind Riffles and Cuts.