📗 Exploring Erdnase Book Club: To Indicate the Location for the Cut
Update #9
This section of The Expert at the Card Table concentrates on nullifying a true cut (pages 48 to 52 in the original edition of the book). Or, as Erdnase put it:
"While on the subject of cuts, we shall consider the various methods by which a true cut can be made by an ally, and still leave the complete stock intact."
He shares four methods of undoing a cut. Two use crimps and the other two use jogs:
As a card cheat, knowing how to neutralise a true cut is crucial. There is little point in retaining top or bottom stock if you don't know how to counter a legitimate cut because it is common practice for the dealer to designate a player to cut the cards after they've been shuffled. Usually, the dealer places the pack in front of the player to his right (in clockwise games) or the player to his left (in anticlockwise games) and requests that the cards be cut. The dealer then completes the cut and commences dealing.
Erdnase states that the best method of neutralising a cut involves the dealer working with a secret accomplice or "ally" who knows how to feel for the crimp or injog when cutting the pack. However, he suggests that, even if you don't play with an ally, these techniques still stand a good chance of working, as highlighted by the following quote:
"There is little or no difficulty in finding the crimp. It is the most probable place the cut would be made, even if left to chance and many an unsophisticated player has unconsciously cut into a crimp and aided in his own undoing."
This got me thinking about how, as a magician, I could use these techniques. The most obvious way is to use them as a substitute for a false cut. After all, from a layperson’s perspective, it looks like you’re simply shuffling the cards, tabling the pack and then cutting and completing the cut. When performing at a table, such a sequence would strengthen any trick that required a prearranged stack on the top or bottom of the pack. Tabling the pack for the cut, even if you perform it yourself after a suitable pause, also adds an air of casualness to the sequence.
In addition, all four methods for locating the position of a cut could be used in an Ace Cutting or Spectator Cuts to the Aces routine. Yes, there are more sophisticated crimps, such as the Breather or Infinity Crimp, that can be used. But it is difficult to put the required work into a card in front of an audience without it looking like you’re up to something. Consequently, these techniques are particularly useful when performing with a borrowed pack.
In fact, you can also use these techniques to force a known card (or a group of cards) on a person. This is an excellent approach because your participant makes the cut themselves, so it is unlikely that they'll suspect a force. If your helper misses the crimp or injog when making the cut, you can take back the pack and use a more standard method to force the card, such as the Classic, Riffle or even Cross Cut Force.
There’s not much else to say about this section of the book. In the next update, we’ll take a look a bottom dealing.