pentagon

Ritaprova
Sen
Contents
1. The last challenge

2. Gajar ka Halwa
Production

3. The gambit cut

4. Instant Triumph

5. Intution plus
 The Last Challenge
Effect:The magician takes a fully shuffled deck and deals five
hands of poker - and after each deal he offers the audience a
choice of exchanging his hand with theirs.Inspite of this
seemingly fair process the magician ends up with a four of a
kind with prior knowledege so as to which 4 of a kind is going to
fall to him.As a bonus kicker ending he gathers up the cards and
deals another round of hands with 5 cards each and stills ends
up with a royal flush or a straight.
I had been obsessed with the idea of letting the
spectators have seemingly full control over poker hands as they
are dealt and yet getting away with the best hand .The first
time I came across this idea was Karl Fuves’ “According to hoyle”
in his “the magic book”.David Britland has an amazing and
simple take on this masterpiece with simplifying the stack in his
“the last game”.The method described here is impromptu.
Hand the deck out for shuffling and taking it back
pretend to go though the deck to search for jokers while talking
bout how worthless they are, with respect to a card game. Go
through the deck and throw out the joker whenever you come
across one - in the meantime cull the following cards an
ace,,king,,queen,,jack,,10 - it doesnt matter what suit they are
and what order they are just remember the 2nd card from the
top as you cull the set to the top - eg if I cull the cards in the
manner such that from top I have an ace -king-queen-jack and
10, then I’m gonna remember king i.e. the card the comes 2nd
in the newly formed stack at the top of the deck . The next
move is to cull all the other 3 mates of this card to the top i.e.
the other 3 kings. Ill leave them to you to figure out an
applicable excuse while you cull the cards - I personally prefer
to talking a bit about gambling and card cheating and would
out jog 3 aces commenting on how strong a hand that is - a full
house of aces or something like that - when you’re done you’re
going to be in the following position:
- 3 kings -ace-king-queen-jack-10. Patter about false deals and
expertise in card control and ask 4 spectators to assist you. Tell
them that you intend to do a demonstration upon absolute
card control in a game of poker - however to make it more
impossible the audience is going to have full control over the
dealing process.You enlighten the fact by stating that after each
round of dealing the audience is going to be offered a choice of
exchanging their hands with the magician’s (I know it sounds
confusing but bear with me the procedure is simple and easier
than it sounds.)

Fig 1.
Undercut the top 3 kings to the bottom of the
deck and follow it with a riffle shuffle in this manner: cut the
tophalf of the deck to your right and rifle the ends of the
packets but riffle about 4-5 cards from the left hand first (this
keeps the bottom 3 kings intact) and riifle the cards of the left
hand faster with respect to the right hand- so that you end up
with the stack of ace-king-queen-10 and jack on top of the deck.
You can replicate the same shuffle again to make it look natural
and end it with a false cut. After the said procedure you’ll be at
fig 1.
1st round of dealing : deal a card facedown from the left
spectator towards the right,one card each dealing youself last -
from the left each spectator would correspondingly receive -
ace -king-queen-jack-with you receiving the 10 (fig 2). Look at
the spectators and tell them that the game of poker is nothing
but an elaborate test of luck and that in this particular one -
one of them will posses the absolute control over the success
of the demostration( point to the 2nd spactator) Ask if any of
the spectators at this point want to exchange their card for
yours ,except for the 2nd spectator (who has the king),and let
one of them exchange his card for yours. (fig 3.)

. fig 2.

fig 3.
Shuffle the deck retaining the bottom stock of 3 cards and ask
him to cut the deck in half and take the bottom half in dealers
grip stating that you are gonna deal exactly from where they
cut to.
2nd round of dealing: deal a card facedown from the left
spectator towards the right ,one card each ,dealing urself
last ,however on the second spectator do the smoothest
bottom deal you can dealing him a king (fig 4.),and when u get
to your card replicate the action of a very clumsy bottom deal
but deal from the top.Look up and ask if someone (other than
the 2nd spectator would like to exchange their hands and let
one of the remaining spectators exchange their cards for yours :
two exhanges have already taken place).

fig 4.
Shuffle the deck again retaing the bottom stock of two kings
and ask someone to cut the deck and hand the bottom pile to
you to deal.
3rd round of dealing :repeat the same steps dealing from the
top from left to right except to the 2nd spectator where you do
a bottom dealing him/her a king. Now turn to the 2 spectators
who have still not exchanged their hands (that would be the 2nd
spectator &someone else) and ask the other person if he would
like to exchange the card of his hand with those of yours - let
him exchange his cards with yours.
4rth round of dealing : again repeat the steps dealing the last
king from the bottom stock to the 2nd spectator .
Now turn to the second spectator and tell him that he has got
the most importat choice which might determine if the
demonstration will be a success.Tell him that he can exchange
his cards after the final round of cards have been dealt or he
could exchange the hands now.Either way you end up with 4
kings with the bottom card of each other pile being
ace/queen/10/jack. Dramatize the effect by stating that you
already knew you would get the four of a kind of kings even
before the dealing started - then turn over to show the 4 kings
you have in your hand (fig 5.)

fig 5.
Now the best part of this routine is that the ace/queen/jack
and 10 has already been stacked for the proceeding effect -
gather up the hands -it doesnt matter which hand goes over
which. Take back the deck and false shuffle or cut - and deal
out again 5 hands but this time no exchanges or bottom deals-
you’re gonna land up with a straight of 10-j-q-k-a .
(ill leave the patter to you ) (fig 6.).

Foot notes: I prefer to ask which one of my 4 spectators want

to have the power of deciding the success of the demonstation
and cull the cards accordingly- eg if I culled the cards in the
order - ace-king-queen-jack-10 then if spectator 3 wants to
be “the one” - I cull the queens (since its at number 3 in the
stack and the entire process sees the replacement of spectator
2 with spectator 3 - ie bottom dealing at 3rd position )
I highly reccommend you to check out David Britland’s “the Last
game “that uses a stack - thus eliminates the bottom dealing -
this however is an impromtu version .
For ending the trick with a royal flush rather than a straight just
cull the ace-king-queen-10-jack of any particular suit to the top
at the begining.

fig 6.
Gajar ka Halwa production
Effect: The magician takes a shuffled deck and out jogs the 4
aces and leaves them on the table and cuts three of the aces in
the centre of the deck .The deck is given a riffle shuffle. The last
ace is now inserted into the deck and pushed flush, immediately
the magician cuts the deck into piles and visually produces the 4
aces.
Take the shuffled deck and go through the cards
jogging out the 4 aces and strip them out of the deck and leave
them on the table . Patter about how strong a hand of four
aces are in a game of poker and how amazing it would be if one
had full control over the deck - something like this:
Take the 1st ace and use it to scoop up two other aces - place
them face down on top of the deck (fig 7.) and grip the deck
ends in the usual manner of a table farrow . Under-cut one of
the aces to the bottom of the deck and give the deck a riffle
shuffle like so : cut about half the cards and place the top half
to the right in readiness for a standard table riffle shuffle.
Riffle the corners of the cards but let the left hand portion riffle
first and faster that the right hand thereby maintaing the stock
of two aces on the top and one ace on the bottom of the
deck.Now take the final ace and show the face of the ace to the
audience as you riffle down the edges of the tabled deck and
stop at about 1/3rd from the top and insert the ace face down
out jogged about 1/3rd of its length. Now position both your
hands on both lateral side of the tabled deck and tap them
suddenly on the deck sides pushing the card flush with the deck
-as if you are clapping but the deck is obsctructing the process-
what it does is leave the card protruding along the long side of
the deck and since that side is facing you , all the audience
perceives is the card going flush inside .( fig 8. the card has
been left out jogged for demonstration purposes)
 fig 7.

fig 8.

Now a lot of actions take place simultaneously :

With your left thumb press down on the protruding card and
secure a break above it.(fig 9.)
fig 9.

With the right hand undercut half of the cards under the break
to the top (fig 10.)

Fig 10.

But don’t drop the right hand packet directly over the deck
rather hold it for just a second with the right fingers, with the
right thumb keeping a firm and wide break between the
packets. Now the left hand releases the cards under the break
it is holding while the right hand strips it from underneath
pulling with with the right thumb and ring finger along with the
right hand packet on top of it .(fig 11.)

fig 11.
The left hand keeps holding its packet to keep it stable and
place it on the table after the lower portion is taken by the right
hand.The right hand moves forward and drops the lower
packet from its hand and then moves a bit further to place the
other (top) packet on the table.

fig 12.
Now you have 3 packets on table - with the one nearest to you
having 2 aces on top and the next one having a single ace on
top and the 3rd having an ace at the face .While placing the last
packet the right hand turns it face up thereby displaying the
bottom ace (fig 12.) .This turning over action is covered as the
left hand takes the top card from the packet nearest to you(the
one with 2 aces on top)and turns it face up just as the right
hand finishes turning the last packet face up .Toss the left hand
ace to the right hand and as the right hand places the ace a bit
farther on the table parallel to the middle packet ,the left hand
turns the top card of the middle packet and places it on the
packet to reveal an ace (fig 13.).The right hand now comes over
and turns the top card of the packet nearest to you and places
it on top to complete the display of four aces is a stunning
manner(fig 14.)

fig 13.

fig 14.
 The gambit cut
Effect: A fancy yet seemingly genuine false cut.
When I first came across the one handed fancy
table cut in “The Expert at The Card Table “ I was just obsessed
with the move.I later came across the in the hands fancy cut
“butterfly”cut and saw a false variation of it which absolutely
blew me away.Wanting to have such a fancy table move - I
thought this to be fit.
Grab the sides of the deck as in the
beginning of a standard riffle shuffle and cut about half of the
deck to the right.Now you are going to execute Erdnase’s one
handed fancy table cut - but in this case with both hands. (fig
15.).[If you do not know how its done ,it is as follows: grab the
end of the deck with one hand on the long ends and using your
ring and second finger break the deck towards the middle.The
lower portion is whisked away in a very swift and smooth
motion towards yourself while the top portion drops to the
table obeying the laws of inertia.The portion on Your hand is
then dropped on the tabled half thereby completing the cut .]

fig 15.
However there is a variation to this -while
doing it with both hands , as you place the final packets on each
half place it such that the are out jogged for about half of an
inch.(fig 16.)

fig 16.
Now the right hand grabs the entire right hand portion(the
bottom half and the outjogged top half) and place it right on
the left hand portion such that lower portion of the right hand
aligns with the outjogged portion of the left hand - however
hold a break between them with the help of your right
thumb.The left hand comes over and grabs the left corners as
the right hand strips out the aligned portions still maintaining
the break with your right thumb(fig 17) ,bring the stripped out
portion over the tabled one and the left hand repositions as the
right fingers strip out the lower portion form the packet it is
now holding and the top portion drops on the tabled half.
(fig 18.)The right hand now moves the packet it is holding (the
orginal bottom quarter)and places it a bit farther from
you .Simultaneously the left hand grabs the entire tabled
packet and places it on this packet as soon as the right hand
drops it .(fig 19.)

fig 17.
 Even though it sounds complicated - I assure
you it is not and when done in one smooth motion ,have been
found to puzzle even knowledgeable cardmen.

fig 18.

Fig 19.
 Instant Triumph
Effect : a smooth and elegant at the table triumph
All credits to this amazing handling goes to Paul
Cummings .I first came across this amazing handling in “FASDIU”
and it has been in my heart ever since. I perform this regularly
and even for magicians,and leave them mystified- all that has
been done is replacing the push through shuffle with a zarrow
variation.
Hold the deck like you are about to begin a
riffle shuffle and cut about half of it to the right and do a
standard riffle shuffle and interweave as finely as possible.Push
through about half the length and do a ribbon spread and
pause to show the cards are evenly mixed.(It is essential to
pause as it creates the platfrom for the entire buildup- just let
the picture of the shuffled halves sink in).Square up the spread
and push them in flush but do this slowly.
Spread the deck and ask for a card to be
selected.Have the card returned and control it to the
top.Underut half of the deck to the right and turn it face
up-simultaneoulsy spread the right and the left halves to so a
face down and face up spread(fig 20.)

fig 20.
.Pause. Then square them up one with each hand and bring
them close in readiness for a table riffle shuffle. Now do a
zarrow variation as follows.Do a standard zarrow, but instead
of pushing one of the portions over the other under the top
card ,tilt the deck upwards while stripping the portions under
the cover of the top card that has been outjogged for about
half its length .Now the condition of the deck is as follows fig
21 .Push the right hand portion over the left hand portion
under the top card while simultaneously tapping the deck on
the table.This pushing in action done latterally while tapping
the long egdes on the tables gives the action a very natural
outlook. (fig 21.)

fig 21.
Table the deck - it should be in the
following condition : face down selection on the top - then a
face up half - then a face down half.due to the natural bend in
the cards ,it is going to be very easy for u to cut excatly at the
face up and face down half.Undercut the facedown half to the
left and turn it face up & say lets shuffle again- and this time do
a real riffle shuffle and end with riffling the face down selection
from the right hand portion on top.(fig 22.)
 fig 22.
And push them flush , very very slowly(this is the portion that
gets magicians). Now cut the face down selection in the center
and snap your fingers. And immediately turn the deck face
down and do a ribbon spread to display the selection as the
only face up card in the deck.(fig 23)

Fig 23.
 Intution plus
Effect: the magician keeps a card as a prediction in a wine glass
displayed in full veiw.The deck is ribbon spread and the
spectator is asked to choose a card. The chosen card and the
predition is turned over -they turn out to be exact mates !
I was always been a fan of Larry Jennings.His
“optical toss”is highly coveted as an utility switch and is indeed
a genius of a move.The move that I am going to describe can be
used as a variation of the same or in itself as an undetectable
utility swich in place of the Curry turn over.
Have the deck shuffled and after taking it
back and go through the deck under pretence of removing the
jokers while you note the top card of the deck and bring out its
mate and place it in a wine glass in full veiw.(fig 24.)

fig 24.
Patter about in most prediction tricks the prediction is usually
switched out after the card has been chosen but you are going
to keep everything fair.Ribbon spread the deck and ask the
spectator to take his index and hover it over the spread for a
minute and bring it down upon one card.Slide the card out but
do not show its face(fig 25. - the top card has been turned over
for demonstration) Scoop up the cards in the left hand and hold
them in dealers grip with a pinky break over the top card .Take
the selected card and place it square on the deck.(fig 26.)

fig 25.

fig 26.
Put ur right fingers inside the break and move both cards as
one to about 1/2 of an inch ,square as one card The two cards
should be pinched with an extended left thumb and the middle
and ring fingers underneath (fig 27)

Fig 27.
Immediately misdirect your spectator to the prediction and
take it in your right hand face down .Now comes the
switch .Flip the right hand palm down thereby displaying the
face of the prediction .Simultaneously turn the left hand palm
down drawing back the extended thumb and pulling the top
card back onto the deck displaying the mate of the prediction
and toss it on the table(fig 28. & 29.). The entire turn and toss
should be one motion of you turning the hand and putting the
card on the table. Both palms should turn down at the same
time. Let the effect sink in and wait for the applause.

fig 28.

Fig 29.
the end