This is a very useful book for those involved in card magic. Ideally, you should have knowledge before reading this book. For beginners, here is a good set-up of 2 books that are very useful:
Royal Road To Card Magic
then
Expert At The Card Table
So, for beginners, sorry I think this might be a little to confusing, giving you the "huh?"
All of these tricks in here require knowledge of various sleights. Since you don't know them, go to Royal Road of Card Magic.
So, intermediates, here is a good book for you. It has a nice collection of tricks using not only cards but also various objects (i.e. hats). The tricks that are in this book are the following:
The Exclusive Coterie
The Divining Rod
The Invisible Flight
The Prearranged Deck
The Travelling Cards
The Row of Ten Cards
The Acrobatic Jacks
A Mind Reading Trick
Power of Concentrated Thought
The Acme of Control
The Card and Hankerchief
The Top and Bottom Production
The Three Aces
The Card and Hat
Three Card Monte
Mexican Three Card Monte
This book not only has effects and methods of the above tricks, it also has a handy glossary of terms that are used in this book and possibly used by other books, videos, etc...
One other very nice feature is that it has various sleights that are a little too complex for beginners. It has the following sleights with detailed pictures and methods:
Single Handed Shift (Charlier Pass)
The Longitudinal Shift
The Open Shift
The S.W.E Shift
The Diagonal Palm Shift
Shuffles To Retain Top Stock
Shuffles To Retain Top Stock and Shuffle Whole Deck
Shuffles To Retain Bottom Stock and Shuffle Whole Deck
Two-Card Stock
Three-Card Stock
Four-Card Stock
Five-Card Stock
Twelve-Card Stock
Euchre Four-Handed Game-1
Euchre Four-Handed Game-2
Culling Two Cards, Numbers 8,4
Culling Three Cards, Numbers 7,5,9
Culling Four Cards, Numbers 3,6,2,5
Culling Nine Cards, Numbers 5,1,1,1,3,1,1,7,1
Top Palm-First Method
Top Palm-Second Method
Bottom Palm - First Method
Bottom Palm - Second Method
Bottom Palm - When Cards Are Riffled
Bottom Palm - When Cards Are Riffled - Second Method
Two-Handed Shift
The Erdnase Shift - One Handed
The Erdnase Shift - Two Handed
Dealing Without A Cut
Replacing Cut As Before
Holding Out For Cut
Shifting the Cut
Dealing Too Many
Crimping For the Cut
Replacing Palm when Cutting
The Short Deck
Top Change
Bottom Change
Palm Change
Double Palm Change
6 Methods of Two-Handed Transformations
2 Methods of One-Handed Transformations
5 Methods of Blind Shuffles Retaining Whole Order
Determining Card Thought Of
The Glimpse
The Glide
Sleights For Terminating Tricks
This book has been in my company for years. It's gained some dust on it but I still love to open it up and refresh my technique.
For advanced card magicians, the tricks in here might not be so spectacular but the sleights of hand in here are sure to spark an interest.
I rate this book as 9.5/10. It's not terribly expensive and can be ordered thru various bookstores, such as Chapters.
