talkmagic.co.uk

The Effect
Dex Poinjestra demonstrates 10 different ways to force a card. The target audience is clearly beginners:

Cost
About $10.00

Difficulty
The usual scale doesn't really apply because several of the forces are very easy and the classic force is much more difficult

Review
As the title says, there are 10 different forces explained:

Criss Cross Force
Hindu Shuffle Force
Cut Deeper Force
10 to 20 Force
Riffle Force
Countdown Force
Dribble Force
Peek Force
Slip Cut Force
Classic Force

Overall
I got this DVD as a free bonus, which is good, because after viewing it I am glad I didn't pay for it. It's not all bad. The Criss Cross force and the Slip Cut force are two useable, and simple, moves for beginners. However, he attempts to teach the Classic Force in just one minute! I challenge anyone who has this DVD claim that they learned this advanced move just from watching this.

I decided to compare the teaching on this DVD with the teaching on 40 Ways to Force a Card. I chose a force I don't like, the Cut Deeper force. (My primary concern is that an observant spectator could play back the moves in their head and figure it out.)

On 10 Ways Dex Poinjestra simply shows how to do it. Whereas on 40 Ways Gerry Griffin suggests that the force be prefaced with a shuffle. He even takes a few moments to show how to perform the very simple Face-up Hindu shuffle to retain the top stack. This alone indicates the difference in quality. But 40 Ways goes one step further, Gerry ends by showing a subtelty added by Ed Balducci that virtually eliminates the possibility of reverse engineering this force.

If you are really tight for money, or you are a beginner that just wants one or two forces then at $10 it's not too bad. However, Penguin currently sells 40 Ways for less than $20, making it much better value for your money.

Rating
4/10 (and I think I am being generous.)

and the spammers live on............

Great review.

As an aside, does the Hindu Shuffle Force actually work? I know how to do it, but it seems so obvious to me, I don't see how anyone could fall for it.

This is most definatly aimed at a novice, but saying that, to a novice it sounds like it'd be an amazing investment. I personally use the criss cross, dribble and slip cut forces when I'm out working and they really are great. Like I said, definatly a great investment for a novice, to someone in the more intermidiate to advanced level I would say that they should know at least nine out of the ten listed here, at least!

As for the question above, does the hindu shuffle force work? It can. I don't like to use it because it does feel a bit obvious, but also because it seems like a lot of work and movement for what it accomplishes. I'd rather use a different method of forcing, like the once I've mentioned that are listed there as they still force a card, and in a much cleaner looking manner.

For those who don't know, 202 forces is available for free...

Ted wrote:For those who don't know, 202 forces is available for free...

Yeah this it true, however I found that although it obviously has a large amount of content, some great, some less than, it was hard to find what you're looking for. Maybe it's just me. The one I have doesn't have names for each force and so you can't look up a paticular force easily. Is that just mine though?

They are numbered.

I like this..."This is most definatly aimed at a novice, but saying that, to a novice it sounds like it'd be an amazing investment. I personally use the criss cross, dribble and slip cut forces when I'm out working and they really are great. Like I said, definatly a great investment for a novice, to someone in the more intermidiate to advanced level I would say that they should know at least nine out of the ten listed here, at least ".........

regards...

sarika

sarika123 wrote:I like this..."This is most definatly aimed at a novice, but saying that, to a novice it sounds like it'd be an amazing investment. I personally use the criss cross, dribble and slip cut forces when I'm out working and they really are great. Like I said, definatly a great investment for a novice, to someone in the more intermidiate to advanced level I would say that they should know at least nine out of the ten listed here, at least ".........

regards...

sarika

Why thank you.

BradH wrote:Great review.

As an aside, does the Hindu Shuffle Force actually work? I know how to do it, but it seems so obvious to me, I don't see how anyone could fall for it.

I does work. I used to think that it was too obvious, but I've warmed to it over the years and now I think it has its place and use it quite happily from time to time. (Plus, despite my worry, I have never been called on it, so it can't be that obvious to people who don't know it.) As a subtlety, I always do it three times:
I'm going to shuffle through the pack [as I'm doing so] and stop [I stop, displaying the stopped at card to them] and you remember the card [drop the packet down so the deck's whole again.]
Obviously, though [I'm shuffling through the cards again], I'll stop whenever you tell me to [I stop again, displaying the stopped at card to them, and again drop the packet down so the deck's whole].
OK... [I'm shuffling through the pack: the spec says, "Stop," somewhere: I reveal the chosen card somehow.]

The first two times I begin the shuffle leaving a small packet of cards in my left hand - that is, I don't grab the entire pack in my right for the first 'strip off'. This means that, by the time call they 'Stop' to choose their card on the third go they've seen three different cards, which unspokenly sells both that the pack isn't just 52 Seven of Clubs, say, and also that stopping at different times will result in a different card. A benefit of the Hindu force is that you can, if you wish or it seems a good idea, point out that you can't even see the back of the card they've chosen, which eliminates the lay person's standard solution 'It's a marked deck.'

The biggest problem with the Hindu Force, I think, is that it's in every Simple Tricks book, video, web page, and magazine piece in the universe. So, though experience has made me confident that the average person won't figure out what's going on, I'm not nearly so confident that the average person (or one average person in a group of ten) won't have heard of it.