Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

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Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby MrCat » Sep 5th, '14, 13:27



This is my first review, so I hope it's ok. There doesn't appear to be one here on a search and I just bought it as an instant download...so...

The Effect

The magician places increasingly obscene bets/wagers that they can predict the cards (lots of them, in various groups) laid face down on the table from a pack cut then rifle shuffled by the spectator/s.
The magician of course then wins. Every time without fear.

The prediction is that six pairs of cards dealt from the deck will all be combinations of red and black. The ante is upped by a further three sets of four cards all face down and the bet is they will all contain one of each suit. The finalle to really up the ante is the dealing (by the the spectator, you never touch the cards) of 13 face down which you predict will be Ace through to King (not in order or suit, but still ace through king). And lo, it is so :)

Cost

I just paid £9.99 for this and I'm very happy with that.

Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

My rating: 1 (I'm a total novice and it worked for me first time on reading the instructions (I think 'script' might be the prefered term?)

Review

I am very impressed. As a novice and being very rubbish at any sort of sleight of hand, and generally liking my gimmicks that are easy to use, I was unsure but for the price I had to go for it. The script is very clear in how to set up and perform the trick, and also meets all the claims made in the advert. i.e.:

Very Easy to do!

No gaffed cards or gimmicks!

No hard memorization work!

No sleight of hand!

The cards do all the work for you!

The outcome is the same every time!

A great bar bet and magician fooler!


There are some basic principles at work which mean the trick will work the same every time, which are clearly explained in the script. It also tells you how to perform this trick after having performed a few other tricks with the very same deck which is very neat in my book although I've not tried that yet. It does take a bit of initial set up, but as far as I gather, once this has been done you are ready to perform it streight off the bat, or after a few other card tricks which just makes it all the more spectacular (I imagine!).

Overall

I would say this is one of the most worthwhile tricks I have bought for the novice or beginner magician, (and experts alike) wanting to perform a garunteed spectacular card trick that will boggle the minds of spectators. I give it a 5 out of 5 because a: I'm new, and b: It's so amazingly easy to perform and is such a great effect as you can perform it having never touched the cards beyond removing them from your pocket, the spectators shuffle them (to a degree) enough to convince everyone including me as a novice that they are properly shuffled, and still the predictions work every time. In short, 'brilliant!'.

I'm not sure yet if you can re-perform the trick straight away, I'm guessing not but will come back and tell you later if it requires re-setting or if there's a cunning way of doing it again right away. It's my first review and I didn't think about that until just now as I write!

Enjoy.

Last edited by MrCat on Sep 5th, '14, 14:49, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby Mandrake » Sep 5th, '14, 14:34

being very rubbish at any sort of sleight of hand
You're not on your own there!

Great review, thank you, a very tempting prospect indeed.......

PS There is an existing thread at sutra307857.php but it's quite a long time ago when the effect was first unleashed :wink:

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Re: Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby MrCat » Sep 5th, '14, 14:55

Thanks mandrake, yea I spotted that post but people seemed unclear and arguing so I thought I'd just put it streight, and was most delighted to find I could be the first to review it proerply haha :D Novice that I am. I hope it's useful. Having been shopping a bit recently I now understand the full value of a good review, and should read them more first before being click-happy in my purchaces... I recomend you all do the same ;) tho you probably do.

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Re: Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby Mandrake » Sep 5th, '14, 23:22

On rare occasions I read through the old Review sections and it's surprising how opinions and fashion can change - what was a real hot dog must have item can sometimes now seem to be somewhat mundane. However I have found that if everyone and their dog is performing the latest super-duper effect then its best to leave it for 6 months or more and then start performing it - that way you have far more time to rehearse and adapt the effect and the audiences will probably see it as something new.

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Re: Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby captainsmiffy » Nov 29th, '14, 21:05

Thanks for the kind words in your review, MrCat. It is nice to see a resurrection of interest in Up The Ante once in a while and makes the whole creative process worthwhile. Glad that you liked the effect and hope that you get as much out of it as I have in over - literally - hundreds of performances of this. Played well, it is a very powerful tool in your magic arsenal and one that your audience are unlikely to forget in a hurry.

Best,

Martyn

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Re: Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby MrCat » Nov 30th, '14, 11:56

Hey Martyn,

The pleasure is mine, well most of it anyway. This is still one of my favorite tricks of all time and I Never leave home without it! I have my own banter for it down to a T and it really does create a sense of electric anticipation and disbelief before you even get that close to the reveal. Everyone who's seen this has been nothing short of amazed.

Good work my friend, thanks :D

Last edited by MrCat on Nov 30th, '14, 14:48, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby Mandrake » Nov 30th, '14, 14:31

Grrrr... that's another tenner gone out of Mandrake's piggy bank..... (thank you!)

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Re: Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby MrCat » Nov 30th, '14, 14:47

Hahaha, trust me mandrake, you'll soon be back thanking me muchly, I reckon in about half an hour :D ... tick tock tick...

I find this one useful any time but usually save it for later as it's a good one to spin into a nice yarn about the whole concept of odds, the nature of gambling etc, and the longer you can keep it going the more the sense of anticipation builds :) I've bought a bunch of stuff since my initial forrays into magic and this still is one of my all time best purchases ever. Any skeptics in the room will look at you with a new sense of wonder, I usually save it till last then do a runner :)

I like to start with the lines 'This is less of a trick, more a kind of 'social experiment' on the nature of gambling...blah blah' then when everyone else shuffles and deals this just reinforces the fact you can't have any influence over the outcome and you ask people to place their bets. And they will :D

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Re: Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby Mandrake » Nov 30th, '14, 18:08

Oy vay, alright already - I've bought it, I've bought it - OK?!!!

I'm not getting any free time today so tomorrow will be dedicated to the PDF :D !

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Re: Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby Lady of Mystery » Nov 30th, '14, 18:16

Oh poo and now I've gone and bought it.

A lovely routine, the only point I'm not sure about is that I don't think I'd be too confident in the spec being able to riffle shuffle, far too high a chance for things to go wrong there but the rest is very nice. Gambling routines aren't really my style but I'm pretty sure that with a little bit of thought I could come up with a routine using the same principle but with a photo stack. I'm going to have to get thinking on this one...

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Re: Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby MrCat » Dec 1st, '14, 01:13

But Lady, it's all there, you can try it your self and riffle the way stated...it's all good! I've tried it a million times now and it never fails, that's the whole killer element when people riffle it, nothing is left to chance! Of course :D Have you tried it? The more acurate or inacurate the riffle the better, makes no difference. The best is whenthey say oh I'm no good at this and totally fumble it, it still works. I challenge you now to go play your specs role and totally mess up a poor as hell riffle...then see if you can still predict. I predict you can :)

Have faith and let them do it for you. That's what makes this by far one of my faves.

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Re: Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby soveda » Dec 1st, '14, 14:02

Would the "smoosh" shuffle as seen on the BBM self working card tricks DVDs work if people can't riffle shuffle?

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Re: Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby Lady of Mystery » Dec 1st, '14, 15:28

I've found a lot of people have trouble with an over hand shuffle so I was just imagining cards all over the floor if I asked them to riffle shuffle. Im' more than happy to be proven wrong in these things so will give it a go and see what happens :D

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Re: Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby MrCat » Dec 2nd, '14, 11:37

Over hand shuffle works fine, as does a riffle, you just have to be sure you control the amount of shuffling here, 'give them just a QUICK shuffle' you say... I find a riffle the safest because you can get them to do it on the table, and if they're no good at it they just let massive clumps of cards fall, you can all have a laugh and move on saying well that'll do anyway, but the cards never seem to go astray. Not sure what other shuffles are acceptable, you'd have to experiment.

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Re: Up The Ante by Martyn Smith

Postby captainsmiffy » Dec 4th, '14, 18:40

Guys, thank you again for the reviews of of UTA. To answer a question here, yes, the smoosh shuffle will work just fine....I certainly wouldnt do this with an overhand shuffle as was suggested. I dont believe that it would work. The beauty of this routine, as has already been pointed out, is that it is bullet proof even with the gashest of riffle shuffles.

Hope that you all have a lot of fun with this routine,

Best, martyn

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