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Title: The Art of Cheating at Cards (Vol 1 of 2)
Author: Simon Lovell
Published: L&L Publishing, CA (USA)
Price: $29.99US
Format: VHS and available in PAL. Not available on DVD at present.
Recording Quality: Fair
Difficulty (1-5): 4 – some moves require much practice to become proficient.

This video was given to me as a Father's day gift and since my preferred magic medium is cards I couldn't wait to pop it in and watch. I have to admit, however, I was somewhat disappointed in both the production quality and the learning value of this video. Though touted to reveal scams, cons, and gambling cheats, this video is truly nothing more than a collection of somewhat basic card control techniques that any (even most beginning) card mechanics would know. And while I understand that the techniques used by magicians to control cards closely parallel the moves of chard sharks, I saw nothing on this video that I couldn't have picked up by reading a good card magic book (recommend "Expert Card Technique: Close Up Table Magic" by Hugard and Braue.)

Topics included in this volume are:
1. Second Dealing
2. Bottom Dealing
3. Peaking the Bubble
4. The Iron Man (pre-stacking the deck)
5. Controlling the Shuffle
6. Cheating the Cut.
7. Using a Partner
8. The Brush
9. The Spread
10. Mucking (card switches/palms)
11. Running the Slug

Finally, the production quality of this video is not very good. Outside of looking like it was filmed in someone's garage, Mr. Lovell didn't appear very relaxed and even screwed up several times when demonstrating a move! When demonstrating how to deal seconds, for example, his hand slid off the card prior to pulling it completely from the deck making it very obvious to anyone what he was doing! I know that we all make mistakes, but couldn't that scene have been edited?

Overall I'd give this video a 2 (1-5 scale.) In my opinion, you would do much better with Jeff McBride's series on card manipulation