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I am doing some work on my double undercut at the moment because it looks untidy. I haven't used it very much so have not given it sufficient practice. I learned the technique from Royal Road and have not seen it taught.

I have a couple of problems. Firstly my untidiness is around the front of the deck at the halfway point, after the first cut. It looks in the mirror as though it is obvious what is going on at the back of the deck. That is possibly just more practice needed or it might be caused by my second problem.

That is that I have relatively small hands and I find that I need to take quite a small packet for the first cut otherwise I am in danger of spilling cards. Is this anyone elses experience and does it look odd taking a small packet?

(I have re-read all of this and am not sure if my explanation of the problem is very clear. But I can't think of a better explanation that doesn't reveal anything!)

You may find it helps to move both your index and your middle finger away from the deck (so it's only gripped by the thumb and ring finger) as the cards are placed on the top of the deck.

Also, don't see it as two separate cuts. As the first packet goes on the top of the deck your little finger should be finding the break in the same action so that the second packet is cut in one smooth motion. Just make it all blend together as a quick couple of cuts. Keep it moving is the answer.

It is just practice to make the action smooth. I have small hands too but it really shouldn't make much difference to a double-undercut.

Post a vid if you can.

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic12049. ... d+undercut

the beautiful 'search' function...

Find my post on tabling the second cut in that thread... works for me and lets it look tidy.

Thanks for the advice. Don't know how I missed the thread Siege, I have read it now. I will try tabling and the lighter grip tonight.

This is another of the things I can do whilst watching television. I find that pracrtising and viewing at the same time is a great way to stop me looking at the deck during the sleight.

Tabling the cut has taken all of the untidiness out of the move. Thanks for the tip.

I'm a righty so this is how i handle my deck with my right hand for the double undercut:

hand grips deck from top.
thumb on back to hold whatever it is you want to hold
pinky on top end of right long margin
middle and ring on left end of top shor margin
index either pressing on top of deck to hide whatever you're holding with your thumb or do whatever fancy moves u want to do (i.e. point, misdirect, dig nose, scratch face, etc)

you will find that thumb, pinky and ring will be sufficient to hold the deck in place. index and middle cna be used to square up the deck if it's untidy.

like what Charles Calthrop said, a smooth continuous motion will make it looks good. getting another pack from under while placing first pack on top certainly makes a nice move. also, i tend to do more than two cuts if the stuff I'm holding with my thumb is pretty high up.

oh yeah, once you're smooth with that you might want to consider making a few more cuts down, up etc. it's mighty confusing and looks very fair. it's possible to do many many cuts up and down while still controlling whatever you want to control. not only that, the whole deck will remain in stacked order.

pm me if u want more pointers. be happy to help.

hope that's useful!