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Without wanting to have poll here and mistakenly omit a bunch of useful forces, I wanted to gather some info of which ones you all use the most and which ones you're scared of...

Personally, I use the bottom glide force and riffle force (thumb or pinky break) a lot and am terrified to use the cross-cut force however I've never once been caught with it, whereas the riffle force has gotten me into trouble a few times (probably bad timing on my part).

Thanks

I'm probably breaking with tradition here but I've never been a great fan of the riffle force. I find that it needs impeccable timing and skills to look perfectly convincing. I have gotten away with it but I've never liked it much. Why use an alright force when you can use a much better one?

My current favourite is the spread cull force which looks similar to the Classic force except that any card can be touched and yet a card can be forced. Very good force.

Cross cut is a very good one to use when you want the illusion of non-interference on the part of the magician. There are a couple of subtleties for it, the best one (can't remember where I got it) being to place something on top of the deck once it has been cut. It makes it look very very convincing. Note: don't be worried about using the cross-cut force. People really are that, er, thick?

Another favourite of mine is the Bottom Bluff force from Smoke and Mirrors. It's a force from the same genre as the cross-cut (i.e. obvious but fools everybody) and is just so fun to do. It even works on magicians who haven't read Smoke and Mirrors!

Those two (three) are probably the only forces I use. They work quite well for anything I need to do

Kati

Most people don't really like it because it is hard to master, but I love the Classic Forse. It is probably the forse that generates the least suspicion and makes the spectator think that they have a totally free choise. But I also often use certain forses that involve cuts and slide-outs.

I used to use the riffle force all the time but sometimes found it to be noticable on the rare occasions when a spectator chooses to stop at the top or right at the bottom or the riffled deck.
Personally I now use the slip cut force which seems to work very well or if I'm feeling brave and have a back up I give the classic force a shot but still haven't quite got the timing down. I get it about 20% of the time but the percentage is rising slowly.

...im quite fond of the cut-deeper force for some reason...i like the pretence of the 'randomness' of them doing it all...

for anyone interested i'll heartily recommend Lewis Jones's new book on forces - and theo annemann's 202 forces book too....

I use riffle mostly, sometimes the classic. I kinda like the cross-force, have done it a couple of times. Evry' who has one the Daniel Garcia project knows the CAAN trick card anywhere any number.... Thats a good way to force a card to, if u know what I mean.

What I use most is the classic force. Although it is not a 100 % force (especially during a longer performance when people allready know about your skills and some of them try to "catch" you) I am always ready to show a different trick or use a control and a peek. Riffle force, cut deeper force, slip-cut force, bottom glide force and other forces are also good, but not so clean, I think. But it depends on the spectators and how you work with them - with some of them it is possible to use some easy and obvious forces, sometimes you have to use something more deceptive.

i like to hold a break while i sum up my spectators. then i will decide what force i want to use. i feel more confident making the type of force "fit" the situation and i like to talk to people a little first. i will often control the force card for a bit first, perhaps simple injogged over hand shuffles, controlled riffle shuffles etc. i like this because it's so easy and allows me to maintain continuous eye contact with the spectators, chat away to an extent that i give the impression i am paying virtually NO attention to what i am doing with the cards. that (for me anyway) makes almost any simple kind of subsequent force very easy and MOST important... "believable".

The Hindu force works well if done smoothly. I've got a variant which is the force I use most often and even fools some people that know the Hindu force. If anyone's intersted pm me, I came up with it independently but I'm quite sure it's already out there somewhere.

The riffle force is nice, but I tend not to do it to people that I know are rather intelligent, because with some thinking you can figure out this thing can be done (especially if it's not the first trick you do).
I really like the DL force, because it have the same impact of the classic force only much much easier, and leaves you with the chosen card second, so you are even another step ahead.
there is also another force I like which I don't remember the name of, where you let the spectator choose a card, outjog it, and when you give it to him you switch it (I hope I didn't give away too much ).

DL force is very nice. It also lets you force odd-coloured cards if you do a triple...

Kati

Whilst I do use various forces for various reasons I find that I probably know more controls and peaks then I do forces so I often don't bother forcing a card if I only need to know the name of it and not have it be a specific card.

I tend to use the cross cut force most of the time. It's neat, tidy and works every time. It still manages to fool me when I see it and aren't paying enough attention.

yes controls are definately more important. I only use forces when it has to be a specific card.

I tried the Hindu shuffle force on a few people yesterday and no one could understand how I was always naming the right card... maybe I'll use that one more from now on...

I'm not familiar with the "cut-deeper" force and I have never really practised the classic force - that's my homework for the next little while (along with the classic pass!)

I never liked the riffle force either, but then I discovered the backslip force. It is quite similar, but you dont have to worry so much about timing. I have never been caught out with it, but i did pick it up from someone using it on me - he did it very well but for some reason I knew what he had done straight away(maybe it made some noise, I can't remember now).