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Last night whilst I was watching TV (and practicing various sleights) I found myself staring at the three of hearts and I realised that two of the hearts faced one way whilst the third was upside down. I went through the rest of the pack and found there were quite a few that were designed in this way (for example the six of clubs has four clubs facing one way and two facing the other way). I'd never really paid the spots that much attention before.

I must add that I'm using 'bikes' but I assume other pack of cards are the same.

I quicky gathered these cards together and put them so that the larger number of spots were at the front of the pack and got my wife to select a card and look at it. Whilst she was looking at it I turned the small pack around and then handed it to her and asked her to put the card back into the pack somewhere. She then shuffled them. She was amazed after I had thumbed through the cards and was able to announce which one she had chosen.

I'm sure many of you must have discovered this yourselves but I thought I'd share it with those of you who haven't. I'm damn pleased with myself for spotting it and realising the potential use.

Another thing I noticed whilst I was staring at the three of hearts was that the hearts themselves aren't symetrical. The left side is slightly convex and the right side slightly concave. Doesn't have any bearing on anything....just something else I noticed (damn last nights TV was cr*p)

This is an old and very useful principle.

If your interested, Giobbi does some work with it in Card College Lite.

Also, take a look at the queens... in a regular deck, they all face one way, except the queen of spades

Strep wrote:I quicky gathered these cards together and put them so that the larger number of spots were at the front of the pack and got my wife to select a card and look at it. Whilst she was looking at it I turned the small pack around and then handed it to her and asked her to put the card back into the pack somewhere. She then shuffled them. She was amazed after I had thumbed through the cards and was able to announce which one she had chosen.

I cover these so-called "marker cards" (there are 22 of them, in fact) in some depth in m'lovely book "THE STRIPPER DECK", including using them in an effect that doubles the reach of one aspect of the stripper principle.

I see things haven't changed much around here. Exposure quickly followed by blatant self promotion.

For the avoidance of doubt, my tongue is firmly in my cheek.

If I've exposed something that I shouldn't have please feel free to delete my post or move it to another forum.

As I discovered this principle for myself (although didn't for one second think that I was the first) I thought it would be ok to share it.

pdjamez wrote:I see things haven't changed much around here. Exposure quickly followed by blatant self promotion.

For the avoidance of doubt, my tongue is firmly in my cheek.

Oooh, you cheeky fing, you!

Strep, relax I was prodding Seige and Tomo. Siege is a moderator so if he had felt it was exposure your post would already be removed.

As for you Tomo, well ... no-one is going to blow that trumpet for you.
I see you got some good reviews for your publications. Shame I don't do stripper work.

Perhaps I should rephrase that last statement.

I'm sure I know what you're insinuating as 'exposure', but really—is it?

(comes back here with his boots all shiny and starts pushing us around like puppy dawgs... dang! )

right I'm off, see ya in three months time.

Also, take a look at the queens... in a regular deck, they all face one way, except the queen of spades

There's the same thing going on with the other court cards - this doesn't make them one way though. Not to say Siege's observation is without merit (22 + 4 looking right = 26 ).

Bear in mind strep the Jokers are one way in addition to the 22.