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The easiest way to get in your stacked order is to stack it manual when your are at home.
Sort your cards calmly and that's it.

It is no problem to have a shuffled deck in view first and switch a stack in.
Having a surrogate deck in your pocket is always anyhow a good idea when you want to work with a stacked deck.

Learn something about deck-switches an you will have no problems.

Alan Rorrison showed me a memorised deck that uses the bicycle playing card box as a memory aid. I'm not sure if that is in print or even if is it his own method, but it was pretty sweet.

Richard Osterlind's stack is fantastic but it involves performing mental arithmetic to be able to use it. I was never very quick at doing sums (spot the calculator era child!) so it isn't particularly useful to me. I found myself having to stop and take time out to think things through during performance and that can never look good from a spectators perspective. Didn't work for me, but it may work well for you.

I liked the 8 Kings and Si Stebbins stacks as they are very light on memory work but they both have a "red-black-red-black-red-black" colour order going on so the deck can't be examined or ribbon spread on a table. I created my own stack to get round all these issues, but I haven't made it publicly available although I may do at some point.

"Si Stebbins Pro" also solves these issues whilst remaining light on memory work. I struggled to find a copy in English at the time I got mine, but I was able to translate a german copy. There probably is an English copy available these days though.

jeenious wrote:"Si Stebbins Pro" also solves these issues whilst remaining light on memory work. I struggled to find a copy in English at the time I got mine, but I was able to translate a german copy. There probably is an English copy available these days though.

Click!

Cheers
Th.

Lenoir wrote:Darwin Ortiz's advice is stop worrying. He, and several others, just shuffled a deck and memorized it.

I am writing a book about the MD and my conclusion is the same as Darwin Oertiz's. It does not matter whicj stack you learn, but learn one.

So I find the above quote about Ortiz very interesting. My question is: where is the source of that information?
On a DVD or a book from Ortiz?

Many Thanks

Ultimately, the important thing is to memorize a deck, but that doesn't mean it's not worth building in some extra features, like putting cards that people tend to name (queen of hearts, seven of diamonds etc) at their 'spell-to' position, for example.

Oh, and surely it's far better to memorize a deck that's easy to set up than a random deck.

I'm currently practicing Steven Youell's Hacker Stack. It is primarily based in Si stebbins, but done in a memorized order. So in the end, it's a cyclical memorized deck. You would know the exact location of any card just by looking at the key.

The truth to the matter is that all you need to know is one that you like. Some people swear by The Aronson stack and others swear by Mnemonica. So it's really up to you.

They are all pretty much easy depending on your style and how much work you are willing to do. Tho for me after working with the Tamariz stack all I can remember is the first 3-5 cards and the last 5-6 cards... The rest is either blurry or wrong.

The Devil's Tailor wrote:Oh, and surely it's far better to memorize a deck that's easy to set up than a random deck.

I agree.

I learnt the Nikola stack from Encyclopaedia of Card Tricks, but found setting up the stack a real drag. I put it down for a year, and then learnt the Mnemonica stack instead. I love the ability to faro shuffle into the stack order pretty much in front of other people. Sometimes with their deck.

I recently realised that I pretty much only use the stack to perform card divination effects, and that they could just as well be done with a Stebbins stack as a memorized one, but the benefits of the more random-seeming set-up and the ability to get into stack with ease certainly pay for the effort of learning it.

Although you could use the Ortiz method of getting into Stebbins from a new deck!

Shush.

I confess to only ever using the Si Stebbins stack, but....it works, so i feel no need to employ another one.

Anyone who feels the spectator may notice the suits cycle round or see a pattern numerically, are the same who worry that their ID deck will be discovered if they use the usual method.

Since the question is ' What is the best stacked deck to memorise ', i'd say its whatever is the easiest to memorise, and for me it's the Stebbins stack.

I'll start off by saying I've only been working on full-deck tricks since mid December, mentalism for a few weeks, cups and balls for 5 weeks and had a nice 3-card trick (not a monte type thing) on the go since November.
In short, I'm very much a beginner.

I'm terrible at mental arithmetic. No matter what I tried, I could never remember my times tables at school, I frequently switch numbers around (I'll read 251 as 521, for example) and generally struggle (strange considering I did A-Level maths!).

While you set up the Si Stebbins stack, you go through the pattern so many times that after a couple of practice runs, you'll be at a point where you could technically perform it (of course, the presentation takes more polish, but still). Handled properly - and that's no challenge - it's instant-reset and always ready to go.

Anyway.
I've got a deck set up as Si Stebbins and it's always in my pocket. I've got a routine where I can twice "read" a chosen card while the spec concentrates on it - with a different approach that could go up to 3 or more reads - and I'm working on an extension where they "read" a card of my choosing with the option of going to a Brainwave deck as backup or an add on depending on how well I can perform the transmission bit.

As for people spotting the stack...
My girlfriend is my crash-test-dummy for my magic tricks. When I used the Si Stebbins deck on her she got me to repeat the basic trick something like 8 times on the trot. Each time I did the effect, I spread the cards, used the same moves, took the same glimpse and she couldn't see what was going on.
In the past she's sussed moves in one or two run-throughs, told me where I was flashing palms and so on... this one had her. She's no magician, doesn't want to know how the tricks work but also knows there's something to it.
Oh, she knows about glimpses too. When she was a nipper she learned a trick that uses one and has busted me glimpsing on another effect.

If my girlfriend, a girl who can shuffle, turn down and memorise an entire deck of cards, can't see the stack, I'd be confident spreading the cards in front of anyone.

Yes, the Stebbins stack goes Red Black Red Black all the way through, but to be brutally honest, I don't think real people (as opposed to the kind of nutters, me included, who spend half their free time learning to pretend to have magical powers ) really pay that much attention. Not even people who know you're up to something and want to catch you. If you're worried, don't leave the spread out there for a 5 minute inspection, just show there's a full set of cards and they'll be happy. I don't say anything, just spread and show the cards. If they think you're memorising the order or something, false shuffle and do the trick without a spread.

A while back I saw a thread where someone said "don't run when you're not being chased"... a point worth keeping in mind here.
When I get around to it, I'll probably learn a deck-switch of some sort so if someone does spot the stack and asks to shuffle it I'll hand them another deck, get them to shuffle it and switch the stacked one back in after. I'm in no hurry to learn that though.

So in summary, I'd suggest setting up a Si Stebbins deck and having a play with it. It'll take you about 5 minutes to set it up from a shuffled deck, quicker from a new one, and have enough dry runs to be able to use it.
Used as a "spec picks a card and you tell them what it is" thing there's really no great feat of memory involved. You just glimpse, employ the incredibly simple system and you've got it. For memorising the positions of cards it will take a bit more effort, I imagine, but noone but the most eagle-eyed of people will spot that the deck is stacked if you spread them face up as you start the effect.

I dunno if this post will help matters, as in some ways I've just repeated what others have said, but maybe the inept handling of new effects my signature alludes to combined with the success I had on first my run through with someone who knows what glimpses are and that I really don't have magical powers will add a bit of context.

All the best.

What a wonderful post. I feel like I know you now.

Don't be surprised if we all pop round for a cup of tea.