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This might sounds a bit gay, but when i do that Riffle Shuffle and the waterfall thingy my cards get bent quite a bit.

Any tips?

way to go burger, now they think I'm a complete idiot.

Mr. Burger wrote:way to go burger, now they think I'm a complete idiot.

Well, semi-complete!

Sounds like you are putting too much pressure on the cards. You can do this with only a very light bend on the cards if you get the pressure right from your thumbs. Out of interest, what type of cards are you using? This will make big difference to the amount of wear they can take.

Like all things here, practice makes perfect. Sit down with your cards and systematically change one aspect of the way you do it until it works smoothly without damageing the cards.

just bicycles

I concur with Nickj.

You shouldn't have too much of a problem with Bikes but all cards start to wear from the moment that you take them out of the box.

I find that bikes can take a fair amount of wear and tear...

If I notice I've managed to put a slight bend in the cards, usually a quick bend in the opposite direction is sufficient to take it out...

Having said that, creating a slight bend in the cards is good for some tricks =oP

~Sym~

Yes, I suppose you have to differentiate between a natural bend and a serious one.

Thinking on it now, I seem to recall that when I first learnt the waterfall I had problems with kinking the last few cards. if this is your problem than it can easily be fixed by smoothly releasing the oressure as you water fall since the fewer cards you have left the less pressure you need to hold them in place. I find that the best way to do this is to leave your thumbs the same position throughout but slowly separate the bottoms of the cards in your fingers.

Just before you do the waterfall, how do you get your cards interwoven?

I just wonder if there are alternate methods exept a boring ol' Riffle shuffle.

Interweave by doing a riffle shuffle or Faro shuffle (more advanced). I'm assuming that you know how to riffle having asked the question.

Pressure will depend on how you do your waterfall and as said, you will reduce the pressure as you have fewer cards left in your hands.

I waterfall with the cards facing downwards if I want to hide the card faces having manipulated a card to the bottom but want to give the impression that they are mixed. Otherwise, I waterfall with the faces outwards through habit

PS, Is the Faro and Pharoah shuffle the same? I've seen both but can;t spot any significant difference.

dat8962 wrote:PS, Is the Faro and Pharoah shuffle the same? I've seen both but can;t spot any significant difference.

I've never heard of a Pharoah shuffle. I'm wondering if that's been coined by people who don't know what Faro is (a card game) and so have written it as the nearest word they knew. Where have you seen this term used?

The one handed Pharoah shuffle, as it's called is on the Showoff wth cards DVD by Magic Makers. This is why I asked as I wasn't sure.

Since posting I have noticed that on the cover of the carton it's printed as the one handed Faro shuffle so that now answers the question.

Someone who's not into cards must have edited the on screen titles for the DVD and they have used Pharoah instead of Faro - embarrasing or what?

i was about to ask if it was even possible to do a one handed faro, thats got to be pretty hard.
but by some coincidence i saw a video of one yesterday.
http://www.virtualmagicshow.com/videos/onehandfaro.wmv