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i couldnt get the elmsley down so i bought some roughening fluid and sprayed two cards this helps graetly if you find it hard,

hmm, why do i see myself getting stick for posting this?

You said it!!

There's no short cut for perfecting the Elmsley.

as said above theres no substitute for practice when it comes to sleights of any kind. Picture the scene.. your at a friends house and you rattle off a couple of quick self working effects, a few more friends appear so you try something a litle more ambitious and go for something along the lines of "twisting the aces" but just before you do it someone shouts out... "here do it with my cards!" so then whats your excuse for saying no? "sorry i cant do it with those cos these are special cards? etc etc"

PLUS the fact that using roughing spray will actually lead you to develop bad technique so you'll just have to learn it all over again using ungimmicked cards so all in all id say it would be better to just put in the extra effort and learn it properly

If you do an Elmsley Count with cards sprayed with roughing spray, its not an Elmsley Count! Just more of a......er......Count.......

You remember that dont you? Just counting a number of cards normally? I can vaguely, although i have got into the habit of elmsley counting money now, my dad was none to please when he only got £60 instead of £80!!

Oh yes I call it the "Uncontrolled Curse of the Elmsly" or UCE for short! I have unintentionally elmsly'ed all over the place.......it is an awful habit!

I practice the Elmsley Count all the time. My EC is good but I like to keep it polished. I practice the count w/Bees brand of cards. If I can perfect it using Bees then I know it will fly by the most observant of muggles.

edh

Take three red cards from an old deck and then one old card from a blue deck and then use these to practice your Elmsley, showing all four cards as red. You can then use the same cards showing all four cards as blue using the Flustration count!

cheap but effective.

I find that a lot of people still do it between the indexs and the thumbs... It's a lot easier, and looks much better if you're "putting" so do speak the cards into the dealing position. It looks a lot more natural aswell.

I also find that it's better concealment if you do make an error

Do you feel that the fingertip method looks more natural then ninja? I think that it might, in principal, look fairer but it is nothing like any other count I do so is likely to draw attention even if the move itself is totally unseen.

See I do it in my finger tips........and am totally unable to do it in the hand (dealing position)????? I have always wondered wich is the best method effect wise, and wich one is easier to do

Hey vets, how about some feedback on the finger and palm methods, for both ease, as well as any pros vs. cons of the two methods! I would like to hear some opinions.

You can't really say which one is easier - since it differs from person to person.

Dealing position is easier for me, but I use the fingertip method for Twisting the Aces for ease of handling. The fingertip method lends itself perfectly to that effect.

Other than that, it's more or less interchangeable. Either method can work for any effect.

I think the fingertip version can be slightly more convincing to a layperson, since the cards are handled at the end of the fingers, thus making it look impossible to be making any kind of moves. However, if ANY elmsley count is well executed, it's equally as convincing.

Basically it comes down to your own preference. Whichever one you like and perform well, is the right choice for you.

I basically agree with Demitri. When I first learnt the Elmsley it was the fingertip version and I was totally happy with that until I saw someone do it in their hands and I knew that I had to do that too!

When I first tried it I thought it was impossible, all my fingers got in the way and it was horrible, but I kept at it and developed a method that is almost identical in appearance to the way I would normally count cards from one hand to the other. I now use this methos for every Elmsly I do except in Twisting the Aces because, as Demitri rightly says, the finger tips are the best place to position the cards for the other moves, in fact the other motions give a reason to count at the fingertips that is lacking in other tricks.

As for ease of doing the move, it is like anything else, once you have learnt it you will find it easy, I certainly don't think my in-the-hands version is any harder than the finger tips, and it can actually make lining the cards up a little easier.

For those of you who have access to the MO area you will find some quite long discussions on this, including tutorial videos for a couple of methods from myself and Mog.

nickj wrote:For those of you who have access to the MO area you will find some quite long discussions on this, including tutorial videos for a couple of methods from myself and Mog.

I would love to see these videos, I know the elmsley count but am still not 100% on it... any chance of a link