Module 3- Part 8: The great and powerful Half Stack…
Benji
The great and powerful Half Stack…
Let me introduce you to a concept that will fast become a staple in your memorized deck arsenal.
The Half Stack.
Simply put, a half stack is pretty much exactly what it sounds like—a deck where one of the halves is stacked, and the other half isn’t.
What’s the advantage of this?
Well, here’s a BIG one straight out the gate.
There’s a solid half of the deck that you can genuinely shuffle (or even let the spectators shuffle!)
You can perform an overhand shuffle but make sure you only genuinely shuffle half the cards—but that’s more than enough to provide the image of a real genuine mix.
Or consider this:
Shuffle the non-stacked half genuinely. You could even hand that half to the spectator and let them shuffle as you false shuffle the half stack. Then swap halves and ask them to ‘cut and complete’ as you do the same, before taking the cards back. All you now need to do is cut the half stack so you’re back in your starting position, and not a card of your stack has been displaced—even though the spectator will remember that THEY ‘shuffled and cut’ the deck.
Now, you may be starting to see the benefits of using a half stack.
But you may also be thinking that using a half stack has a major downside—that since you’re only using half the stack, you can only perform half the effects.
That simply isn’t the case.
Sure, there’s a certain amount of effects that DO rely on the full stack to work.
But there’s also a HUGE number of effects that you CAN do using half the stack.
(In fact, nearly half of Juan Tamariz’ Mnemonica is based purely on ideas using the half stack.)
Here’s a super simple idea:
Perform the shuffling procedure described above. Hold a break between the two halves. Now spread the cards and let a spectator freely select any card. Really stress the freedom of their choice at this point.
NOTE: Did you remember to ask them if they want to change their mind?
You did?
Great.
At this point, you want to notice if they remove the card from the stacked half or the non-stacked half.
Now have them return the card to the deck.
If they removed the card from the stacked half, they really can return it anywhere in the deck, as long as the exact spot is a different spot to where they removed it from.
If they removed the card from the non-stacked half, make sure you only spread the top half of the deck as you ask them to return it.
Once they do, you’ll instantly be able to find their card (even after cutting the deck.)
Consider this:
If they picked a card from the stacked half and placed that card back somewhere else within the stacked half, you’ll be able to spread through the cards and see where there’s a card missing from your stack order—and once you see that gap, you know which card you’re looking for.
If they picked a card from the stacked half and placed it in the unstacked half, you’ll soon spot that too—there’ll be a gap in your stack order, and the associated card inside the non-stacked half.
If they picked a card from the non-stacked half, you made sure they returned it to the stacked half. Now you can spread through the stacked half and you’ll soon one card in that half that doesn’t belong to the stack order—that’s their chosen card.
Now consider this:
What if you could do the very same effect, but immediately after letting them return the card, hand them cards to shuffle?
Here’s how that would work:
This time, make sure that whichever half they remove the card from, they return it to the opposite half (if they take from the stack, make sure it’s replaced in non-stacked half—and vice versa.)
Once you’ve done that, you can split the deck in two and hand one of the halves to the spectator, keeping the other half for yourself. You can shuffle your half genuinely, and they can shuffle their half. Then you can swap halves and do the same thing.
Despite this, you’ll still be able to find their card easily.
Why?
The key thing is that the two halves haven’t been shuffled with each other.
So if they picked a card from the stacked half and you had them return it to the non-stacked half, that non-stacked half will always contain 26 non-stack cards and ONE stack card. It doesn’t matter how much that non-stacked half is shuffled, it’s always going to contain 26 non-stack cards and ONE stack card.
Likewise, if they select a card from the non-stacked half and replace it in the stacked half, no matter how much you shuffle the stacked half, you’ll always have 26 stack cards and ONE non-stack card.
So you can shuffle both these halves as much as you like, ensuring that the halves aren’t shuffled with each other by splitting the deck in two and swapping with the spectator.
When you combine this with the shuffling procedure we outlined at the beginning, you start to see how this can be so powerful.
But that’s just the beginning.
Using a half stack, you can also perform some of the routines we’ve already discussed—for example, weighing the cards.
As long as they cut off less than half the cards (and you can ensure this by telling them “cut a few cards off…maybe less than half, so it doesn’t take so long to count…”) we’ll be able to perform the same procedure: glimpse the bottom card and reveal how many cards they cut off.
But let’s see if we can’t take it one step further:
The ‘Quarter Stack.’
What’s a quarter stack?
That, my pretty, is a group 13 cards in their memorized order.
(aka a quarter of the stack)
This might SEEM a little ‘ridiculous’ now, but consider this:
Using a quarter stack, you can hand out a full three-quarters of the deck to be shuffled (or you can genuinely shuffle three-quarters of the deck cleanly and clearly)
And you can still do an awful lot with just 13 memorized cards.
For example, if you’ve always struggled with the classic force, here’s something you should like, that I call ‘25%’…
Cut the 13 memorized cards to the middle of the deck, holding a break below them. Now you can spread the deck and attempt a classic force—but you have a 13 card ‘margin for error.’
It’s like the classic force on ‘easy mode.’
Once they select a card, we can cut at the point they selected and then glimpse the bottom card to learn their selection.
Or how about this:
Let them pick a card using the ‘easy’ classic force above. Then have them replace it anywhere else in the deck. You can now cut the cards, spread through the deck, and instantly spot their card—it’ll be the one card missing from your memorized 13.
I think this idea—the Quarter Stack—is woefully underused in card magic.
The only time I’ve seen someone really put it to good use is Pit Hartling, in his book Card Fictions. Check out the routine called ‘Unforgettable’ and tell me that’s not a genius idea using a quarter stack.
Here’s one final idea that’s not ‘technically’ a half stack or quarter stack, but bears some resemblance:
If you start in stack, you can hand out 4 groups of 13 cards to 4 members of the audience. Those spectators can shuffle those cards to their heart’s delight, but when you take the packets back—you’ll still have a respectable degree of influence over the cards.
How?
Well, each audience member has ONLY shuffled the 13 cards in their packet.
Actually, let’s call these ‘Quadrants’.
Each audience member got one Quadrant.
Spectator 1 got Quadrant 1 (cards 1 – 13 in your memorized order.)
Spectator 2 got Quadrant 2 (cards 14 – 26 in your memorized order.)
Spectator 3 got Quadrant 3 (cards 27 – 39 in your memorized order.)
Spectator 4 got Quadrant 4 (cards 40 – 52 in your memorized order.)
Each spectator can shuffle as much as they like but at the end of it all:
Spectator 1 still has cards 1 – 13 (just in a random order.)
Spectator 2 still has cards 14 – 26 (in a random order.)
Spectator 3 still has cards 27 – 39 (in a random order.)
Spectator 4 still has cards 40 – 52 (in a random order.)
Now, we can ask each spectator to select ONE card from their packet, remember it, and then swap their card with a fellow spectator.
Here’s what happens:
Spectator 1 gives a card within the range 1 – 13 to spectator 2’s pile (14 – 26.)
Spectator 2 gives a card within the range 14 – 26 to spectator 3’s pile (27 – 39.)
Spectator 3 gives a card within the range 27 – 39 to spectator 4’s pile (40 – 52.)
Spectator 4 gives a card within the range 40 – 52 to spectator 1’s pile (1 – 13.)
Now you can tell each spectator to shuffle their packets again.
When you take the piles back, each quadrant will have ONE card that doesn’t belong. You can look through them, identity the one card that doesn’t belong to that quadrant and then identify who picked that card.
Here’s one example:
Let’s say you pick up the first pile and see the following cards:
2H, 4H, AS, 6D, QH, QC, 7H, 3D, 4C, 7D, 5H, 9S, 2S, 3C.
Of those cards, 13 of them are the first 13 cards of our stack (4C through QC.)
One card most definitely ISN’T—the 7H.
We know the 7H is the card out of place.
Now, consider the position of the 7H in the stack. The 7H is the 41st card. Therefore, we know it must have came from the 4th spectator’s pile (they have cards 40 – 52.)
Even if the spectators swap in different ways (i.e spectator 2 swaps with 4, etc.), the result is always the same: each quadrant will have ONE card that doesn’t belong. That card will belong a different quadrant. Whichever quadrant it belongs to—it’s that spectator’s card.
This means we could even have the spectator swap cards behind our back—the card itself tells us who it came from!
Note: since your cards are still in their respective quadrants, you could even reassemble your stack as you do this. Start with spectator 1’s pile and eliminate each card the selection ISN’T one by one—in stack order.
“This isn’t your card…” placing the 4C face up on the table.
“Neither’s this…” placing the 2H face up on top of it.
And so on.
If you think this will slow your handling down to the point it’s not worth it, that’s fine. You’d need to find a presentation that justifies it and keeps it engaging.
Anyway, just an idea to play with.
NOTE: I would also encourage you to, as we go through the other effects and ideas within this course, to be thinking about whether you can accomplish them with a half stack. Often you won’t be able to—but often, you will. And when you do, you can instantly ‘upgrade’ the power of the routine by truly shuffling half the deck prior to the effect, using the ruses described in this section.
NOTE: Other places to go for half stack goodies…
Mnemonica.
Memorandum.
Alright.
Now let’s talk about what to do if your spectator does the unthinkable and ‘actually’ shuffles the cards…