Mismate routine gets ‘suped-up’ with a Pit Hartling idea…
Today’s effect is a variation on one that I sent you earlier this week.
If you haven’t read that one, go do that here.
Done?
You’re the best.
Let’s get into it…
Here’s the idea:
It occurred to me that you might be able to get an even cleaner effect using Pit Hartling’s Quartets idea…
(if you aren’t familiar with Quartets, click here.)
I explain this idea in depth in Module 5 of the Skyscraper Method, but for the uninitiated, the idea is that you know the exact distance between each and any four of a kind in the deck (i.e you know the distance between the 2H, 2S, 2D, and 2C.)
Equipped with that knowledge, here’s what I suggest.
False shuffle. Let the spectator cut the deck a few times.
This time, we don’t need to glimpse the bottom card.
Instead, we proceed to the double lift. Just double lift the top card, saying ‘you cut to this card’ (which is also true).
Once we see the face of the double, we know the card above it that’s hidden (it’s simply the card that comes before it in the stack. I.e if the double lift displays the 3D, you know the top card is really the QH.)
You now display the double just like in yesterday’s routine. Then, rather than placing the card in the center of the deck, you place it on the table by turning over the double and placing the single card (the QH) on the table. We’re going to place this in the deck later, but we have an important item of business to clean up first…
We’re left in a similar position to yesterday’s effect, with one major caveat:
The ‘mate’ of the selected card isn’t on the bottom.
However, thanks to your mastery of the Quartets, you know exactly where it IS.
If the card on top was actually the QH, we know the QD is 17 cards up from the bottom of the deck.
Whoaaaaa, nelly.
Slow down.
How do we know that?
Well, the Quartet for the Queens (in Tamariz stack) is Diamonds – 2, 15, 2.
All that means is that we’re STARTING our count from the QD. So from the QD, it’s 2 cards until the next Queen (QS) then 15 cards until the next Queen (QH) then 2 cards to the next Queen (QC).
Since we’re starting from the Queen of HEARTS, and trying to find the Queen of DIAMONDS, we just take that knowledge and reverse it.
We know that the QH is 15 cards after the QS, which means that if the QH is on top, the QS is 15 cards up from the face of the deck. And since we know the QS is 2 cards after the QD, we know the QD is 15 + 2 cards up (17.)
So if the QH is on top, the QD (its mate) is 17 cards up.
Phew. Thanks for sticking with me there.
If you still don’t quite get it, try going through what I just outlined with the cards in hand.
Now that we know it’s 17 cards up, we’re going to count those 17 via a spread starting at the bottom (using a 3-2-3-2 count – pushing off 3, then 2, then 3, then 2 instead of counting them one by one up to 10) and catch a break beneath the 17th card up – the QD.
The motivation for this?
We could spread the cards as we ask them “Where shall I put your card? Perhaps here? Or here?…”
It doesn’t matter where they tell us to insert the card, all we care about is catching the break. For that reason, I’d make sure you count to 17 and THEN ask to prevent them from telling you prematurely.
We can now cull it under the spread, inserting it at the bottom so we can proceed as in the original routine. Or, if you’d rather not cull, we could simply separate our hands at the break and then bring them back together, placing the left hand packet on top. This would cut the QD to the bottom. Of course, to do this we’d first need to have tabled the double (or displayed the double and tabled the single.)
Now we insert the selected card (that we displayed as a double) into the deck, leaving it outjogged, leaving us in a position to perform the rest of the routine as usual.
It’s harder, for sure, but slightly more direct and some might say cleaner (no glimpses needed.)
Maybe I’m giving us extra work for no reason.
Let me know which version you prefer.
Benji