Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Erdnase was a swinger?


Topic of the day is Blind Cuts- To Retain Bottom Stock- Top Losing One Card

There has been a lot of debate on this technique, and many have dismissed it as obsolete in it’s entirety. I’d just like you to give it a fair shake before tossing it curbside.


The picture is what kills the technique. It’s easy to look at the figure and think this cut is garbage.




Now, Erdnase says to raise the deck “slightly” off the table. Seeing the figure we would assume that it’s several inches, but let’s try focusing more on the text as oppose to Marshall D Smith's interpretation of a millisecond in time. How much does slightly mean? Erdnase is specific to 1/8 of an inch in other parts of the book (who can tell me where?) so hypothetically we could even assume he means less then that, to the point where being specific isn’t practical.


Just something to think about, let’s get into the meat and potatoes of this post.


What I want you to think about is the following line:


Immediately drop the left-hand packet on the table and bring the right-hand packet down on top with a slight swing”


What does Erdnase mean by swing? Does he mean just slapping the packet on top? What direction should the packet be swung? Realistically that could make a big difference in covering the action of the left hand, even if it is a foot off the table.


Some different swings:


4 comments:

awhan said...

the third one looked the best .... i too dismissed the cut as the slipping of the top card was my weakspot but now i think that by tilting the deck a tad bit forward ( i.e by raising the back end slightly off the table) one can get better results...

BrainUndead said...

To Hold the Location of Cut While Dealing. Line 24. (Page 97 in "Bible" edition, 56 in Dover)

Thanks for the examples, I am studying cuts right now and this definitely helps me understand the way this one works.

I don't believe Erdnase necessarily left out the good stuff, as many would assume and use this cut as evidence. I think that he lived in a time where people worked out things on their own... they used an idea as a spark and made that essence work the best way they could develop.

I think if we looked at Erdnase from an "idea" perspective rather than step by step it would save us a lot of frustration. And perhaps something like this was just so obvious he didn't think it was necessary to explain it...

Anonymous said...

I've been doing this cut coming out of the front of the deck, similar to a the run cut. Instead of coming up and over the deck, I, holding the bottom half of the deck and securing the top card with the left hand, pull the top half of the deck, minus the top card, directly forward at to the right, then pulling it straight back and putting it on top of the deck. Only pulling the deck out far enough to clear the top card.

J. Wessmiller said...

Some excellent ideas here. It's great to see the creative juices flowing and reading different interpretations of the text and how to make it look good.