Push Through Riffle

Apr 3, 2019
64
19
The push through false riffle is a move I've found myself do a lot over the last couple of weeks, don't know why. But, how do you make the strip out, and what do you think is the best? I see Richard Turner do the pushing action almost painfully slow, and he does the riffle twice, before sending with a cut, to follow standard casino procedure, but the push through send very obvious to me. Jason England does it a little faster, but ridiculously invisibly, you see nothing even from over the shoulder, and he airs out the cards a little before giving the cut. Steve Forte, on the other hand, does it very very quickly. He pushes the packets together, and as soon as he feels the push through he does the cut, making it seem the point of the push through is the cut, as all this is done in barely a second. Which is the better handling, and, more importantly, in what circumstances? (I find myself inclined to do it the way Steve does, as it barely gives any space for flashing, and generally just seems rather innocent and seems to feel right to me.)
 
Nov 3, 2018
542
427
I absolutely love Steve Forte's push-through myself, it's so incredibly quick and clean; on it's own, I wouldn't suspect a thing. But I think there are two (sort-of) cons: 1. If you look closely, when he pushes the packets together, at one moment they're about halfway together -- and in the next moment he already cuts. There's no actual "squaring" action which you might look for. Done with the speed he does it with you hardly notice it, but this brings me to 2.: In the 52 section of the GPS he does the push-through after two fair shuffles. Though I was amazed by how good his push-through looked, I noticed it immediately, because it was so fast, far quicker than his normal ones. Also, I think to get his technique to look as good as his push-through does, you have to do it in his incredibly quick tempo.

I don't know whether there is a "best" way of doing the move; there are pros and cons for everything. You want to make the push-throug action invisible, but the best way to do this is with speed. Now you have to be careful that your push-through shuffle doesn't look too "clean" when compared to your regular shuffle. You have to find the balance. If you ever find a perfect push-through shuffle, let me know!

As for general tips (sorry, I'm kind of writing a book here): There are two main points for tells in the push-through: The push-through action itself and the "cutting" action. The latter tell can be minimized by speed and by giving the cards a little "air".
The former is usually the most obvious tell if you know what to look for: Many people do everything from the wrist when pushing the cards through, and (when looking on from above) the arms and hands almost form a sort of "X" shape, with the wrists as the middle point. This can be minimized by doing this action with the fingers only (in most cases the ring finger, depending on how you handle the cards). Steve Forte does this beautifully, and this (plus speed) makes the push-through action just about invisible. If haven't already, watch this section of GPS (Volume 1, about 10 minutes in) as slowly as your device lets you.

If you're looking for a good full-deck false shuffle, you should take a look at the strip-out shuffle, as well. The advantage of this shuffle is that it eliminates the tell that can occur during the push-through action.
In the YouTube video "Rod the Hop - Shuffle Sequence" you can see this legend demonstrate a full deck control using this shuffle. I myself learned it from Daniel Madison's How To Cheat At Cards (now: How To Cheat At Poker).

And finally, take all this with a grain of salt. I haven't been at this for too long (about a year now), and though I try to learn about this topic as possible, I still feel a bit like a newbie.

Thanks for reading this essay, sorry it got so long!
Best of luck to you!

PS: I don't own Jason England's tutorial on the push-through. Is it worth getting?
 
Apr 3, 2019
64
19
I absolutely love Steve Forte's push-through myself, it's so incredibly quick and clean; on it's own, I wouldn't suspect a thing. But I think there are two (sort-of) cons: 1. If you look closely, when he pushes the packets together, at one moment they're about halfway together -- and in the next moment he already cuts. There's no actual "squaring" action which you might look for. Done with the speed he does it with you hardly notice it, but this brings me to 2.: In the 52 section of the GPS he does the push-through after two fair shuffles. Though I was amazed by how good his push-through looked, I noticed it immediately, because it was so fast, far quicker than his normal ones. Also, I think to get his technique to look as good as his push-through does, you have to do it in his incredibly quick tempo.

I don't know whether there is a "best" way of doing the move; there are pros and cons for everything. You want to make the push-throug action invisible, but the best way to do this is with speed. Now you have to be careful that your push-through shuffle doesn't look too "clean" when compared to your regular shuffle. You have to find the balance. If you ever find a perfect push-through shuffle, let me know!

As for general tips (sorry, I'm kind of writing a book here): There are two main points for tells in the push-through: The push-through action itself and the "cutting" action. The latter tell can be minimized by speed and by giving the cards a little "air".
The former is usually the most obvious tell if you know what to look for: Many people do everything from the wrist when pushing the cards through, and (when looking on from above) the arms and hands almost form a sort of "X" shape, with the wrists as the middle point. This can be minimized by doing this action with the fingers only (in most cases the ring finger, depending on how you handle the cards). Steve Forte does this beautifully, and this (plus speed) makes the push-through action just about invisible. If haven't already, watch this section of GPS (Volume 1, about 10 minutes in) as slowly as your device lets you.

If you're looking for a good full-deck false shuffle, you should take a look at the strip-out shuffle, as well. The advantage of this shuffle is that it eliminates the tell that can occur during the push-through action.
In the YouTube video "Rod the Hop - Shuffle Sequence" you can see this legend demonstrate a full deck control using this shuffle. I myself learned it from Daniel Madison's How To Cheat At Cards (now: How To Cheat At Poker).

And finally, take all this with a grain of salt. I haven't been at this for too long (about a year now), and though I try to learn about this topic as possible, I still feel a bit like a newbie.

Thanks for reading this essay, sorry it got so long!
Best of luck to you!

PS: I don't own Jason England's tutorial on the push-through. Is it worth getting?
Thanks! I'm a newbie too, not even a year. I guess the main objective, as always, is to hide discrepancies between normal and fake shuffles. And though I don't have Jason's download (yet), I think anything by him is worth getting. Thanks again!
 
Nov 3, 2018
542
427
I guess the main objective, as always, is to hide discrepancies between normal and fake shuffles.

That's true. And one very important thing to remember: Yes, it's true that the true and the false thing should look the same; this means that the false should be made to look like the true, not that all true (shuffles, deals, whatever) should look false! This is something you stumble over from time to time as well.

Glad I could help! If I may ask, do you want to use the push-through for magic purposes, or are you interested in gambling sleights overall?
 
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