I could use other methods that are easier, but as Erdnase wrote "There is but one pleasure in life greater than winning, that is, in making the hazard."
I completely understand if you like difficult techniques. For more than a year after starting to practice with cards, I did almost exclusively gambling moves (bottom deal, second deal, false shuffles etc.), without any aim of someday performing (or in any other way using) any of it. Though my focus has shifted quite a bit since then, I still enjoy practicing those moves.
But always remember: The audience doesn't care how difficult the method is. If they see you "do" something, whether it's a basic double lift or a near-perfect bottom deal, the magic's gone for them. So why risk being "caught out" with a difficult method, when a simple method gets to the same goal?
The spectator shuffles and hands the deck back (the magician caps the deck with a favorable hand that they have been holding out) The magician then asks the spectator to make a free choice of how many people are playing the game, and what position they want to sit in. Then the magician shuffles idly (stacking the hand so that the spectator would receive it (or not, depends on the routine)) The magician then freely deals out the hands and reveals the miracle.
This is a nice effect, but it can be made easier, directer and more hard-hitting. I'll send you a PM with suggestions.
I disagree, I find the best gambling demonstrations are ones where the audience gets a true insight into the real sleights used at the card table because I find that's what most people are curious about when they see a gambling demonstration.
Warning: Looking back, this became a lot longer than intended. Please excuse my rambling
That's what you and I enjoy most, because we know a little bit about how it's really done (personally, I really don't like seeing "cheating demontrations" where the magician just had a stacked deck, or does some magic moves that have nothing to do at all with cheating). But you shouldn't forget that the audience doesn't know what we know; most likely, they've never heard of bottom deals, stacking the deck, nullifying the cut or any of that. They don't know what they are, so they don't know what to expect.
What they have, on the other hand, is an image of the card cheater as this slick, quick-witted, invincible guy (an image enforced by movies and magicians). They don't know what he can do, so they assume he can do anything; if you tell them that a good cheater must be able to control the position of every single card in the deck at all times, guess what -- they'll believe you!
With that in mind, what would they rather see: After a tension-raising introduction of the legendary center deal,
- the magician puts the aces on the bottom, cuts, holds a quite obvious break and deals the aces to himself out of the middle (accompanied by a great knuckle flash and the dreaded "separation" at the front of the deck),
or
- the magician puts the aces face-up in different positions in the deck, shuffles the deck, squares it and then deals the aces to himself (as they are face-up, the spectator can see that they must have been dealt from the middle)
Both of these scenarios give some information about gambling moves (though in the case of the center deal this information is of course debatable), yet one will seem a lot more impressive (and thus entertaining) to a lay audience that the other.
What people want from a gambling demonstration (in addition to some insight to the moves) is to have their image of the slick mechanic confirmed -- it's so much more romantic than reality.
Hey, thanks for the reply! Hopefully I get that opportunity one day!
I'd be
very careful with this. At the Magic Café there's been a couple of threads of what can happen when you're caught (even when you're playing for no money). To name just one example, Ben Train told of one time he was slightly drunk and accidentally did a dribble pass. He got punched in the face and thrown in the pool for this. What it did to the relationship between him and his friends I don't know.
Even if your friends are less ready to use violence than Mr Train's, cheating at cards can still leave a huge decrease in trust between you and your friends, and that's not easily made up for.
The following was written by somebody I'm pretty sure knows what he's talking about:
"Max Maven used a quote at the beginning of one of his Parralax columns which I do not remember exactly but the gist of it is: no one turns bad immediately, licientousness progresses in degrees. My point here is what you consider fun and games now may lead you to more serious matters."
With that in mind, be very careful how you use your skills.