The Story Behind Scarne's Aces

Feb 16, 2009
217
0
South Bend, IN
Many people claim that what is written in that book is not a 100% accurate and in some cases is completely made up. I don't know if the story of Scarne's aces is true or not, but there is a lot of mythology floating around about the trick and it's always good to keep that in mind.
 
Dec 18, 2009
399
1
Many people claim that what is written in that book is not a 100% accurate and in some cases is completely made up. I don't know if the story of Scarne's aces is true or not, but there is a lot of mythology floating around about the trick and it's always good to keep that in mind.

Yeah, I was wondering about that myself. @Alfie I'm glad you enjoyed it ;)

-Corbin
 
Jan 26, 2008
71
0
Fort Worth, TX
I believe that there is a certain truth to Scarne's aces, Bill Malone has been able to replicate the basic feat, and calls it Scarne's aces. I'm unsure, however, if Bill is just using the legend as patter for his effect, or if actually has unearthed evidence for Scarne's method.
 
Feb 16, 2009
217
0
South Bend, IN
I believe that there is a certain truth to Scarne's aces, Bill Malone has been able to replicate the basic feat, and calls it Scarne's aces. I'm unsure, however, if Bill is just using the legend as patter for his effect, or if actually has unearthed evidence for Scarne's method.

Yeah, I should clarify a bit about what I said. There are numerous ace cutting routines out there in the literature. It's just that Scarne's aces claims to be the ultimate in such routines.

The conditions that are usually given for Scarne's aces are really stringent ones (borrowed deck, shuffled by a spectator, no crimps or preparation, performer just shuffles a few times after the spectators and cuts to aces without hesitation). It is a really hard trick with all these conditions and Bill Malone's exhibition is the only one I have seen which appears to satisfy these conditions.

Somehow Scarne's explanation, which Bill Malone also gives in his performance doesn't seem right or even humanly possible (locating aces in mid shuffle and then counting how many cards are put above it is just insanely hard). I am open to being proved wrong, but I suspect the method Bill Malone used is something very different.

There is also the story by Vernon about his encounter with Stevens, the man who invented the Stevens Cull. From what I've heard, the Stevens Cull should enable you to perform Scarne's aces in its true "mythical" sense, but that is another story altogether.
 
Dec 18, 2009
399
1
Yeah, I should clarify a bit about what I said. There are numerous ace cutting routines out there in the literature. It's just that Scarne's aces claims to be the ultimate in such routines.

The conditions that are usually given for Scarne's aces are really stringent ones (borrowed deck, shuffled by a spectator, no crimps or preparation, performer just shuffles a few times after the spectators and cuts to aces without hesitation). It is a really hard trick with all these conditions and Bill Malone's exhibition is the only one I have seen which appears to satisfy these conditions.

Somehow Scarne's explanation, which Bill Malone also gives in his performance doesn't seem right or even humanly possible (locating aces in mid shuffle and then counting how many cards are put above it is just insanely hard). I am open to being proved wrong, but I suspect the method Bill Malone used is something very different.

There is also the story by Vernon about his encounter with Stevens, the man who invented the Stevens Cull. From what I've heard, the Stevens Cull should enable you to perform Scarne's aces in its true "mythical" sense, but that is another story altogether.

Where could I learn the Steven's cull? I've definitely heard of it before...just can't remember where.
 
Feb 16, 2009
217
0
South Bend, IN
Where could I learn the Steven's cull? I've definitely heard of it before...just can't remember where.

I'm not the best person to answer that question because I don't do any riffle shuffle work (at least not yet). I can point you to some threads on other forums where this has been discussed.

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=296018&forum=2

http://www.geniimagazine.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=39498

The discussion on these threads is interesting because they also mention other riffle culling techniques besides the Stevens cull. I find this kind of stuff fascinating even though I can't do any of it.

http://archive.denisbehr.de/archive/route/entries.php?url=10,745,484,717,465

The above link gives a list of sources where such work is published. A lot of it is very hard to find, as these books are mostly out of print.

If it is any consolation, I heard that David Ben is writing a book on the Stevens Cull. I have no idea when its expected. In fact David Ben doesn't think the book will be popular because the underlying technique is supposed to be very hard.
 
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