Chris - I'm not sure what you mean by 2500 combinations of calculation/shift? The odds of a named card being at the named number is 1 in 52. I have heard people say that it's 1 in 52 times 52 but this is incorrect. You might try to sell that to your audience to make it sound less likely. But it's actually 1 in 52.

Mike

Hi Mike,

You are absolutely correct that the ACAAN end result is one in 52. However the calculation needed to get there can have 2500+ variants ie current position = 52 possibilities x new position = 52 possibilities ie 2500+ novel combinations to calculate - true the end result (ie number of cards to shift) only has 51 possibilities but it is getting there which is effectively unique and tricky to rehearse.

I'm not totally sure if this applies but T.A. Waters has a card effect that I believe is similiar to this in Mind, Myth, and Magic.
I only recall that I thought the idea was fantastic at the time I read it.

Hi Chris,

I don't do the classic ACAAN which requires the calculation of cards to move but I have played around with it. I'm still mystified by the 2500 figure. If X = current position and Y = desired position there are two cases viz. X<Y and X>Y.

Case 1, X>Y: Let's say X = 7 and Y = 2. In all cases calculate X - Y. In this example it's 7 - 2 = 5. That's how many cards must be moved from TOP to BOTTOM. This is the best situation since the number needed to move from top to bottom is the stack number of the card you want to cut at. So for Aronson, the 5th card is the 9S. You’d cut at the 9S and this would put card 7 (the 3H) at position 2.

Case 2, X<Y: Let's say X = 2 and Y = 7. In all cases you calculate X - Y. In this example it's 2 - 7 = -5. That's how many cards must be moved from BOTTOM to TOP to achieve the desired result. This is always the case for X<Y. This is true but we really want to know the stack number of the card we want to cut at rather than how many cards to move from bottom to top. The negative number viz. -5 tells us that it’s 5th from the bottom. So there is a price to pay. You have to compute 52 – 5 = 47. In Aronson card number 47 is 9C. You’d cut the 9C to the bottom and you’re there.

So as far as I can see, half the time your calculation of X – Y is a positive number and that number is the stack number of where to cut. The other half of the time X – Y is a negative number and you have to subtract it from 52 (or add the negative number to 52 which is equivalent). That tells you the card you want to see to make the proper cut.

I don’t see where 2500 comes into play? Since I don't use this method for ACAAN, maybe I'm missing something...

Mike

Someone clarified the 2500 concept. There are 2500+ combinations of the subtraction needed. Sorry for creating confusion.

Mike

Chris Payne's posts on edge marking brings up something I'm really sorry for that I don't recall the originator, but it's where the narrow side of the card box is cut on on the narrow side 1"-1&1/2" down so a flap can be pulled down. The original calls for getting a peek. I've been working with the edge marking as a short cut and then you can use any of the other methods to bring card to number for the acaan with a memdeck. Does anyone know the origin/creator of that idea as I'd like the credit to be given here.

I PM'd you the creator of the edge markings+box cut idea. I didn't want to connect so much information here in one post on an open forum...
But upon second read, you may be mixing up the preparation of one person with another (two ideas put together from two different people).
I'll send another PM to clarify.