Hi folks,


I'm excited to learn the Biddle trick, and I particularly like the way Daryl handles the trick in his Encyclopedia of Card Sleights. But -- I continue to have trouble with the Biddle move. I wrote earlier about my difficulty in controlling the sounds the cards made as they moved from the deck (in right hand) to the packet (in left hand), and making the sounds all the same for each card I transfer. That's improving a bit. But I'm still having trouble getting the cards flush with the cards already in the packet. Keeping them flush is important if the move is to work.



I have looked at lots of sources (Card College, Mentzer's booklet, Daryl...), but I haven't found a really detailed description that would help me with the problems I mentioned.



One suggestion that several people made earlier was to handle the cards lightly. That was excellent advice, and I've been working on lightness in all of my practice. But I thought perhaps someone knew of a description of this move in particular that went into the kind of detail that Mike Close does in his ebooks on palming, and that Ian Kendrick (sp?) does in his ebook (from Lybrary) called Basic Training. Both authors really break down moves so that there's absolutely no question about where your various fingers should be and how you should be moving them. (Of course, I have to modify their handling, because different people's hands are different, but I find it really helpful to have a detailed program to start with.)



Alternatively, maybe some one has similar problems and has found fixes that worked for them.



Thanks,everybody!



Bob

Unfortunately, I do not recall where I learned the Biddle move. Here are a few hints that might help:

When I do it, for each take of a card, I always align the left edge of the deck completely with the left edge of the packet. Also, I take a two centimeter pinky break below the card to steal. Moments before the steal I open all of the left hand fingers, which, owing to the slant of its packet, causes the target card to slide right a few centimeters, which helps a silent and aligned steal.

Counts, Cuts, Moves and Subtleties by Jerry Mentzer:

http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S4837

That was all I needed to perfect the move.

I agree with Arthur. The Jerry Mentzer book is an excellent source.

Thanks, Shaun, that's exactly the kind of specific advice I need. I'll try out your ideas. Your mention of the pinky break reminds me of another problem I've been having. When you catch your pinky break, do you bend the inner right corner of the card downward? That's what I'd expect, but I'm having trouble doing it. Instead, I've been pushing that corner to the left, so that I do have a break, but that corner is curled under the card above it. (Hope you can follow that!)



By the way, I've been following some of your posts on the internet. It looks to me like you're growing by leaps and bounds -- very exciting. I say that as a "late beginner" (i. e., not a novice, but not intermediate either) to someone who's clearly more advanced, so take my judgment for it's worth!



Thanks also to Arthur and Stew. As I mentioned, I did read Mentzer's description carefully. It's a great book, but I didn't get the detail I needed.



Bob

P. S. to Shaun: I'm going to try to clarify what I said. I'm doing *sort of" a buckle, I guess. So the corner of the card is pointing upward, not downward as it would be in all the pinky breaks I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure that's part of what's creating the problem, but I can't seem to get the corner to turn downward.



Thanks again...

Thank you for the encouragement on my progress. I appreciate that. It provides a much needed reward on the long path to mastery.

As for your question, I might not understand it. If my answer seems unrelated, then please clarify.

During the Biddle move, I do no bending of the inner right corner downward. Rather, I catch my pinky break in the process of taking the target card onto the packet. Some pinky flesh simply gets in the way of the card coalescing with the packet. If I am planning to steal the third card, then it's one, two, three (pinky flesh gets in the way of coalescing), four (steal the card), five. As a result, there is no need either to buckle or to push the corner to the left.

Ah, okay! Yes, that makes sense. You've given me some great homework.


You're welcome. Sometimes people remember to criticize but forget to praise. You're absolutely right, in your signature, that we need criticism to grow. But we need praise, when it's called for, to nourish our souls. That's my take on things, anyway!

I am glad that it helped. The bill is in the mail. ;-)

Ha!