#steveforte

Erdnase Bottom Deal, ボトムディール解説 Expert at the Card Table

First impressions on Steve Forte’s Gambling Sleight of Hand (2020).

Steve Forte’s gargantuan tome on gambling sleight of hand was released earlier this year. My copies arrived in late February and like most magicians, the first chapter I turned to after my initial tachycardia settled was the one on Erdnase. It’s a well-researched chapter consisting of 135 pages arguing the point that Erdnase was neither a card cheat nor an expert at the card table, and the artifice section is filled with sub-par gambling moves. I have no real opinion as both sides have been discussed extensively by far more knowledgeable people than I, but it is a fascinating read nevertheless.

“Ortiz is one of the very few to bravely point out “the fear of sacrilege” that would come with any 'objective evaluation’ of The Expert due to magic’s adoration for Vernon.” (p. 726). The original Ortiz commented appeared in The Annotated Erdnase on p. 17 (1991).  The irony behind Forte’s statement, of course, being that with the release of this book and magic’s adoration for Forte, his words will now replace Vernon’s as the definitive last word. 

Forte holds an interesting place among this generation of magicians. While little footage exist of Vernon in his prime, and even fewer of the giants before him, it is difficult to imagine someone in any generation whose technical skill can rival Forte’s. The fortunate consequence of this is the increasingly rare assurance that everything described in the book is doable and can be taken to levels previously unimagined. (If you’re like me, you’ve had the disappointing experience seeing an author demonstrate a move you’ve been struggling with and realizing it is indeed, not nearly as deceptive as claimed.) 

“Bill Malone passed along an interesting story about Marlo’s take on The Expert. After asking Marlo about characterizing The Expert as the ‘cardman’s bible’, Marlo responded, ‘It’s not the bible; it’s just a good book’.” (p. 725) 

Other observations:

- There is very little crediting in the entirety of the two volumes – a somewhat unsatisfying explanation is given on p. 47. Understandably, it is exceedingly difficult to trace the origins of most gambling material, but even the ideas/concepts that originated from the magic literature is often not credited.  

- This is not a book for beginners. Familiarity with the general technical landscape is assumed. For example, in the chapter on the Zarrow shuffle, very little is offered in basic explanations, rather new concepts, technical variations, and comments on established handlings are presented instead.

- Forte’s technical descriptions are often quite terse. While the explanations are completely adequate, I often found myself hoping for a little more guidance while working through some of the sleights. As an example, in the section on stunts, under Packet spins, snaps, and twirls, the following description is given - “To spin the packet, spin it 180 degrees” (p. 1000), or after extolling the virtues of MD’s Push-Through handling, the technical explanation simply includes: “use the right-third finger to bump the outer end of the right half, striking and sending it through the left half.” (p. 132).

- In my opinion, the most valuable material in the tomes are the ‘technical observations’ preceding each section, which include finesses, ideas, and ways to eliminate tells, often describing in a few pages what Ben Earl does in 6 volumes of The Shift. For example, in the observations on the push-through, several previously undescribed concepts like the ‘pre-riffle split’ (p. 119), ‘riffle separation’ (p. 121), and ‘square-up before the square up’ (p 123) are offered, the value of which is immediately evident.  Several novel variations of the push-through are then explained, interesting to note that while the majority of magicians will do a “speed through” (p. 127), many other possibilities exist.

- Weaknesses of many advanced ‘holy grail’ techniques in the magic literature are identified and reviewed, and in many cases, better solutions offered. For example, Forte questions the superiority of the Stevens control, (p. 109), Vernon’s touch on the Mysterious Kid’s push-through (p .138), the Stevens cull (p. 272), Walter Scott’s second deal (p. 356), the center deal (p. 471), and the entirety of Erdnase (p. 607).