Fully Stacked: Simple Tricks with the Si Stebbins Stack (Part 1)
Learn six simple tricks with the Si Stebbins Stack.
Welcome to Fully Stacked, a regular column about card magic that relies on a stack or prearrangement of some kind. In this edition, we’ll continue our exploration of the Si Stebbins System.
If you are unfamiliar with the Si Stebbins stack, the previous edition of Fully Stacked provides instructions on how to arrange the deck in the correct order. You’ll need to become a paid subscriber to access this article.
I’m currently experimenting with a “freeven” payment model. This means that every Ruseletter article with an even number is free to read (like this one), while odd-numbered articles are behind a paywall. I’m doing this to help generate a modest amount of revenue from my writing so that I can continue publishing paid-for and free content via the Ruseletter (and on my blog, Marty’s Bag of Tricks).
However, for convenience, here’s the correct order of the cards (reading from left to right):
A♣|4♥|7♠|10♦|K♣|3♥|6♠|9♦|Q♣|2♥|5♠|8♦|J♣
A♥|4♠|7♦|10♣|K♥|3♠|6♦|9♣|Q♥|2♠|5♦|8♣|J♥
A♠|4♦|7♣|10♥|K♠|3♦|6♣|9♥|Q♠|2♦|5♣|8♥|J♠
A♦|4♣|7♥|10♠|K♦|3♣|6♥|9♠|Q♦|2♣|5♥|8♠|J♦
On Sunday, December 18th, 1898, an article titled “‘Si Stebbins,’ Barnum’s Old Card Expert Teaches St. Louisans a Few Tricks” was published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.1 The column contained twelve card tricks from a “little book” that Si Stebbins sold to teach people how he performed his card tricks. This is thought to be one of the first times that the secret of the stack was published—and in a newspaper for the public, no less!
In the following two articles, I will examine several simple tricks using the Si Stebbins System, taken from this newspaper article.
Stebbins published these tricks in various slim booklets throughout his life. The first was first published in WM. Vino’s Card Tricks under the pseudonym “William Vino”. His original “pitch pamphlet” was later reprinted multiple times under two titles: Si Stebbins Card Tricks And How He Performs Them and Card Tricks And The Way They Are Performed.
Early editions, likely due to printing constraints, featured only a core set of five tricks, while others offered a wider selection. Some of his booklets also included bonus effects not present in earlier editions. Oddly enough, some of these additional tricks do not utilise the stack.
As there are so many tricks to cover, I’ve decided to split this article into two parts. We’ll start by reviewing six of the twelve tricks described and explained in the newspaper article from 1898.
Trick 1: Pick a Card, Any Card
To name a card that a person may draw from behind the back.
Here are the original instructions (lightly edited for clarity):
Spread the cards out behind the back so that when a card is drawn, you can separate the deck at that point, bringing the two parts in front of you and placing the upper half underneath. In that way, you know the card they have should be the one that follows the bottom card, so by looking at the bottom card, adding three to it, and calling the suit that follows the bottom card, you would name the card drawn.
Example: A person draws a card on making the shift in front of you; you find the bottom card to be the Nine of Diamonds. Add 3 to 9, which is 12, or the Queen, and call it the Queen of Clubs, as Clubs follow Diamonds. Then, you name the card drawn.
Trick 1 represents the most basic use of the stack. It involves a spectator removing a card from the deck when it is held behind your back. Selecting a card in this way hides the required cutting of the pack (and subsequent peek of the bottom card), but it does feel a little awkward. I prefer to spread out the cards, ask someone to choose one and then subtly cut the deck by placing the cards in my left hand under the ones held in my right. After that, I square up the cards and put the deck back on the table, peeking the bottom card in the process. Then, I ask the participant to put their card back on top of the deck and give it a few cuts. This hands-off approach works well in a casual performance situation and has the benefit of retaining the order of your stack.
You can then locate the card in the deck or read the mind of your participant and name the card they’re thinking of.
Obviously, this particular trick is greatly enhanced when you perform a convincing full-deck false shuffle before having a card removed. Despite its simplicity, the Charlier Shuffle works particularly well in this regard.
🔥 Hot Tip: The Charlier Shuffle looks even more convincing if you perform it on the deck with the faces of the cards visible to your audience, i.e., with the cards face up, not face down. As this shuffle is, in essence, a series of rapid cuts, the cards are naturally displayed in “chunks” or “clumps”, which effectively disguises the rotating suits, the pattern of repeated values and, most importantly, the alternating colours of the stack.
Trick 2: Number of Cards Drawn
To tell how many and what cards a person may draw from behind the back.
Here are the original instructions (lightly edited for clarity):
Place cards behind you, as in Trick 1, and make the same shift in front. Look at the bottom card and at the card of the same suit nearest the top. Subtract the number of the suit card on top from that of the same suit on the bottom, multiply the result by 4, and subtract the number of cards, including the suit card on top. The result will be the number of cards drawn.
Example: On making the shift, you find the bottom card to be the 12 or Queen of Clubs; on looking at the top, you find the third card is the Seven of Clubs; 7 from 12 is 5; 4 times 5 is 20; 3 from 20 is 17, or the number of cards drawn. In case the card on the bottom is smaller than the one at the top of the same suit, add 13 to the bottom card and proceed as per the example.
Trick 2 uses the stack’s mathematical nature to calculate the number of cards drawn from the pack, again held behind your back. A simple calculation is used to compute the number of missing cards. To determine the number of cards drawn, start by identifying the suit of the bottom card and the card closest to the top of the talon of the same suit. Subtract the value of the top card from the value of the bottom card, and then multiply the result by four. Finally, subtract the number of cards, including the top suit card, from the previous result, and you will get the total number of cards drawn.
For example, let’s assume the Ten of Spades is on the bottom, and the top three cards are the King of Clubs, Three of Hearts, and the Six of Spades. Ten minus six is four. Four times four is sixteen. There are three cards on top, including the Six of Spades, so we need to subtract three, giving us a total of thirteen.
If the value of the card on or near the top is bigger than the one on the bottom, then add thirteen to the value of the bottom card and continue as usual. For example, let’s assume that the bottom card is the Two of Spades, and the top two cards are the Seven of Hearts and the Ten of Spades. First, add thirteen to two to get a total of fifteen. Now, subtract ten to get five. Four times five is twenty. And finally, subtract two from twenty to get a final result of eighteen.
🔥 Hot Tip: This calculation sounds more complicated than it is. However, you must practise the required mental arithmetic so that you can calculate the number quickly and without visible effort.
High-Powered Hearing
Again, here’s where I deviate from Si Stebbins’ suggested approach. I create a greater sense of mystery by turning away from my audience and asking someone to cut off a portion of the cards and place them into the card box. Upon turning back, I explain that there are two ways to discover how many cards are in the box: I can count the remaining cards in the deck, but “that would be cheating”, or utilise my “astounding auditory acuity” to discern the hidden quantity of cards. This playful banter serves a dual purpose. First, it justifies picking up the deck, allowing me to peek at the top and bottom cards covertly (when I mention counting the cards). Second, it provides a “pseudo-method” for the trick: my heightened sense of hearing apparently enables me to discover the number of cards in the card box.
I finish the trick by shaking the box and listening intensely to the noise it makes. I then dramatically reveal the number of cards in the box using my alleged “superhuman hearing.” This display of fictitious skill throws the audience off track, effectively obscuring the actual, more mundane method behind the trick and making the feat more memorable. The trick bears repeating two or three times.
When performing Trick 2 in this way, I usually mention the comic book character Daredevil, who is blind but has an enhanced sense of hearing, smell, taste and touch, sometimes referred to as his “Radar Sense”. Of course, you could also frame this as a demonstration of enhanced touch, i.e., being able to accurately weigh the cards and calculate how many are in the card box without looking in it.
🔥 Hot Tip: When you remove the cards from the box and count them, do not reverse their order. Count them from hand to hand, putting one card under the other before dropping the packet back onto the deck. This retains stack order and enables you to repeat the demonstration.
There is another way to calculate the number of cards in a cut-off portion of the pack if you know both the value of the bottom card and the face card of the cut-off portion. The technique does involve a small amount of estimation, along with a similar calculation. Brian Brushwood does a good job explaining how to do this in the Scam School, now Scam Nation, video below:
You can also learn this technique by watching a video tutorial by Hidden Structures on YouTube: Watch Perfect Estimation Skills.
🔥 Hot Tip: The maths is much easier if you cut a King to the bottom (face) of the deck. However, with practice, you can perform it with any card on the bottom.
Trick 3: Pocket Production
To allow a person to take a handful of cards from behind the back and place them in his pocket; then to make him take out one at a time, any card you may call for.
Here are the original instructions (lightly edited for clarity):
After a person has drawn a handful of cards, ask them to close them up and place them in their pocket (which must be empty), taking particular notice whether the back or face of the cards is on the outside; in the meantime, you have made the shift (Trick 1). If the face of the card is on the inside, ask him to take out one card as quickly as possible, naming the outside card, which you know from the bottom card (Trick 1). If the face is out, look at the top card, subtract three and call by the suit that comes before the top card; make it a point to have the person work quickly to get the card.
This trick relies on an old dodge: You ask a spectator to place a small packet of cards in their pocket. Next, you instruct them to remove one card from their pocket. Since it’s not easy to take a card from the centre of the packet, most people tend to remove the top or bottom card, depending on the packet’s orientation, especially if you rush them a little, hence the need to have the person work quickly to remove the card.
The method is fairly straightforward. Have someone remove a bunch of cards from the centre of the pack, then make the cut (alternatively, they can cut a few cards from the top of the deck and place them in their pocket). Peek the bottom card of the deck to calculate the identity of the top card of the pocketed packet. If your spectator puts the cards in their pocket with the face card outward, then you must glimpse the top card of the talon, subtract three and move backwards through the suits.
This trick is impressive but not foolproof. If given too much time, a person might extract a card from the middle of the packet or take the bottom or top card when you expect them to do the opposite. The larger the person’s pocket, the more likely things will go wrong. For this reason, it is important to ask your participant to remove one card quickly from their pocket.
You might also want to combine this trick with the previous one. Identify a person who is wearing a suitable jacket with pockets. Have this spectator cut and complete the cut several times. Then, instruct them to cut a number of cards from the top of the deck and put them in their pocket while your back is turned. As you cannot see the packet’s orientation when it enters the pocket, you need to give precise instructions to ensure that the cards face outward. The best way to do this, assuming the person’s dominant hand is right, is to ask the person to cut some cards from the deck with their right hand, then transfer them into their left hand before placing them in their left jacket pocket (if the person is left-handed, ask them to cut with their left hand, and put the cards in their right hand and then in their right jacket pocket).
Perform Trick 3, as described above. For example, if the top card of the talon is the Eight of Hearts, then the card that your participant should produce from their pocket is the Five of Clubs (8 - 3 = 5, go back one in suit order to get Clubs). Then use the method for Trick 2 to calculate the number of cards remaining in your participant’s pocket. Remember to deduct one from the total, as one card (the one you named) has already been removed from the pocket.
The divination of the number of cards remaining in your helper’s pocket is a logical effect to follow the production of the named card. The divination of the number of cards remaining in the pocket also acts as a useful backup effect if the wrong card is removed by your participant.
Trick 4: Magician’s Choice
To allow a person to draw a card, placing it in his pocket, without looking at it, and then make him tell what it is.
Here are the original instructions (lightly edited for clarity):
A person draws a card which you know (as per Trick 1), placing it in his pocket without looking at it; you name the four suits (Spades, Diamonds, Clubs and Hearts) and ask him to choose of the four suits; if, in choosing one, it is the same suit as the one he has in his pocket, say very well, we will call your card such a suit, naming the one he chose; if he does not get the right one the first time, ask him to choose two of the three remaining suits; if in choosing this time, it leaves the suit he has in his pocket, say that leaves such a suit in your pocket; if, on the other hand, the suit you want is in the two he named, ask him to choose one of the remaining suits, and then he will either make the choice of the suit you want or else you have the suit wanted, left in his pocket. Then name two cards, including the one he has in his pocket; ask him which one he would like; if he names the right one, ask him to take it out of his pocket; if he names the other, say very well, that leaves such a card in your pocket, m the card.
In Trick 4, Si Stebbins is using a rather rudimentary Magician’s Choice, or Equivoque, to force the correct suit and value onto the spectator. While this method does work and will fool the majority of people, it lacks sophistication. I prefer to use an offbeat presentation based on an idea by Jim Steinmeyer to make the process more entertaining and deceptive.2
Begin by saying, “I’m going to ask you to construct a card using your imagination. That’s going to make it unlike any other card trick you’ve ever seen. All your choices. A random card. Do you have a good imagination?”
Whatever they say, continue by saying, “Here’s how we’re going to do it. We’ll use the process of elimination. Gradually, we’ll eliminate more and more cards, and then we’ll both pick a random number and use it to arrive at a value. We’ll start this way. As you know, half the deck is the colour of blood, and half the deck is the colour of ink.”
Ask the spectator to say “Blood” or “Ink” to pick a colour.
Let’s assume. for a moment, that the suit of the card in your participant’s pocket is Clubs.
If your participant says, “Blood”, say, “Okay, let’s eliminate all the blood-coloured cards. Now, of course, there are four suits in the deck. One looks like a mineral. One looks like a body part. One is like a leaf, and one is a tool. Of course, we’ve already eliminated the Hearts and Diamonds, the red cards.”
This statement makes it clear to your audience that the red cards, the Hearts and Diamonds, have been eliminated. It also sets you up for the next part of the equivoque process.
Continue by saying, “Name one to eliminate. Leaf or tool? Do that now.”
If “tool” is named, say, “Right, let’s eliminate the tool, the Spade. That leaves you with, well, the leaf! The cloverleaf or Club.”
If “leaf” is named instead, say, “Good, we’ll eliminate the leaf-shaped suit, the Spade. That leaves you holding a caveman’s favourite tool, the Club!”
Now, what do you do if the card in your participant’s pocket is a Spade? If they choose “tool”, say, “Right, let’s eliminate the tool, the Club. That leaves you with, well, the leaf! The Spade—the leaf-shaped suit.”
If your participant selects “leaf”, say, “Okay, we’ll eliminate the leaf-shaped suit. The cloverleaf or Club. That leaves you with the tool, the Spade.”
But what if the card in your participant’s pocket is a red card (a Heart or Diamond)? Ask the spectator to say “Blood” or “Ink” to pick a colour (as in the previous examples). Regardless of what they reply, say, “Okay, we’ll eliminate the ink-coloured cards. Now, of course, there are four suits in the deck. One looks like a mineral. One looks like a body part. One is like a leaf, and one is a tool. Of course, we’ve already eliminated the Clubs and Spades, the black cards.”
Continue by saying, “Imagine that you’re holding the mineral in one hand and the body part in the other. Hand one to me now. Which one did you give me?”
If the card in your participant’s pocket is a Heart and they hand you the “body part”, say, “Throw the mineral away. Get rid of it.” You can even ask them to dig an imaginary hole and put the “mineral” back in the ground, “where it belongs.” If, however, they hand you the Diamond, then you pretend to throw it away. Either way, the Heart is chosen. Mime taking a heart from them, as you say, “That leaves us with the body part, the Heart!”
However, if the card in your participant’s pocket is a Diamond, then you proceed in a slightly different manner: If they hand you the “mineral”, say, “I want you to imagine that you’re holding a heart-shaped balloon tied to a piece of string. Let go of the string!” Watch the invisible balloon float away. Continue by saying, “That leaves us with the mineral, the Diamond!” Hold up the invisible jewel to finish.
However, if they give you the “body part”, you say, “I want you to imagine that it is a heart-shaped balloon tied to a piece of string.” Let go of the string, then watch the invisible balloon float away. “That leaves you with the mineral, the Diamond.”
So, that’s how you force the correct suit. But how do you force the value of the card? In his description, Si Stebbins suggests naming two cards. In fact, in later publications, he suggests naming three:
Name three cards, including the one you know he has in his pocket; for example, you know he has the Ace of Diamonds, so you ask him to choose two of the following three cards—Ace, King and Queen of Diamonds.
If he chooses the King and Queen, you simply say, that leaves the Ace in your pocket; if he chooses the Ace and King, you then ask him to choose one of those two; if he then chooses the Ace, you say that must be the card he has in his pocket.3
Personally, I don’t think it is a good idea to use Equivoque again because doing so will likely introduce inconsistencies in the selection procedure. Instead, ask your participant to pick a number between one and ten. It doesn’t matter what number they choose. Next, you do the same. However, you must select a number that, when added or subtracted from their number, equals the value of the card in their pocket. For example, if the card in their pocket is a ten, and they pick seven as their number, you must name three as your supposed “random number”. You then add your two numbers together to make ten. This number is then combined with the suit to create a complete card—one that, amazingly, matches the unseen card in their pocket.
Here’s another example: if they name nine, but the target value is three, then you must pick six and subtract your number from theirs to reach your target value of three.
The court cards (Jack, Queen and King) can be calculated in exactly the same way. For example, if your participant names four, and you need to force a Jack, then you must name a number that will result in a total of eleven (the card’s numerical value). In this case, you need to name seven (11 - 4 = 7).
As you can see, forcing the correct value on your participant is relatively easy. However, it should appear that you both named a random number and used simple arithmetic to combine them to arrive at a random value for the card.
Trick 5: Si’s Sucker Trick
To let a person name a card; then make him place it in his pocket without knowing it.
Here are the original instructions (lightly edited for clarity):
A person names a card; then, you find a card by cutting (Trick 1). Place three cards on top of the one named, hold the deck in your left hand with face toward the person naming the card; place the thumb of your right hand lightly on the top card and slide upward so the person can see the face; at the same time ask if that is his card, to which his answer would be no; draw that card off the deck and show to him and ask again if he is sure it is not his card, and request him to put it in his pocket; then proceed the same with the second card. But when you show him the third card, as you draw it back, let your thumb drop lightly on the next card underneath, which is the one wanted, and draw that one off the deck instead of the one you show, asking him to place that in his pocket, which the person will do 99 times out of 100 without looking at it; then he is generally very positive he does not have the card he named in his pocket, and you can carry it along to suit yourself.
Strangely, in some of his booklets, Si Stebbins describes this trick using a force that eliminates the need for the stack. Here’s the alternative write-up from Card Tricks and How He Performs Them:
Hold the deck squarely in the palm of the left hand in such a manner that you can bend the cards toward you with the fingers of the right hand, then let them slip back easily one at a time, but very fast, being careful to stop or hesitate on one card longer than the rest, in that way, you impress that one card on the person's mind, and it becomes the card they are thinking of. And, of course, by watching closely, you know the card even better than the person with whom you are doing the trick. Next, get the card that they have seen to a position fourth from the top.
You then place cards in your left hand again with their face toward the person with whom you are doing the trick, and with the thumb of your right hand, you lightly slip up the top card so the person can see its face and ask if that is their card to which they, of course, answer "No." You then draw the card off the deck (backwards) and show it to them for the second time, ask them if they are sure it is not their card, and at the same time, ask them to place it in their pocket.
Repeat the same operation with the next card, showing the person this card twice. By the time they have placed the second card in their pocket, they will have about made up their mind that they have you stuck, with the impression it is well to give them also in your talk, such as half admitting that you may have made a mistake.
But after you have shown him the third card, instead of handing him that one, let the thumb drop on the next card underneath (which you know is his card), and as you draw the card back that you have just shown him, you draw out and hand him the card he is thinking of—this time without showing it to him the second time and which he will invariably put in his pocket without looking at it. After he has the card in his pocket, you can carry him
I can only assume that this was one of the author’s favourite card tricks. It involves a force famously used by David Blaine at the beginning of his first TV special, Street Magic. You can see him perform a similar force in this video performance for Ellen (although, unlike Stebbins, I’m fairly sure Blaine is using a short card to make the force more reliable).
Trick 5 involves controlling the force card to the fourth position from the top. This raises the question of why force the card at all? In this context, a force feels needlessly restrictive. The experience would be more engaging if a totally free selection was made and then controlled to the desired location—something that is easily possible when using the stack.
The Stebbins method also involves a manoeuvre similar to the Top Change, wherein the chosen card is secretly switched with an indifferent one. In my opinion, this effect and methodology fall far short of what constitutes good card magic—there are far more impactful ways to achieve a “sucker” card trick of this nature, such as the old “key card” Circus Trick.
Trick 6: Locate Any Named Card
To run the cards over behind the back and name any card you may be asked to stop on.
Here are the original instructions (lightly edited for clarity):
Place cards behind the back, first taking notice of what the bottom card is; then start with the top card, add three to the bottom card, call by the suit that follows, and in that way, as you run through the deck, you naturally know what card you are asked to stop on, as you are naming them to yourself as you go along.
In Trick 6, the performer attempts to locate any named card while the deck is hidden behind their back. This approach, however, requires a significant amount of mental calculation before the chosen card is produced. Frankly, the effort required outweighs the impact of the effect. For this reason, I don’t think that this is a good way to take advantage of the Si Stebbins Stack, but your mileage may vary.
Final Thoughts
I hope that this article encourages you to try out some of these age-old tricks. In the next edition of Fully Stacked, I’ll be discussing the remaining six card tricks from the newspaper article, along with the bonus tricks that were sometimes included in the pitch pamphlets sold by Si Stebbins.
I really like the idea of performing a series of tricks with the Si Stebbins stack while blindfolded. If you use a rolled-up handkerchief or silk as a blindfold, then you’ll still be able to look down the gaps on either side of your nose to glimpse the required cards. Using a blindfold also enhances the “Radar Sense” presentation inspired by the comic-book character Daredevil (mentioned in relation to Trick 2). As well as using your “enhanced sense of hearing”, you could also run your fingertips over the face of a chosen card before naming it, as a demonstration of “seeing with the fingertips” (Luke Jermay has a routine along these lines). This is also a skill that Daredevil has demonstrated in the comics. This approach would work well as part of a more formal parlour show (something that I might try in the future).
Yours Magically,
Marty
A re-typeset copy of this newspaper article is available from Lybrary.com for $4.
Jim Steinmeyer, “Conjuring: Dances With Equiqoques,” Genii Magazine, Volume 76, Number 8, August 2013, 42-44.
Si Stebbins, “TRICK 4,” Card Tricks and the Way They Are Performed, 6, https://archive.org/details/sistedbbinscardt00stebrich/page/n1/mode/2up.