Mailbag - Pool Tricks
/What pool table tricks (if any) did you end up doing this weekend? —BP
Yeah, I mentioned last week that I was going to be staying somewhere with a pool table and I asked if anyone had any particularly good tricks/stunts/bets that they wanted to share.
I got a lot of good responses, although most people were sharing similar ideas. (Which is fine, as much as I’m looking for cool, obscure ideas when I put out a general call for help, I’m also interested in some sort of consensus if there is one.)
One of the most recommended effects was Hustler by Looch, which is explained on his first Penguin Live lecture. Essentially you predict the final three balls on the table during a game of imaginary 8-ball.
The other frequent suggestion was where you have the spectator spread a deck of (marked) playing cards across the table, then you have them ricochet the cue ball around the table and whatever card it lands on is the card you have reversed in the deck. This is just a somewhat elaborate presentation for the Invisible Deck. I like this idea, and had the decks with me to perform it, but I didn’t feel the right opening for it, so I didn’t end up doing this one.
I did this variation on Paul Harris’ Flap Jacks trick.
What I learned from this is something I remember feeling about Flap Jacks when I first performed it decades ago. The interesting manner in which the cards flip and flop over at the end seems to completely take away from the change that happens. What I mean is, a more direct change of four cards for four other cards is much stronger than something like this, even if something like this is more interesting and “fun” to do.
So while this makes for a visually interesting card revelation, the “stunt” nature of it sort of takes away from generating a real “magical” feeling. Which, now that I think about it, is probably something I should have realized before trying it.
I did do a couple of bar bets. I like these because they have the feeling of exposing a magic trick, without actually exposing any useful magic concepts.
The bet people seemed to like the most was the one where you lay a pool cue so it rests across the table like this.
Since it’s resting on the side rail, there is a gap between the stick and the table. You bet that you can roll the cue ball under the cue stick without hitting the stick at all. There’s clearly no way the ball can really roll under the stick without hitting it. But that’s what your bet is.
Once I had people in on the bet for $60, I took the ball and rolled it under the pool table (from end to end). Of course, it went under the stick as well.
Do I take my friend’s money in this situation? Yes. I absolutely do. (Obviously, I don’t take money from friends who can’t really afford to lose it.)
I think it’s a better experience for them if they actually lose the money. Having real stakes makes it more interesting and memorable.
When doing these types of bets, I express the sentiment that I first heard from Bob Farmer (although it may be standard) where you say, essentially, “Yes, you’re going to lose this bet. But you will get an education and if you put up $20 now, you can take this knowledge and make $100s with it the rest of your life.” I think that’s really the only way to present these types of things without coming off like a corny douchebag.
I did do Looch’s Hustler, and that went over well very well for everyone except one of my friends, Ashley (a guy), who was watching.
The trick relies primarily on the PATEO force.
The PATEO force can be done in one of two ways.
The options are indistinguishable from each other. Face-down cards, paper balls with words written on the inside, sealed envelopes. In this case, your force object is secretly marked.
The options are distinctly different. Face-up cards, different coins, or—in this case—pool balls. There’s no question where the force object is because it’s plainly visible.
I find #1 to be an incredibly fooling technique. I can’t remember ever getting busted when the objects all seem identical. It’s a method I like quite a bit actually. Slowly winnowing down to one option with multiple free choices along the way is an incredibly strong technique. Magicians sometimes scoff at the PATEO force, but in this form, I think it’s actually kind of genius.
Surprisingly, #2 also fools people. This feels like it should be kind of transparent, but I’ve had success with it for the most part. The only issue I’ve had with it in this way is when there are other people watching along. In my experience, the person taking part in it has enough choices to make to keep their mind occupied, but people looking on will sometimes notice the pattern.
So I usually only try and do PATEO-based effects with openly different objects in one-on-one situations.
In this case, I was doing it for a small group of people and later that night Ashley said to me, “I know how you did that trick.” And he explained the general idea behind the PATEO force. He didn’t have the process 100% nailed, because Looch switches it up at the end, but he had the general idea.
In this case, I did what I usually do when someone nails the method: I play stupid. I have them explain it to me a number of times. I get excited, “Oh, that’s clever!” I make some notes on my phone. “I’m definitely going to try this.” I make them explain it so much that they regret bringing it up.
Then when that interaction is over, I begin thinking to myself, “Okay, how can I do this another way?”
The next night, Ashley was playing a game of pool with another friend of ours and I was watching along. When the game was over, I clarified what the score was and who won. “Yup, okay, that’s what I thought.” I mentioned having another pool dream last night (my presentation for Hustler the previous day had been a fairly standard, “I had a dream and this is what happened in it and when I woke up I wrote something down,” etc. etc.) “But you were right, Ashley, by not actually playing the game for real, I could have maybe rigged it in some way. Which, of course, I’d never do. So, anyways I had this dream last night about you two playing pool, and I wrote something down on a slip of paper when I woke up and attached it to the light cord.” A small folded piece of paper was attached by a paper clip to the thin chain that turned the light on and off over the pool table. I got off the couch, retrieved the note and handed it to Ashley to unfold and read. The note indicated who would win and what the final score would be. “Are you shitting me?” Ashley said, and started toying with the end of the light cord, as if that might somehow give up the secret of what just happened.
I just used Sankey’s Paperclipped switch here. The folded note was clearly visible throughout the whole game and I was prepared to comment on it if they had seen it first, but they didn’t. Hanging it above the table said (without saying) “this couldn’t have been tampered with during the game.” I also folded the note with the text on the outside which is something I often do when using the Paperclipped switch. I think it makes a switch seem less likely.
So I have two predictions, the dummy one in the paperclip and the one I secretly fill in with a couple pieces of information at the end of the game (the rest of the prediction—a couple sentences—is pre-written). Writing in the name of the winner and the score wasn’t even “secret writing” per se, because the people playing weren’t paying attention to me at that point.
I have another pool-based trick that I’ll share with you tomorrow. It’s kind of an interesting one.
