Spex Mix: The Jacob Holdout

Spex Mix is my series of posts on ways for the spectator to mix the cards while retaining a partial stack, based on my theory that letting the spectator mix the cards is far stronger than any false shuffle you might do yourself. Ctrl+F and look for Spex for other posts in this series.

This is a new technique I’ve been defaulting to recently. There’s nothing revolutionary here, it’s just a combination of beats that I’ve found works particularly well together.

It’s best when you’re maintaining a stack of up to six cards, I would say. You could get away with one or two more maybe, but six is about where I cap it.

Your stack starts out on the bottom of the deck.

1. Start by giving it a few riffle shuffles, protecting the bottom stack.

2. Cut off about 15 cards and give them to your friend to shuffle. The number, doesn’t exactly matter. Ideally we’re shooting for a little less than 1/3rd of the deck though.

3. When they’re done, have them set their pile on the table. Point to a place roughly aligned with your right shoulder.

4. Cut off another 15 or so cards and hand them to the spectator to mix.

5. As they do this, spread the remaining cards between your hands, as if to gauge about how many are left. Close the spread and obtain a pinky break above your stack.

6. At this point, I say something almost to myself like, “We’ll do one more.” As if to say, “We’re not going to split the remaining cards any further. We’ll just shuffle one more packet.”

7. Take the packet in your right-hand Biddle-grip. Taking over the break with your right thumb.

8. As they shuffle, or as you point to a place on the table for them to place their packet, allow your right hand to hang over the first packet shuffled and drop the cards below the break on top of that packet.

9. After they’ve set down the second packet, give them the third packet to shuffle. Have them replace it on the table when they’re done.

10. You now have three apparently fully shuffled packets on the table. Have them reassembled as in the Jerx Ose False(ish) Cut.

The benefits of this is that there’s a true sense that they shuffled all the cards and reassembled the deck in a random manner.

I’ve been using this as an alternative to the Ron Edwards Holdout mentioned in this post, which I’ve always loved, but which I think is less convincing because the cards are shuffled and being returned to your hands. That is a little cozier and less clean than this method.

Addressing the Weakness

All methods have a trade-off. The trade-off with this technique is that the spectator doesn’t shuffle the full deck together.

The good news is that most people won’t conceptualize this as a weakness. It won’t even occur to them.

But still, I’ve built in some ways to address it.

First, I start by shuffling the full deck myself. This semi-satisfies the impulse to see the full deck shuffled. But still, it’s in my hands, so there’s only so much they can trust in it.

So now, when I cut a portion off and ask them to shuffle, it feels like this is more fair than what I was just doing.

But what if they ask why they’re not shuffling the full deck at the same time?

“Oh, we will,” you say, “but this is the way they do it in casinos to make sure things are perfectly mixed. Shuffle in small packets. Then shuffle those small packet together.”

Then, while they shuffle the third packet, you shuffle the first two packets together, leaving your stack on top. Then you have them push their packet into yours (like they’re Faro’ing the cards into yours). Because your packet is more than twice the size of theirs, you can protect the top stack just by adjusting it so they’re pushing their cards lower down into the stack.

But what if they still say, “Okay, but I want to shuffle all the cards, any way I want, all by myself.”

In this case, you have someone who is too hyperfocused on the shuffling. Give them the deck to shuffle however they want, a move into your Failsafe Trick.

Sample Usage

Here’s a simple, somewhat generic usage, for this.

The four aces start on the bottom of the deck. You go through this procedure and they end up on top.

“Pick up the deck and deal the cards onto the table.”

After they’ve dealt four, you say, “As you go, discard some of the cards by dealing them into the center of the table.”

So they’re dealing through the deck, dealing some to themselves, and discarding others.

Push the discards aside.

Have them deal the cards they kept into four piles. Back and forth, like dealing a card game.

The four Aces will end up one on top of each pile.

“You cut the cards, you shuffled the cards, you decided which cards to keep and which to discard. I haven’t even touched the deck since the beginning. Turn over the top card of each pile.”

Again, this is just a sample usage. I wouldn't necessarily use it to produce the four aces. But you can do a similar process to produce any small group of cards that has some greater meaning in the premise of your trick.