I am fairly new to card magic / artifice / subterfuge and this book was great. I find his way of explaining hand positions superior to that of Hugard and Braue's material. I also enjoy the way he writes far more... The introduction alone is worth the price. The techniques are great because one doesn't have to rely on diversion, most of the sleights can be pulled off with the spectator's eyes directly on the pack.
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Ok, Ok, so the author is amazingly mysterious and I find that this makes me give a 5 star rating.First of all, this book is considered the bible of card work because of its historical significance. It seemed to be the first major public known book that contained wholesome magic material (second half of the book, LEGERDEMAIN), whilst also carrying a good blend of card cheating techniques using sleight of hand--the first half...
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This book is considered by many magicians to be the Bible of card magic. Anyone interested in learning card techiques should buy this book.It is not a magic trick book. If you want magic tricks, look elsewhere.Darwin Ortiz has written a book entitled, "The Annotated Erdnase", which has the full text of "Expert at the Card Table" and includes additional notes, etc.
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If you are interested in cards, card magic, or cheating, then this book is for you. There aren't many pictures, so learning the different techniques and so forth contained in this book can be difficult at times. The die-hard card man or a dedicated student of card manipulation should get by ok with this book. If you learn everything in this book and could do it all perfectly, then you would no doubt be an expert at the...
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What else can I say? This book contains the real mechanics used by professional card handlers. The author's true name is not known because he knew that exposing these secrets could be detrimental to his health. Most of the material within is knuckle-busting, but worth your time if you would like to know how card cheats do what they do. -Diamond Jim Tyler
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