The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation (Dover Magic Books)

Very nice

What can you say about this book that hasn't been said 100 times before? In just 130 short pages (under half of which are specifically devoted to magic), S. W. Erdnase redefined card magic. I am very much an amateur, but am familiar enough to recognize nearly everything in the book, including some entire routines (Ricky Jay, for instance, does a version of "The Exclusive Coterie" in which he recites the pages-long patter from this book word for word). Further starting to practice some of the many moves presented in the book has revealed their beauty and potential.The book is divided into two sections, "Card table artifice", dealing with cheating at draw poker (false shuffles, false cuts, bottom dealing, palming, etc.) , and "Legerdemain", dealing with card magic. The entire book is written in a very engaging and amusing style, and although describing complex hand movements in words is notoriously difficult, it is fairly easy to follow the instructions for the various moves described, with the aid of the provided drawings. And the moves are many. A performer could easily make a career strictly by mastering the slights contained in this gem.It is hard to pick favorites from everything described in this book, but I wanted to try. The "Mexican Three Card Monte" move is one of my favorites, because it is so simple (you can master it in about 5 minutes), yet looks so smooth and is very hard to detect. Probably overall, my favorite move I have ever seen is described in this book -- the "Diagonal Palm-Shift". It is hard to put into words how elegant this move is; when I first saw a video clip of Dai Vernon performing it, I rewatched the same 5 seconds about 20 times in a row, because it is so amazing and unbelievable to see.Anyway, this book is a classic, and remains useful today, more than 100 years after its publication. It is great. Really great.

Excellent book on card manipulation.I would recommend !You can use the skills taught in this book for "several" reasons :)

Although The book is a complete copy of the original , reading it is very hard because of the small print . The book is only 3" x 4 1/2" . But it's very handy to keep in your pocket as a reference wherever you go as long as you have good eyesight.

The Expert at the Card Table - Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation by S.W. Erdnase - has been hailed at the Bible for Close-up Card Magicians and Gamblers alike. For the longest time I was strictly using The Royal Road to Card Magic DVD Set taught by R. Paul Wilson, along with the book Expert Card Technique. Both of those were great learning tools, but I was very exciting when I purchased a Hardcover copy of Expert at the Card Table for a reasonable price. The book has a nice medium, dark wooden color to it with just regular black letters for the title of the book. My copy has a scratch down the back, but it isn't noticeable while looking at it, only when you run your hand down the back of the book.Now even though a majority of these sleights and some effects are out-dated, but if it were not for these specific sleights and card routines, then we wouldn't have nearly as many creative Magicians who really pour their heart and soul into their work. Which is the exact same feeling that I get whenever I am reading Expert at the Card Table, and there have been a few occasions when the author refers to himself as "we" so it could very well be more than just one person writing such a revolutionary book on cards. So I highly suggest any Magicians, Gambler or just the curious to pick up a copy because you're bound to find a sleight/trick/etc that will fit your own personal routine, perfectly.

It certainly has an aura of intrigue about it! This book is absolutely essential for sneaky card players and conjurers from novice to expert. I was tickled pink when this itsy bitsy book slid out of the comparatively massive envelope and into my hand. This particular edition is an absolute joy as, like I mentioned, it is teeny tiny (I rubber band it to my pack of cards when traveling), gorgeous cloth binding, had a lovely ribbon bookmark, crisply printed bible-type print and charming illustrations. The descriptions are fantastic (cardmen call it "The Bible" for a reason) although I personally had to supplement it occasionally with a youtube video tutorial just so I could really visualize certain maneuvers. The language is wonderfully turn-of-the-(last)-century, yet still relevant and easy to understand. All in all, if I got this as a gift, I would orbit the sun.Side note: you can totally palm this book.

I feel the same way about all my magic books.Not particularly easy to read and fairly obscure, for a reason: Magic obviously doesn't really exist, tricks are nothing more than obscuring the audiences perception, and that takes LOTS of practice.I've gotten a lot of silly criticism over my review, but I have to stand by my initial statement. Great magicians don't really learn magic from books, they learn from other great magicians. I've gotten lots of angry people rant about how you can in fact learn from these books, which is a sad way to spend one's day (yelling at strangers that don't share your opinion), plus I never said you can't learn ANYTHING, just that it's old news and very basic.So let me ask those same people: Think of your top 10 favorite musicians. How many of them do you think learned from an infomercial dvd, or a DIY instructional book?Sure I learned which fret my finger's should go on for the corresponding note I learned to read, but that book can't see the flaws in my technique, it can't show you how to compensate for your pariculular nuances or give you feedback on what your style is, identify known pitfalls you're getting stuck in, etc...This is no different, anything that's more an art than science will have this problem and this book will make you Copperfield like that how to draw book your parents got you as a kid made you Picasso.If you really want to perform magic that someone other than your loving mother wants to see, find a local talent you can apprentice for, read what they recommend (which should be very little)

Very informative. Gift for card player.

Hoje existem milhares de videos no Youtube além de diversos fóruns na internet que discutem o tema. Caso queira navegar em um conhecimento antigo, porém clássico e usado nos dias de hoje, certamente esse é um livro que poderá fazer parte de sua biblioteca e seu conhecimento usado em suas rotinas. Excelente!

Si hablas inglés muy bien te puede servir, pero aviso que es complejo. Son trucos útiles pero el libro fue escrito hace mucho y puede estar desactualizado.

Eines der Standardwerke der Karten Manipulation. Kann es jedem Empfehlen der auf der suche nach einem Buch ist in dem einem die Kartenmagie und Kartenkontrolle näher gebracht wird. Ausführlich und bebildert. Dieses Buch ist auf englisch. Das gibt es aber auch auf deutsch. Einfach mal bei amazon schauen, da habe ich es schon gesehen.

Llegó muy bien el libro , ya quiero empezar a leerlo. Muchas gracias :) buen estado y buenas condiciones. Bye