I don’t consider myself a card magician although I do know a few card tricks. I also do watch and practice some card magic because one thing about cards, they are always around. There probably isn’t a house you can go to that doesn’t have at least one deck of cards laying around in a drawer somewhere. At the very worst, every gas station, dollar store and all night pharmacy has them for sale. Knowing a few hard-hitting, slight-less or self-working card tricks can fill that void in a quiet evening and make you look like David Copperfield.
If you do practice some tricks you would find that a deck does not last very long. After umpteen attempts, a faro shuffling, double lifts and false cuts the deck starts to look like a truck ran over it. Because of that, I gravitated to buying the bulk pack at Sam’s Club. However, some moves just seemed impossible, as if the cards were fighting you all the way. After a few straddle faros it was as if you were trying to weave together a stack of bricks. Thus I began my quest to find a deck that was easy to use, reasonably priced and lasted a bit so it would be cost effective.
I looked at the decks considered to be superior in quality such as Tally-Hos. The looked good and felt good but at almost $6 a deck, I thought that was a bit much. I’m looking to learn card magic not take out a second mortgage. I started to play around with Bicycle Elite Edition. It is priced somewhere in between what the wholesale club cost per deck and what a high-end card deck would cost. Coming in at about $4 a deck, it allows you to experiment with some advanced card moves but still retain some integrity without seeming like a struggle to use them. I did find them to be a little thinner than regular Bicycle stock and that made my overhand shuffle a bit floppy. By no means is my search over, I’ll be ordering Richard Turners Gold Seal deck next which comes in at the same price point and see how that compares. Supposedly it is a thicker stock but cut for easy shuffling. I’ll let you know down the road how those work out. If you are struggling with some moves pick up a deck of Elites to play with and see if that shuffle is more consistent.