The Secret of the Palmettos

Methods and Effects with the Texan '45 Palmetto Deck
New Light on the Phantom of the Card Table

1998
Written by Jeff Busby
Work of Jeff Busby
124 pages (Spiralbound), published by Jeff Busby Magic, Inc.
Illustrated with photographs
Language: English
59 entries
This publication has been reviewed by
Cover photograph
Creators Title Comments & References Page AA Categories
Jeff Busby Introduction
vii
Jeff Busby Chapter 1: Historical Prelude on Walter Scott, Eddie McGuire
  • The "Work" Circulates
  • The Phantom's Manuscript Resurfaces
  • A Problem Posed
 		1
Jeff Busby Chapter 2: New Light on a Legend on Walter Scott, Eddie McGuire
  • What Really Happened That Night
  • Building the Legend
  • Background to Collusion
  • "The Battle of the Century"
  • The Phantom Goes Public
  • A Letter from Charlie Miller
 		9
Jeff Busby Chapter 3: The Work and Its Background on the gambling history of edge work, credit information
  • End Marking
  • The Evolution of Gambler's Edge Work
  • The Real Work
  • Johnson Tips It
  • Edge Work for Sale
edge work vs bevel edge work
Related to 21
Jeff Busby Chapter 4: Magicians and Edge Work on edge work in print, DeLand's Wonder Pack, credit information
  • Cutting Any Card Called
  • Downs' Work
  • One-Way Edge Marking
  • Tarbell's Work
  • Hilliard's Omnibus Exploration
  • Crimp Edge Work
  • Jack McMillen's Work
  • J.G. Thompson Jr.'s Method
  • Walsh's Method
  • Merlini's Method
  • Kosky's Method
  • Marlo's Edge Reader
  • Gene Grant's Method
  • Karroll Priest's Method
  • The "Cardini" Deck
  • Burton's Devil's Deck Variant
  • No Playing Cards - Strictly for the Mentalist
Related to 27
Jack McMillen Astral Vision edge-marked diagonal line, card location after riffle shuffle, mechanical interlocking chain principle, with more details and corrections by Jeff Busby
Related toAlso published here
  • "Mental Mysteries with Cards" (Larsen & Wright, 1942)
 31
Jeff Busby Chapter 5: The Texans and The Secret on the one-way feature of the Texan '45 Palmetto deck
  • Discovering the Secret of the Palmettos
  • Understanding the Work
  • A First Exercise
  • Putting in the Work
  • The Advantages of the Texan
 		40
Jeff Busby Chapter 6: Basic Concepts and Handling
53
Jeff Busby Tilt Check spotting the position of an edge-marked key card
 		53
Jeff Busby Basic Cut Location cutting to an edge-marked key card
 		54
Jeff Busby What About a Little Finger Break? on getting a break at an edge-marked key card with the left fourth finger and generally advising against it
 		56
Transfer of Thumb-Count Break to Little Finger
Also published here 57
Jeff Busby If You Miss corrections for previous Basic Cut Location
 		57
Jeff Busby Thousands of Tricks on different locator cards, and the option of doing that material with an edge-marked card
 		58
Jeff Busby A One-Way Street on the one-way principle, credit information, and the option of doing that material with an edge-marked one-way deck
 		60
Jeff Busby One-Way Glass card selected out-of-hands from shuffled deck, performer names position of selection, almost no-touch, out-of-hand reversal method
Inspired by
  • "Mind Mirror" (Jack McMillen, "Mental Mysteries with Cards", Larsen & Wright, 1942)
 62
Jeff Busby Dumping the Work shuffling a one-way edge-marked deck to lose the orientation
 		64
Jeff Busby Chapter 7: Controls and Placements intro on key cards
 		65
Jeff Busby As a Substitute for a Top or Bottom Key using edge-marked card instead of a standard key
Related to 65
Jeff Busby Bottom Key Placement peek and running cut, key starts on bottom
Inspired by 66
Jeff Busby Top Key Placement peek and running cut, key starts on top
 		68
Jeff Busby Double Control two times peek and running cuts, key card ends up between both selections
 		68
Jeff Busby Shuffle Throwoff shuffling around edge-marked key card, riffle or overhand
 		69
Jeff Busby Mental and Physical two chosen cards are located in different ways
 		70
Jeff Busby Chapter 8: That "Freely Selected" Card intro on forcing cards
 		72
Dai Vernon Classic Force Finesse force card starts fifth below break
Also published here 72
Fred Robinson Ultimate Force under-spread force, starts with cull, brief
Also published here 73
Jeff Busby Another Historical Side Trip credit information on peek forces with edge-marks
Related to 73
Jeff Busby The Force at Your Fingertips credit information on precursors for fingertip peek force with edge-marked force card
Related to 75
Jeff Busby Basic Fingertip Force with edge-marked force card and timing
 		77
Jeff Busby Using the Texan Key to Force Other Cards forcing card above or below edge-marked card, or ranging force from small memorized stack
Related to 79
Jeff Busby Chapter 9: Expanding the Principles
81
Jeff Busby On-the-Fly Speller distant edge-marked key
 		81
Jeff Busby Two Fly Don't Bother Me two edge-marked keys
 		82
Jeff Busby Super Fly card fingertip peeked at, then named and spelled to, two edge-marked keys
 		83
Jeff Busby Red/Black Fishing red card and black picture card
 		85
Jeff Busby Strictly Mental fingertip-peeked at card is divined
 		86
Jeff Busby More Aspects more on fishing and Al Koran type deck, credit information, Richard Osterlind's Radar Deck
 		86
Jeff Busby Chapter 10: The Texan Card Stab intro with credit information
 		89
Jeff Busby Pack Stabber I selection stabbed to in rubber-banded deck with bill wrapped around
Inspired by 92
Jeff Busby Pack Stabber II card stabbed to in bill-wrapped deck, value then is used to count to selection
Related toVariations 94
Jeff Busby Pack Stabber III card stabbed to in bill-wrapped deck, value then is used to count to selection, fair conditions
Inspired by 95
Jeff Busby Chapter 11: Gambling Demos and Shuffles intro on gambling demonstrations in general
 		97
Jeff Busby In Lieu of the Punch using edge-marked cards instead of punched cards, credit information, Walter Scott
Related to 98
Jeff Busby On the Miracle Ace Cutting
100
Jeff Busby The Texans and Shuffle Work on using (bevel) edge-work in riffle shuffle context
Related to 102
Jeff Busby Zarrow Shuffle Controls on Karl Fulves and his claims and slants regarding Jeff Busby
Related to 103
Jeff Busby The Five Card Mental Force selection procedure for Mental Reverse type tricks in which one of five face-down tabled cards is chosen
Related to 105
Jeff Busby Fingerprint Detection credit information, location with fingerprint presentation, adapting previous selection method
Related to 106
Jeff Busby Recycling Shuffle stock control with edge-marked key card
Related to 107
Jeff Busby Automatic Block Transfer edge-marked key combined with Zarrow
 		108
Jeff Busby Chapter 12: Shuffles, Subtlety, and Math
110
Jeff Busby The Hi-Lo Stack intro on High-Low separated deck combined with Gilbreath principle
 		110
Jeff Busby Magnetic Blackjack High-Low separated deck combined with Gilbreath principle
Related to 111
Jeff Busby Riffle Shuffle Convincer combination of tabled faro with Zarrow to apparently shuffle twice and have a fair squaring action (optionally by spectator) after the Zarrow with still incompletely squared deck
Inspired by
  • Jack McMillen concept from "L. W. False Shuffle" (William Larsen Sr., T. Page Wright, Genii, Feb. 1937)
Related to 		113
Jeff Busby Vernon Triumph Shuffle Handling
113
Jeff Busby About the Tabled Riffle Faro credit information and comments
Related to 121
Jeff Busby The Gray Code credit information, comments on the possibility to combine gray code stack work with one-way edge-marked cards
 		122
Jeff Busby Afterword
124
Data entered by Denis Behr, May 2022.