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Bob Wallace / Magic
← The Expert at the Card Table
S. W. ErdnaseContents

The Back Palm

WE ARE afraid the above title is a misnomer. The cards to be concealed are transferred to the back of the hand. Hold the card in the right hand face up between the tip of the thumb at one end and tips of second and third fingers at opposite end, the first joints of the first and little fingers hold the sides. (See Fig. 77.) To make the “palm” slip the tips of the second and third fingers under the end of the card and curl them down until they come under the thumb, at the same time pushing the card outward with the thumb until the inner corners reach the first and little fingers, which hold it in position. (See Fig. 78.) Now, straighten out the four fingers, clipping the corners of the card between the little and third fingertips and the first and second fingertips, and the card lies along the back of the hand. (See Fig. 79.)

Figure 77 from The Back Palm, The Expert at the Card Table.
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Figure 78 from The Back Palm, The Expert at the Card Table.
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Figure 79 from The Back Palm, The Expert at the Card Table.
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To bring it to the front again curl the four fingers again into the palm, straighten the first fingertip a little so that the thumb may take its place holding the card, then draw the card as far as possible toward the wrist with the thumb and little finger, straightening out the other fingers, then clip the corner between the first and second fingertips, and slide the little finger along the side of the card until it is straight out, this time clipping the outer corners between the same fingers instead of palming in the usual way.

Several cards may be transferred back and forth in this manner, and one at a time may be produced from the back without showing the rest. Perfection in the feat enables a performer to show both sides of the hand, transferring the cards as it is turned over. A slight up-and-down motion and-a backward turn of the wrist is used.

As an exhibition of dexterity this is probably unsurpassed in card manipulation, but it is of little aid in the performance of tricks. However, everything may be put to some use, and the back palm once helped us out of a difficult situation–“but that is another story.”

Book contents

Front matter

  1. Title Page
  2. Preface and Introduction
  3. Table of Contents

Card-table artifice

  1. Professional Secrets
  2. Technical Terms
  3. Position For Shuffle
  4. Blind Shuffles
  5. Blind Riffles
  6. Blind Cuts
  7. Fancy Blind Cuts
  8. One-Handed Fancy True Cut
  9. To Indicate the Location for the Cut
  10. Bottom Dealing
  11. Top And Bottom Dealing With One Hand
  12. Second Dealing
  13. Ordinary Methods Of Stocking, Locating And Securing
  14. Stock Shuffle
  15. Erdnase System of Stock Shuffling
  16. The Erdnase System of Cull Shuffling
  17. The Erdnase System of Palming
  18. To Maintain the Bottom Palm While Dealing
  19. To Hold the Location of Cut While Dealing
  20. Shifts — Card-Table Artifice
  21. To Ascertain the Top Cards While Riffling and Reserve Them at Bottom
  22. Mode of Holding the Hand
  23. Skinning the Hand
  24. The Player Without an Ally
  25. Three Card Monte
  26. Mexican Three Card Monte

Legerdemain

  1. Legerdemain
  2. Shifts — Legerdemain
  3. The Blind Shuffle for Securing Selected Card
  4. Forcing
  5. Palming
  6. The Back Palm
  7. Changes
  8. Transformations-Two Hands
  9. Transformations-One Hand
  10. Blind Shuffles, Retaining Entire Order
  11. Methods for Determining a Card Thought of
  12. To Get Sight of Selected Card
  13. The Slide
  14. Favorite Sleights for Terminating Tricks

Card tricks

  1. Card Tricks
  2. The Exclusive Coterie
  3. The Divining Rod
  4. The Invisible Flight
  5. Tricks With the Prearranged Deck
  6. The Traveling Cards
  7. The Row of Ten Cards
  8. The Acrobatic Jacks
  9. A Mind-Reading Trick
  10. Power of Concentrated Thought
  11. The Acme of Control
  12. The Card and Handkerchief
  13. The Top and Bottom Production
  14. The Three Aces
  15. The Card and Hat

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