Sleight Index

Biddle Move

Hold the deck face up in the right hand between the four fingers and the thumb. The four fingers are at the top edge of the cards ( the edge closest to the audience ) and the thumb is at the inner edge. Begin sliding cards of the top of the deck ( this is actually the bottom of the deck because it is turned over face up ) with your left thumb. This is basically a dragging action, as you drag the card to your left and the rest of the deck to your right. You are to show the spectators each card as it is slid off the pack. When you slide the selected card off the deck, get a little finger break underneath it.

So now you have a few cards in your left hand with a little finger break under the top card and the rest of the pack in your other hand. When you move to slide the next card onto the small packet, the selected card ( held by the break ) is secretly added to the bottom of the deck ( which is actually the top). With practice, this becomes real easy to conceal the move.

You must not hesitate or fumble. It must seem as if you are just sliding another card off the deck. From here you can continue to slide cards off until you reach a desired number of cards.

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Double Lift

Hit Lift - Holding the cards in mechanics/dealer's grip, bevel them to the right slightly. Keep a fairly wide space between the middle and ring fingers, and reach in that space with the right hand index finger. And just lift up two cards. You'll develop the feel after about 15-20 minutes of practicing this lift. It also looks more natural than the basic lift, and the motion can be easily copied when displaying a single card, too.

Two card push-off - This will be slightly difficult to fully describe how to do, but, hold the deck in mechanics grip. Then, make your index, middle, and ring fingers flush with the top card, NOT OVER it. Move your pinky to the lower right corner, flush with the stop, but now place some downward pressure. Your thumb should come over the upper left corner of the card right at the border (if the card has a border, if not, right where the index pip would start). That thumb should now just push to the right. VERY IMPORTANT: There should be no conscious effort to push the second card along. It will just happen if the grip is proper.

Double lift from packet of 4 - The way to do this lift will take some practice before it looks like a straight plain old lift. But, you can use the hit lift, but it will FEEL differently from what you're probably going to be used to. The method I use from a packet of 4 is to push off three cards, and catch the third card with my middle finger, then turnover the remaining two cards.

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The Elmsley Count

This is an extremely brief description. There are many starting positions for this sleight; Dai Vernon used it as a display from the fingertips. I use it more as a count so I prefer the mechanics grip because it looks the more natural. Hold the cards in mechanics grip. With the right hand grasp the cards in the center of the right hand edge. Pull off the first card with the left hand as you separate your hands. While your hands are separating the right hand pushes off two cards the left. As you bring your hands together to take the second card, take the double and at the same time you take the double steal back the original first card in your left hand to the bottom of the cards in your right hand. So as you count two, you actually have two cards in each hand. Then pull off the third card then the forth. This sleight should look exactly the same if you perform the sleight of if you count the cards straight in the same manner. It's one that does take a little practice, but it w! ill be one of the most valuable sleights in your arsenal. So learn it well

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Finger Break

Hold the deck in you left hand palm with your pinky against the edge. By lifting off X number of cards off the back edge of the deck with the right thumb you can force the cards to stay separated with your pinky. When you need to lift of those cards or remember the place you can do it without any problems. This move is critical when doing the double-lift and other multiple card maneuvers.

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The Glide

Hold the pack face up in the left hand between the first joint of the thumb on one side and the second joints of the four fingers on the other. Call attention to the bottom card. Turn the pack face downwards and with the tip of the left finger draw the bottom card, back towards the body about 3/4 of an inch. Now with the tip of the right hand second finger draw out the next card, and put it face downwards on the table.

The glide is simply pulling back a bottom card so that the second to the bottom card is revealed alittle(this is done face-down though, so no-one can see the faces) It is only reaveled for touch. The second to bottom card is the slipped out as if it was the bottom card. (Usually it looks 'the bottom card is shown. then the deck is facedown(no attention drawn to this), then the bottom card is slipped out.(Of course, really the 2nd the bottom is slipped out.)'