Mechanical Gaffed Deck

[Bill Mullins]

25 or so years ago, I got an oddly gaffed deck, the likes of which I haven't seen since. It was purchased at the Opryland Magic shop, and I've long since lost it. I'm hoping someone here knows about it and can tell me the history.

The cards had six notches/holes cut in one end, in a binary pattern. That is, the first card had NNNNNH (binary one), the second one had NNNNHN (binary two), the third had NNNNHH (binary three) and so on. With the deck came a small aluminum stick that could go through the hole/notch, and you could pick up with the stick the cards that had holes (the notched ones fell off). By picking up cards and shifting them to the rear from left to right, you put the deck in order (I believe this is the same mathematical principle used by Bro. John Hamman in his Chinese Shuffle, except he up/down jogged). You could also separate by suits or colors, depending on which holes you stuck the stick in.

What was this deck called?
Who invented it?
Is it still marketed?

Thanks.

[Guest]

That's a Paul Swinford item. Alas, my deck and the instructions are long gone... I think he called it the "Cyber Deck." & I think he released it in the early 80's. I'm pretty sure it was produced by Haines House of Cards... if not, they might know more. I wouldn't be surprised if they still have a few packs in 'the back room.'

Haines website: http://www.haineshoc.com/

Paul was a big fan / innovator of faro/bianary effects and the deck you speak of replaced time consuming (reverse faro) and difficult (faro) cardwork with some holes and a stick. It was an interesting item... but it never really 'caught on.'

[Don Spurrier]

Bill, the trick is properly named "The Computer Cards" and, indeed, was marketed by Haines. The instructions credit both Swinford and Clyde Cairy. It is not indicated who contributed what. I do recall that Swinford was really into faro shuffle effects. This was many years ago, and with the public's sophistication with today's computer, this deck should appear somewhat archaic.