Spread Cull

Discuss your favorite close-up tricks and methods.
Guest

Spread Cull

Postby Guest » January 14th, 2002, 9:51 pm

All-

I am hoping some card workers out there can give me some tips on culling multiple cards. I have the cull of one card down pat, but for some reason I fumble a lot when trying to cull more than one card (or at least that is what the bathroom mirror says). Can anyone give me some pointers on how to smooth out this move?

Thanks in advance-
dave

Pete McCabe
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Re: Spread Cull

Postby Pete McCabe » January 14th, 2002, 10:40 pm

Dave,

The spread cull is pretty much the only control I use anymore, and I wish I had some more specific advice for you. Unfortunately all I can say is practice.

I can offer you two words of advice on practicing. The words are Soft and Slow. This comes from Jamy Ian Swiss, so you're not just taking my word for it.

Hold the cards gently in your hand. The harder you hold the cards, the more your muscles tense up, the harder it is for them both to do the move correctly and to learn how to do the move consistently.

And do the move slowly. It's like learning a song on the piano; the shortest route to playing it fast and well is to start playing it slowly and well and then practice to get faster. The alternative -- to start fast and badly and practice to get better -- takes much much longer, since your body is constantly drilling the bad technique.

But stick with it. The ability to borrow a deck and cull the four aces or a royal flush under the guise of checking for jokers, (or four kings while removing the four aces, etc.) will be a powerful weapon for you all your life.


Pete

Guest

Re: Spread Cull

Postby Guest » January 15th, 2002, 7:51 am

Pete-

Thanks for your advice. Let me be more specific about the problem. Maybe it is a technique error. After I cull the first card, and it rides on the bottom of the deck I find my right fingers reaching awkwardly for the next card and unable to cull it as well under the stack.
When you begin your cull do you collapse the deck and then respread? I am trying to work on that type of action to provide more cover, but anything after the first card gives me fits.

Thanks again.

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Spread Cull

Postby Richard Kaufman » January 15th, 2002, 8:14 am

There are very specific techniques to culling multiple cards that make it a more certain process. There is a description in the Dingle book that contains some details.
Most of the other material is by Marlo.
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Guest

Re: Spread Cull

Postby Guest » January 15th, 2002, 8:51 am

Hi Dave,

If you're following directions right, culling the later cards should be easier than the first card. They almost automatically flow under.

Pete McCabe
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Joined: January 18th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Simi Valley, CA

Re: Spread Cull

Postby Pete McCabe » January 15th, 2002, 11:35 am

Dave,

Maybe you're not pulling the culled card far enough under the deck into your right hand. When I do it the right edge of the culled card lines up with the right edge of the spread (almost in a right-handed gambler's cop position). This frees the right fingers to cull the next card.

Also, from this point on your right hand isn't really holding the spread, it's holding the culled card, which holds up the spread. This seems to also free the right fingers up for subsequent culls.

Hope these tips help.

Hannes Freytag
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Location: Germany

Re: Spread Cull

Postby Hannes Freytag » January 15th, 2002, 1:31 pm

Hi,
i only wanna say, that i have got the same problem.
I learned the spread cull from roberto giobbis book "card college" and there is no solution for this problem.
i would be happy somebody can help us
(perhaps somebody can send me a copy of an other descripion of the spread cull...)
thanks a lot
Hannes (LordFreytag@gmx.de)

PS: Excuse my english - i'm german

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Spread Cull

Postby Richard Kaufman » January 15th, 2002, 1:42 pm

Multiple Spread Culling is extremely difficult. Jennings' Wedge Cull is a very clever solution to a tough problem. You might want to check it out in "The Classic Magic of Larry Jennings."
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Hannes Freytag
Posts: 24
Joined: January 18th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Spread Cull

Postby Hannes Freytag » January 15th, 2002, 1:46 pm

Hi,
can somebody perhaps tell me what are the other solutions that are simillar to the spread cull?

Hannes

Guest

Re: Spread Cull

Postby Guest » January 15th, 2002, 6:27 pm

Here's a tip: After the first card (the easy one)is culled, do not try and grab and pull and reach for following cards. Instead, (and this is tough to explain) when you spot your next card, prepare to cull it by treating everything in your right hand as a solid unit. You'll have the first culled card, you'll have a small block of cards directly above it, and finally, a small spread of cards.

Instead of reaching and grabing for the next target card with your right fingers, simply move that entire unit over it.

Now, you're not reaching or pulling any more target cards under the spread with your right fingers, but instead, you're using your left fingers and pushing that target card under that unit, until it rests above the preceding card.

Very difficult to explain, but it works and looks perfectly natural.

Eventually you build up speed and it merely looks like your spreading through the cards.

Remember, only the first card is reached for.

Guest

Re: Spread Cull

Postby Guest » January 15th, 2002, 7:10 pm

ChrisDavid good advice I just want to clarify one thing. There is no info on the spread cull in cc 3 only in number 1. I don't say this to be a know it I just wouldn't want someone to get a book that didn't contain the info they needed. I personally learned the spread cull from the dingle book. Also on the second deal paul cummins made an exellent post titled "mulling over culling" it would probably be worth emailing him about because it was good. his email is pcummins@fasdiu.com.

Noah Levine

P.S. I didn't post mulling over culling because it was put on a website that you must pay for ( genii formum is better but that is beside the point). Also I wouldn't want mr. cummins to feel I was plagerising him in anyway.

Guest

Re: Spread Cull

Postby Guest » January 15th, 2002, 7:13 pm

You're right, Noah. Thanks for clearing that up. It's Card College 1.

Guest

Re: Spread Cull

Postby Guest » January 15th, 2002, 10:13 pm

Thank God...exactly where I learned it from and it kind of glosses over the explanation. That is probably the only thing I found wrong with Card College. Giobbi is an absolute master and I love the series. It is very easy to learn from!!

Originally posted by Hannes:
Hi,
i only wanna say, that i have got the same problem.
I learned the spread cull from roberto giobbis book "card college" and there is no solution for this problem.
i would be happy somebody can help us
(perhaps somebody can send me a copy of an other descripion of the spread cull...)
thanks a lot
Hannes (LordFreytag@gmx.de)

PS: Excuse my english - i'm german

Paul Cummins
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Re: Spread Cull

Postby Paul Cummins » January 16th, 2002, 10:26 am

"I am hoping some card workers out there can give me some tips on culling multiple cards."

Last July there was discussion about culling cards on the TSD board. I posted a message there that may, or at least I hope might be, helpful here...


"After lectures I get lots of questions about both culling and the side steal. If it's helpful to anyone out there, here are the most salient points I try to make to folks when talking about culling.

1.As has been stated by a few, the performer should be looking at the left end of the spread cards in search of the target card or cards to cull. This is so that you gain a second or a half-second on your decision to cull before the card reaches the middle of the spread to be culled and helps to avoid a change in rhythm when the cull actually happens.

2.Very importantly, *both* hands must be moving towards and away from one another during the entire spreading process. This movement will also help to disguise the actual moment when a cull is executed. Helpfully, it also helps you to establish the rhythm mentioned above.

3. Always hold the cards very flat and very gently (almost *loosely*). When first learning the cull, and many sleights, the tendency is to grip the cards with more tension than is necessary or desireable.

4. It is helpful to slightly outjog a group of about 5 or 8 cards early in the spreading process (close to the face of the deck) as this *slightly* outjogged group will help to provide cover for culled cards as they are delivered below the right-hand group.
When executing the actual cull it is best to deliver the culled card straight across to the right. However, the performer should tend toward culling the card a bit closer to the inside short edge of the right-hand-held cards than to the outside short edge. Even if you can get a quick glimpse of the card at the inner edge of the spread as it is culled, your audience will not - and certainly they would see the card at the outside short edge if you
were to tend that way.

5. It is only necessary to place your left thumb against the card above the target card in the spread on the *first* card culled. This, of course, provides friction that prevents the right-hand cards from moving to the right as one's right fingers cull the first card. After the first card is culled then you may use it to clamp the right-hand cards (using your right fingers to hold the culled card against them) during the subsequent culls. In fact, the
right fingers need not pull the cards culled after the first one to the right - the left fingers may literally deal (or, deliver) the subsequently culled cards below the right-hand spread. This is another function of moving both hands toward and away from one another and of establishing that rhythm.

6. After the first card is culled it is used to clamp the right-hand spread until the newly culled card is delivered below and against the previously culled card. This happens as the hands come together during their to and fro movement; the left-hand spread is pushed slightly further than usual until the right fingers can gently grip (*not* pull) this newly culled card. As the hands separate the culled cards are allowed to rest on the right fingers and the next time the hands come together the left-hand cards may be fed between the right-hand spread and the cards lying on the right fingers until another card is spotted at the left side of the spread for culling.

7. After the first card is culled, subsequent cards are culled beneath one another. I've found that many folks who ask me about the cull are able to cull one card but have great difficulty culling more than one card because they are trying to cull subsequent cards *above* the previously culled card...

8. When two cards you wish to cull are together in the spread cull them as one card, do not cull them separately! This requires a slightly larger in/out swing with the hands, but that swing is far more welcome than breaking the rhythm you've established by culling the two cards individually.

9. It is helpful to keep your left hand slighty forward of our right hand and spread the cards at a slight diagonal from your left hand to your right.

10. If the card you wish to cull is at the face or below the face card, cut the deck and respread; or, spread about 7 cards into your right hand and then push them into the deck as you square in order to stop what you're doing to make a point with patter. Then begin to respread and proceed with the cull.

11. If the card is third, fourth, or fifth from the face, slide the entire small spread of right-hand cards over the target card until it is well below the face card of the little spread. Now pull your left hand to the left (beginning the in/out hands movement and starting to establish that rhythm) until the right long side of the card that was below the target card snaps lightly off the left long side of the target card and continue spreading.

I hope this helps some folks. I think the most important points are, once the actual mechanics are in muscle-memory, that the deck is held flat and lightly, and that the back-and-forth rhythm of the hands is established and kept.

Paul

Guest

Re: Spread Cull

Postby Guest » January 16th, 2002, 11:46 am

Paul-

Wow great info here, some real work on the cull. Very informative and I appreciate every word of it.

Thanks-
dave

Hannes Freytag
Posts: 24
Joined: January 18th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Spread Cull

Postby Hannes Freytag » January 16th, 2002, 2:19 pm

Hi,
thanks a lot for this posting. I think it will be very helpfull :)

Hannes


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