Expert at the Card Table by S. W. Erdnase

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Expert at the Card Table by S. W. Erdnase

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"In offering this book to the public, the writer uses no sophistry as an excuse for its existence. The hypocritical cant of reformed gamblers, or whining, mealy-mouthed pretensions of piety, are not foisted as a justification for imparting the knowledge it contains.

To all lovers of card games it should prove interesting, and as a basis of card entertainment it is practically inexhaustible. It may caution the unwary who are innocent of guile, and it may inspire the crafty by enlightenment on artifice. It may demonstrate to the tyro that he cannot beat a man at his own game, and it may enable the skilled in deception to take a post-graduate course in the highest and most artistic branches of his vocation.

But it will not make the innocent vicious, or transform the pastime player into a professional; or make the fool wise, or curtail the annual crop of suckers; but whatever the result may be, if it sells it will accomplish the primary motive of the author - as he needs the money.
- S. W. Erdnase

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The Classic Treatise On Card Manipulation.

Often referred to simply as Erdnase (or even The Bible), 'The Expert at the Card Table' is an extensive book on the art of sleight of hand published in 1902 by S. W. Erdnase, a pseudonymous author whose identity has remained a mystery for over a century

“The Expert at the Card Table is the most famous, carefully studied book ever published on the art of manipulating cards at gaming tables.”
- Martin Gardner

For almost a century, this book has been considered indispensable to attaining the highest level of card mastery. In it, S.W. Erdnase, a supreme master of card manipulation, teaches card enthusiasts how to perform the dazzling tricks and sleights-many of them how own creations-that made him famous.

The first section of the book deals with card table artifice, or, to put it more bluntly, cheating at cards. Step by step, Mr. Erdnase demonstrates his own systems of false shuffling, false riffling and cutting, dealing from the bottom and such slick moves as palming cards, “skinning the hand,” even three-card monte.

The second section covers legerdemain: the art of forcing a card, one- and two-hand transformations, the devious “slide” and more. Card handlers will love Erdnase’s selection of dazzling card tricks, including The Acrobatic Jacks, The Exclusive Coterie, The Divining Rod, The Invisible Flight, a Mind Reading Tick and many others.

In an informative foreword to this edition, Martin Gardner relates the unhappy details of the author’s personal life, and recounts the history of this famous book, whose methods, Mr. Gardner asserts, “are as useful today by magicians and card hustlers as they were in 1902. This book is still the bible of card ‘mechanics,’ and as much a delight to read as it was in the early years of this century.”

Pages 130 – Soft Bound