Dealing Centers Onehanded

I told someone I was getting the aforementioned Marlo DVDs and mentioned that he taught a one-handed second deal and the magician in question asked me if I was a masochist. There's something to be said for that view, the one-handed center deal is not taken lightly, then again, everyone needs a vice, or so they tell me, and if mine is dedication to card control and sleight of hand I don't feel I have much to worry about. However, given the nature of the deal I won't dedicate a great deal of effort to explaining them.

Throw Centers

Here you have one of two choices, either the first or second variation (not listed as such) of the push-off center technique described previously. Personally, I find the second is more elegant and the first is easier. Naturally, this is the means by which you will get the card out from the deck, you then simply combine the throw motion with it for the complete shuffle.

Spin Centers

I'm going to cover this deal in two parts, first, the traditional center deal and second an angle separation variant where the cards are located in different portions of the deck.

In the case of the normal spin center deal, you hold the break as per the "V" style grip, with your forefinger, while controlling the lower half of the deck with your pinky. When you are ready to perform the center deal, in the action of pushing off the top card and twisting your wrist inward, you use the tip of your middle finger to angle jog the bottom card of the top packet. (See figure 609 for an exposed view.)

Figure 609.

From this point you relocate your other fingers as you normally would for a spin deal and deal out the center card instead of the top card. This process of dealing from the center is quite easy and actually the basis for the original handling (not as a deal). If you wanted to refine this handling, you could try using your pinky to maintain the break and only raising the front of the deck as you are about to deal centers. I don't deal one-handed centers often enough to play around with it significantly, but it's a thought for the ambitious among you.

Now, if you wanted to perform an interesting demonstration, you could take say four aces, place them in different parts of the deck and insert them, then angle jog them as you generally would for performing the spin deal action. (I am describing this technique not because it is practical as anything other than a demonstration, but simply because it fits so well with the technique). Your grip around them would then involve the cards protruding on the right side in an angled manner with the middle finger above the upper right corner while the ring finger and pinky are below the cards. (See figure 610.)

Figure 610.

Now, you would perform a series of deals dealing out the aces with one-hand to demonstrate how it could be done even when the cards were in different parts of the deck.

Stud Centers

A stud center is obviously just a throw center minus the throw and with the addition of the stud deal movement, again, I'm sure you can easily combine the parts together in order to create a successful deal. For some reason I tend to find myself performing it within the grace and finesse of bottoms or Greeks, something to do with a greater difficulty in getting the cards out.

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