[MyMagic] Gambling, Cheating and Stuff

MyMagic Headline eNews #366
August 20, 2012

The Gaffed Put & Take Spinner:
Put & Take is a gambling game using a Dreidel or Top and is part of the Teetotums family of games which have been around since the sixteenth century. The six-sided Tops pictured here were very popular in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century.

The Put & Take gambling game that they were used for was extremely popular and even called a “craze” since all you needed was some money and the Put & Take Top. The basic P&T Top had six sides which were alternately marked: P1, P2, P3 and T1, T2, T3. This simple game worked like this: everyone in the game would start by putting some money in the pot, let’s say $5. Each player would then be given an opportunity to spin the Top. If it landed on P1 they would PUT an additional dollar in the pot, P2: $2 and P3: $3. However if the top landed on T1, T2 or T3 they would TAKE $1, $2 or $3 from the pot. A very simple game which seems very fair and random.

The game was so popular that there were movies, Broadway shows and even songs written about it. Even though it was very popular in bars and social gatherings, things all of a sudden started to change when gambling companies started producing gaffed Tops that could be controlled by the cheater. Pretty soon the players were divided into cheaters and suckers where the suckers have no chance of winning.

So, why am I telling you all of this? For a very limited time I am giving you an opportunity to purchase a gaffed Put & Take Spinner at a very, very low price.

To find out how the gaff works and how to get one go to: www.MyMagic.com

While we are on this gambling theme below you will find another bargain. Four books relating to Erdnase and to gambling for one low price.

Wanted to remind everyone that next month I will be performing and lecturing at the Carolina Close-Up Convention along with Rick Merrill, David Regal, Doug Conn, Andi Gladwin, David Corsaro, Stephen Bargatze, and Ray Kosby. They are close to selling out, so if you want to go, reserve now. For more information go to: http://www.tricsconvention.com

Also if you find yourself around a TV this week try to catch America’s Got Talent. They are planning to have more magic this week.

Until next time, Meir

HARVEY BERG’S THREE DEGREES CLICK HERE: For more info and to order. This book revolves around one great routine that will give your audiences the impression of you having a super intellect and psychic powers. The basic version was previously released in a private manuscript which debut at the 2009 Psychic Entertainer’s Association’s annual conference where it was a huge hit and an instant sell-out. The basic routine is: A deck of cards is handed to a spectator, and that is the last time you touch the cards. The spectator shuffles the cards and deals groups of thirteen cards to three audience members and keeps one packet for herself. One of the spectators is freely chosen and you proceed to miraculously name every single card in that person’s hand. There are three versions taught. All three are self-working but the amount of mental effort involved varies. Also included is a related routine titled Fait Accompli.

ZARROW: A LIFETIME OF MAGIC CLICK HERE: For more info and to order. Herb Zarrow has spent a lifetime of magic — exploring and creating in the art he loves. Best known, of course, for his legendary Zarrow Shuffle, one of the great, thundering moves and perhaps the only sleight to travel from the card trick to the card table. Herb is also the originator of many other sleights, subterfuges, and routines — with playing cards, coins, handkerchiefs, ropes, and rubber bands — many of which resulted from his long association with the greats of magic, men like Vernon, Miller, Carlyle, Balducci, Walton, Diaconis, and others. Zarrow: A Lifetime of Magic is a cornucopia containing over one hundred and fifty of Herb’s most cherished secrets, sleights and routines, most of which appear here in print for the first time. The book, a distillation of one humble man’s journey to the essence of his art, is destined to join a short list of true classics of magic.