Richard Osterlind - The Breakthrough Card System.pdf

(855 KB) Pobierz
by Richard Osterlind
20th Anniversary Edition
THE OSTERLIND BREAKTHROUGH CARD SYSTEM
First Electronic Edition
© 2003 by Richard Osterlind
All rights reserved. Duplication by any means is strictly prohibited.
20th Anniversary Edition
by Richard Osterlind
•
E-Book Design & Layout
Jim Sisti
“The discovery of the Breakthrough System is an amazing achievement.
It is a fine testament to the value of perseverance. Mr. Osterlind con-
ducted his search with no guarantee of success, and with the
odds...enormously against finding a system that works and is easy to
remember. That he was able to find one, working entirely by hand, is
nothing short of astonishing.”
—Robin Dawes from
An Analysis of Richard Osterlind’s Breakthrough Card System
Introduction
T
he Osterlind Card System (also referred
to as the Breakthrough Card System) is
my finest achievement. On its 20
th
anni-
versary, I am laying it out here for all to pos-
sess in the hope that it will take its rightful place
in the annals of card magic. I do this because,
in all honesty, ownership of this system cannot
be claimed, as it is not an invention, but a dis-
covery. From the day the first modern deck of
52 playing cards was printed, this system ex-
isted, waiting only to be found. I was the one
who looked for and uncovered it, penned its
explanation, and now am happy to gift it to the
magic world. I can speak in the most glowing
terms of its beauty and practicality with no per-
sonal egotism involved, as it is independent of
me. I hope all magicians will take the time to
understand what follows and the enormity of
its possibilities.
Long before Double Lifts, Second Deals,
False Counts and jugglery with playing cards,
there existed the basic effect of discovering a
selected card. All classic card magic literature
addresses this basic effect first and to lower its
importance is not being honest or historically
accurate. There are thousands of wonderful pre-
sentations available to the magician using noth-
ing more than this device and the few I have
chosen to use over the years have served me
well. Locations come in many forms and the
stacked deck is only one of them. It can be,
however, equal or superior to any other method
in the right situations and when handled pro-
fessionally. All one has to do is glimpse the
card above the one removed to know the
selection’s identity. The predominant problem
with many stacks is the possibility of the spec-
tator discovering the system. If this issue is
eliminated entirely, you have a powerful tool.
In order to have a deck stacked so as to
avoid detection, the cards must appear to be in
a completely random sequence. There are two
ways to accomplish this. The first is to have
the cards memorized or mathematically linked
to the number in the stack in which they lie.
The second is to have each card leading to the
next using some type of formula. While present
thinking seems to favor the first, I never was
lead in that direction. In truth, I never believed
knowing at what position a card lay in a deck
to be nearly of equal and practical value as
knowing what the next card in the stack was.
Yes, a removed card can be determined with a
memorized deck, but that method requires two
steps. First, one must determine the number the
known card lies at, then one must compute the
card for the next number. This takes time and
offers twice the possibility of mistakes in ac-
tual performing situations. The second method
of simply learning the next card mathematically
from the one before it is much simpler and ex-
pedient. This is the situation with the Osterlind
Card System. Because so many magicians have
asked me how I came up with the system, I
will try to explain the events as best as I can
remember.
Let me first put you in the frame of mind
I was in over 20 years ago when I began work-
ing on this. I had been performing for years in
all types of situations and I had learned the
importance of a good stacked deck. After us-
ing the Si Stebbins system in the beginning of
my career, I advanced to the Eight-Kings ar-
rangement. This setup looked less suspicious
than the first, but still could not stand up to
close scrutiny or the deck left in the hands of a
spectator. It occurred to me that if a deck could
be stacked so that its order looked entirely hap-
hazard, that artifice, combined with a few false
shuffles, could create miracles. I played with
the Nikola system for a while, but it didn’t re-
ally satisfy me for the reasons listed above. It
was the idea of a mathematically, stacked deck
that really intrigued me.
One day, I decided to begin looking for
such a system. Please remember, at this time, I
had no idea if such a setup were even feasible.
As a matter of fact, upon reflection, it seemed
more impossible than possible. Think about the
problem. A deck of cards is made up of 4 sets

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin