How to Find a Card With the Si Stebbins Deck Setup

The Si Stebbins deck setup makes the deck seem to be randomly ordered, but in fact, the cards are in a specific order. It allows the magician to spot a card inserted into the deck. It was developed by William Coffin, also known as Si Stebbins, and has two versions.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Si Stebbins Classic

1. Begin with the 3 of clubs.

2. Order the cards by suit in CHaSeD order, clubs (C), hearts (H), spades (S) and diamonds (D). Also order the cards by value, increasing the value by three in each successive card. Therefore, the second card will be a 6 of hearts, the third will be the 9 of spades, the fourth card will be the queen of diamonds, the fifth card will be the 2 of clubs, and so forth.

3. Perform the trick, allowing a card to be selected and memorized by an audience member and then inserted into the deck at random. The deck may be cut by the audience member or false-shuffled by the magician.

4. Spread out the cards and look for the card that is out of place. If the deck has been cut, the sequence will not start with the 3 of clubs, but the order will be unchanged.

Si Stebbins Pro

5. Begin with the 3 of any suit.

6. Order the cards by increasing the value of 3 each time, paying no attention to suits.

7. Perform the trick as in Section 1.

Tips & Warnings

• When spreading the cards out for the audience to see, the Si Stebbins classic will show the obvious ordering of the suits.

Resources

• Learn more ways to stack a deck at Deceptionary.

[bobsteiner]

on 10/17/2009 To the computer guru: I do not know why your program refused my submission. I followed your instructions carefully . . . but obviously not carefully enough. I would like to sign on! Please correct my entry, and tell me how to qualify to sign up. I fill in all the files on my previous two tries at qualifying. Sincerely. Bob Steiner [e-mail]

[bobsteiner]

on 10/17/2009 Your Si Stebbins Pro has a flaw. In the Si Stebbins Classic you arrange for both Suit and Denomination. In the Si Stebbins Pro you explicitly instruct to ignore suits. If the spectator chooses a 7, and inserts it into the deck next to another 7, you will not know which 7 the spectator chose. Ditto for a 6; ditto for a 5; etc.; etc.
Bob Steiner [e-mail]