The Poker Boy* (Bloom Miracle Poker Machine) By Gaetan Bloom, Chris Wasshuber

If you are a fan of Al Stanger’s Miracle Poker Machine (and the Fitch Cheney effect it is based upon) then you are going to absolutely love The Poker Boy*.  This is a brand new creation by Chris Wasshuber and Gaetan Bloom: The Bloom Miracle Poker Machine. It can do everything that Al Stanger’s Miracle Poker Machine can do and a lot more without any of the pesky battery or resetting issues.

Just like the original machine there are five phases available:

1. Force Card
2. Stud Poker
3. Invisible Die
4. Climax
5. Magician Slayer

Other features of this Device and Custom Software written by Chris Wasshuber:

• You can choose which phases you want to use – in the video I chose Phase 1, Phase 3, and Phase 4 which to me is the perfect combination of amazement, spectator interest, and length of routine.
• You can change the force card.
• You can change the spin time before revealing the card.
• Non-Volatile RAM – this device never loses the program or your custom settings even if the battery runs out.
• USB Rechargeable Battery – just plug it in and recharge it to go again.
• Battery Level gauge – just by turning it on you can see how much charge remains.
• Better input control – When the spectator inputs the cards it is much easier to fix them should they make a mistake, even if they press the wrong buttons.  Chris has programmed in all sorts of checks to make it almost impossible to mess up the inputs.
• Tiny footprint – much smaller than the original TI-85 (see final photo).

As Chris says in the instructions: “I consider it therefore an evolution and frankly an improvement of the old gimmick.”  I wholeheartedly agree, although the original Poker Machine was an amazing device it was quite restrictive and easy to mess-up, and heaven forbid you change the batteries incorrectly or let them die, then it was all over. 

Chris has does an excellent job with Gaetan’s routine as a starting place and spent the time and research to find the best device (it could not be a smart phone, that kills this routine) and learned the new development environment to program it.  He spent a lot of time bullet proofing the inputs to make it almost impossible to break, and added some great improvements many of which were based on my early feedback.

(* Notice: the name Poker Boy is the name I use as it goes with my patter below. I added the label to the unit Chris sent me as it made it easier to refer to during my routine.)

(Notice: Please note that the version used on this page and in the demo video is an earlier version where the card suits are represented by characters (CHSD). The released version uses actual suit symbols as seen in the final photo.)

Effect: Here is my Poker Boy Routine: “Do you ever get annoyed about all those people playing games on their phones?  You do?  And they go on and on about how amazing the iPhone is as though it was the first gaming platform ever. You know in 1989 the first Game Boy came out (a full 18 years before the first iPhone) – now that was a platform and everyone loved it!  And in 2001, still way before the iPhone,  the Poker Boy came out.  Now as a magician I loved the Poker Boy because it could do things with cards even I couldn’t understand. Let me show you …”

After shuffling the cards you perform Phase 1 where the spectator cuts the deck into five piles and they can turn up the top card of the first four piles and program them into the Poker Boy.  By pressing the red button the remaining card is revealed.

Now Phase 3 is performed where they cut the deck into five piles again and turn up the top card of the first four piles and the hole card is chosen by shaking an invisible die that first has numbers 1-6 and then just four sides with Clubs, Hearts, Spades, and Diamonds.  Again the Poker Boy reveals the chosen card.

Now Phase 4 is performed.  The performer starts dropping packets of cards onto the table and asks the spectator to say stop when they want.  At that point the top five cards are dealt off and the spectator turns over any four leaving one face down.  The spectator programs in these four cards, in any order, and amazingly the Poker Boy is able to reveal the final card that up until this point no one has seen.

The routine ends with: “So the next time someone goes on and on about how great the iPhone is just remind them of how great The Poker Boy was and The Game Boy was before that.”

Found something wrong? Help us improve things by clicking here!