Al Stanger’s Miracle Poker Machine by Al Stanger, John Mendoza, Gaetan Bloom

(Please notice – the second video misses off the final phase! The first video is the better and the complete performance 🙂)

Wow, this is an Incredible miracle from Al Stanger!

Before I go further let me say how these days I am less and less interested in any sort of electronic magic. I have had way too many issues with things breaking or running out of juice at the wrong time. So when I first purchased this beauty, I did so with some reluctance. However, I am so glad that I did. My greatest passion in life is writing software. Magic is great fun, but for me writing software is my true joy, and this clever little machine is a very fine piece of programming. I had no idea how it worked until I read the clear instructions by John Mendoza. Once you understand the basic principle you can’t help but appreciate the thought that Al Stanger put into the programming of this clever machine.

All this being said, without the original routine by John, and the even more simplified routine by Gaetan Bloom that appeared in later releases (and is featured in both videos above), it would be just a clever calculator, but when you work with John’s or Gaetan’s incredible four phase routine you really do move into the miracle class. Each phase builds on top of the previous one to end up with an incredible climax.

This calculator is not for everyone. It is not hard to use or learn, but it does take some practice and patience, and you should be comfortable with technology – the order of buttons that you press is very important, and if you don’t press the right buttons you can find yourself in quite a different place than you expected! However, for those magicians who want something a bit different that will fool them all, I could not recommend this more heartily.

Effect: Al Stanger’s Incredible Poker Machine is an absolute stunning fooler! Long unavailable, when we sold these many years ago, we were so completely fooled by it, even after we learned how it worked! Al Stanger’s Incredible Poker Machine is a staple part of professional close-up magician John Mendoza’s act. Every time John performs it, it fools everyone, including magicians! The following is the exact, no-exaggeration, description of the routine: A calculator is displayed, powered on, and given to a spectator. From this point on, the magician never touches the machine.

The magician explains that this is a magical Poker Machine that is able to determine a “secret” card in a game of Poker. A deck of cards (absolutely ordinary, can even be borrowed!) is spread across the table face down and a spectator freely slides five cards out of the spread. No force. He then places one of the cards, sight unseen, in his pocket. The cards are turned up one at a time, and the spectator operating the calculator enters the name of each card into the machine, which displays each card as it is entered. For example, “7 of Clubs.” After the fourth card has been entered the display changes to a giant display showing, for example, the King of Clubs. The spectator removes the card from his pocket and it is the King of Clubs! But that’s not all!

The performer then has the spectator clear the machine and has a lady think of any card in the deck and name it aloud. Again, no force whatsoever! She then removes four cards from the deck, all face down. Again the cards are then entered into the machine, one at a time. After the fourth card, the display changes and reveals the 9 of Diamonds. The card she thought of was indeed the 9 of Diamonds!

But that’s still not all! To prove there is no cheating or switching of any cards, the deck is shuffled and five cards are removed face up. Now, one is turned face down by any spectator as the “secret” card. The four face up cards are now entered into the machine and, again, the display reveals the “secret” card!

But even that’s not all! The deck is shuffled once more and five cards are again chosen by one of the spectators and left face down. She then covers any one of them with her hand. The other four are completely mixed, still face down, by any other spectator. At this point, absolutely nobody, including the performer, knows the identity of the card under the spectator’s hand, nor can anyone positively name any of the other four face down cards. Despite this utter fairness, it now goes one step further: The operating spectator now enters the four face down cards into the machine in any order she chooses. Despite the impossible test conditions, the machine displays, for example, the Jack of Diamonds. The lady spectator turns the card under her hand face up, and it is the Jack of Diamonds!

Unbelievable! The names of the serious card men this machine has fooled is a Who’s Who of card magic from all over the world. This is your chance to be one of a very few who owns the Incredible Poker Machine! The entire unit is self-contained. There are no transmitters or outside props of any kind. The deck can be borrowed as it is not gimmicked in any way. (I fyou’re thinking Elmsley’s “MouseMagic,”read the last paragraph o fthe description again. This is not “Mouse Magic”!) The trick is easy to do thanks to the improved and updated instructions. Now, anyone can do it! And your audience doesn’t need to know anything about Poker to enjoy it!

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