About

Welcome to the romantic world of Card Cheats, Con Men, and Hustlers. Card cheating was once considered to be the illegitimate child of organized crime. It is no longer up for adoption. Welcome to a gangland, gambling hall, Con Artist fantasy world - in which he is the chief exponent of deceit - and you are the mark. Be a witness to the dark, edgy, Sinatra-cool card styling's of "The Cardfather".

Mr. Tony Picasso, PhD - Diploma in propositions and hustles - The professor of honest deception. The Don of this Dark Art. Ambitious yet sly. International in scope, feel, and temperament. Artistic, intellectual, and authentic. Internationally known, nationally recognized, locally accepted, and always respected. A combination of streetwise intensity and streetwise intimacy - reflected in the teachings of: Frank Sinatra, Winston Churchill, Las Vegas, English Gangsters, and Jack the Ripper.

His genetics is the loaded gun and the environment pulls the trigger. If this can't get respect, what can? The man with the microphone has the power. A deck of cards is the modern microphone - The most simple and sophisticated card cheating device known to man. Shuffle up and deal. But where does it say you always have to deal from the top of the deck.

Email The Cardfather

Words From A True Gambling Artist

In my opinion the most important element to demonstrate in a gambling routine is to explore the “back-story".

► How did the gambling expert acquire this skill set?

The skill set includes the technical skill set, the psychology of the game skill set, and the appropriate time to apply both of these skill sets in order to achieve the objective of the gambling expert, and that is “…to get the money.”

The fundamental questions I always ask myself when watching any act are the following:

► Who is this person?
► What are they doing?
► Why should I care?

In essence, how did this person acquire their specific power?

► How did the illusionist acquire the power to levitate objects?
► How did the mind reader acquire the power to read a persons thoughts?
► How did the gambling expert acquire the power to memorize a deck of cards?

Once these questions have been answered to satisfy the motivation of the character and the world of the character, the next step is simply, “To be interesting.”
An act will be interesting if it has these three criteria:

► Sense of History
► Personal Anecdotes
► An Expert Demonstration

In my act I found that people find these traits very interesting:

► Reading people at a card table:
I demonstrate this by studying the psychological tells and the physical tells as a person looks at their cards. More specifically the spectator plays the role of the dealer and I demonstrate how I can read the dealer in order to beat the casino. I do this three times each time demonstrating a certain principle that is interesting to people.
► Oculesics - The language of the eyes.
► Proxemics – The language of space and distance between the card and the player
►Tactilics - The language of touch. How the player/dealer touches and holds their card.

All of these behaviors are “self-adaptors” based on “external stresses of the environment.”

► Memorization:
The ability to memorize playing cards.
► Card counting
► Total recall scanning (Photographic memory)
► Odds, percentages, limits, probabilities, statistics with one deck and multiple decks of cards.
► Estimation:
The ability to estimate how many cards the dealer cut in order to beat the cut.

The points of interest I include are the following:

► By weight
► Shuffle tracking
► Sequence tracking
► Location play
► Riffle culling
► Patterning
► Visual tracking

It is also important to apply my theory of gradually introducing concepts in order of believability:
A gambling routine can have an impact very much like a magic effect.

A gambling routine is a demonstration of skill. But certain gambling routines demonstrate such skill that they register "….Intellectually like skill but emotionally like magic.”

Yes, people can develop an almost mystical belief in super-human skills, speed readers, memory experts, hypnotists, lightning calculators, etc. That is why it is important to start out by demonstrating effects that simulate abilities people are likely to believe in like, reading people at a card table, memorizing the deck of cards, estimating how many cards the dealer cut, rapid math for card counting, and influencing peoples choices at a card table by how you use verbal and non-verbal cues (The principal I call psychological domination).

This is a shrewd strategy, because (similar to science-fiction movies) the supernatural element is introduced very gradually. By the end of the book, movie, act, etc. the reader, viewer, audience is unquestionably accepting things that he would have balked at earlier in the story.

The similarities between strong mentalism and gambling performance mirror this approach. In both cases, people believe that what they are seeing you do in a theatrical setting could just as easily be done in a non-theatrical setting. And, that is why people always ask me questions like, “Are you allowed in Las Vegas?”

My answer is, “It is a long story….but I am well respected.”

The advantage of presenting a gambling demonstration is unlike the “theatrical magician,” the gambling expert is perceived as “doing it…for real.”

In summary:

Many of the gambling effects have the same level of “impossibility” as straight magic effects; they are just characterized, or framed differently.
The demonstration is conceived as being achieved by astounding superhuman skill, but the effect is so astounding that is could easily been presented as magic.
At the end of the day, the gambling/magical effect experienced by the audience is a product of several factors. But primarily:

► The theory of appeals…Be interesting
► A very well constructed and conceived gambling effect
► Effect choice and performing ability.