l

Matthew Benjamin
 DNR

Do Not Resuscitate

Matthew Benjamin

Greetings and thank you for purchasing this wee tome of card effects. All of these effects can be done
using the DNR Stack that is described within these pages.

Without any gaffs or trick decks you can have anyone take two adjacent cards from the deck and then
you can reveal them, have them deal to (almost) any position in the deck and take the next two cards
and you can reveal them, perform a deckless card reveal with a single card or merely have a participant
look at two adjacent cards which you can of course reveal.

This is not the time to debate whether mentalists should use playing cards in their act, the fact that I
have released this ebook perfectly sums up my stance on the matter.

It is advisable that you either perform some card stunts that require no set ups before switching decks
for this one since it cannot be shuffled due to its stack. Learning some convincing false shuffles would be
advantageous and enough to dispel the idea of any set up if one wishes to use the stacked deck straight
away.

Take a look at the following stack and try to find the gaff:

2C, AS, 3D, 7C, 6D, AD, 8C, 3S, KD, 9S, 10D, 4C, JH, 8D, QC, 5H, 8S, 6C, QD, 2H, 10S, 7H, KC, 3H, QH, 10H,
JS, 3C, 10C, 8H, 9D, 4S, KH, 9C, JC, 5D, 7D, 6S, JD, AC, QS, 6H, 7S, KS, 9H, 2D, 5S, 4D, 2S, AH, 5C, 4H

What you see above is, in my opinion, the ultimate fishing stack using a regular deck of cards.

There are 16 cards in the stack beginning with the 3S and ending with the 6S.

Each force card in the fishing stack is separated by a random card that is higher in value than the card
before and after it.

This enables you to have anyone remove any two adjacent cards from a majority of the deck and one
will always be a force card whilst the other will be a random card that is higher in value than the force
card.

The first 7 cards and the last 14 cards are not part of the stack. Ways to manage these sections will be
covered later on in the ebook.

Once the participant has selected two adjacent cards it is a simple matter of using 4 fishing questions
and you will instantly know the force card (or just 3 if you are performing the deckless single card reveal).
From there we can use the one ahead principle to gain knowledge of the higher value random card and
reveal both. More on presentation and scripting for this later.

The 16 force cards are:

2H, 3S, 4C, 5H, 6C, 7H, 8D, 9S

3H, 3C, 4S, 5D, 6S, 10H, 8H, 9C

As you can see, most cards are the same colour but opposite suit. There are only two exceptions to this
rule which are the 2/3H and the 7/10H which are extremely easy to remember.

The four fishing questions you ask will.always be (except for the one exception):

Is this a red card?

Is there a letter "I" in the full card name?

Is there a letter "D" in the full card name?

Is this an odd card?

The only exception is for the 2/3H and the 7/10H when the questions will be:

Is this a red card?

Is there a letter "I" in the full card name?

Is there a letter "N" in the full card name?

Is this an odd card?

Try thinking of each of the 16 force cards and you will see that each one falls into the fishing questions
perfectly
The fishing chart is as follows:

Red - I - D - 4C/3C

| | |

| | 3S/4S

| |

| D - 6C/9C

| |

| 9S/6S

I - N - 2H/3H

| |

| 7H/10H

D -- 5H/8H

8D/5D

Now let's discuss how to handle the first 7 and last 14 cards.

In most effects you will have the participant deal down to a position in the deck which is extremely safe
as I have never had anyone deal past the 6S. However if they do you can always use the method
described next when fanning the deck. However, to eliminate the first 7 cards of the stack when dealing,
simply request for the participant to start dealing cards one at a time from the top of the deck into a pile
on the table. When they do so start to count silently in your head, when they have dealt 5 cards tell
them they can stop dealing whenever they like.

This will ensure the participant deals at least 7 cards before they have the opportunity to stop dealing.
And as previously mentioned I have never had anyone deal past the 6S which is the last card in the stack.

For the extremely rare case when it may happen, or when you want to have the participant remove
cards from a fan you request for them to touch any card they like. If they touch a card within the stack
you can then ask them to take that card and either the card to its right or to its left. However if they
touch a card, or deal to a card, that is not in the stack you request for them to turn the card face up and
slide it into the middle of the deck face up and the two cards either side of it will be the ones selected.

If you are fanning the cards out in front of the participant for them to merely look at any two cards it is
an easy matter of only spreading the stacked portion of the deck which takes up a majority of the deck
itself. You could also drop cards from one hand into the other and request for the participant to call out
stop and take the next two cards where they stopped you at.

For the deckless effect... Well you don't need any deck so there's no non card stack management!

Now let's look at some effects. I will describe the dealing effect and the deckless effect as the other
effects requiring fanning the deck work almost identical to the dealing one.

DEALING DOWN

In this effect you will request for the participant to take the deck, after a few false shuffles, and to deal
down to "any" position that they wish.

Assuming they stop within the card stack you ask them to remove the next two cards.

After some mental concentration you state that you are getting brief glimpse of their cards. One is
higher in value than the other card.

Struggling a bit you state you are getting hazy impressions.

You now use the fishing chart.

"Which card is the red one? The higher or lower card? Or are they both red which is why I'm getting a bit
confused?"

"Spell both cards in your mind for me. Oh! I'm getting a letter "i", which one has the letter "i" in it? Or is
it both?"

"Oh and that's a "D" which one has the "D" in it?"

"Hmmm ok I think I'm getting close, just one more question: which is the odd card?"

After asking these questions you now know one of the cards they are thinking of.

From here we use the one ahead principle.

"I think I know the higher value card, let me write it down."
Here you write down the force card that you know. The lower of the two cards. Write this into a slip of
paper and fold it up.

"I've committed myself, for everyone here can you state loud and clear the name of the higher card."

When they do so look pleased and request for someone to record the information so it does not get
forgotten.

"Good, now concentrate on the lower card."

Here you write down the card they just named onto another slip of paper and put it with the first.

"Again please tell everyone the other card you are thinking about."

When they do so again look pleased and request for this information to be recorded.

Hand the two slips of paper to the participant to be opened and read aloud to mighty applause.

DECKLESS THOUGHTS

This is an updated version of Silent Running created and allowed to be republished here by the fantastic
Ben Harris.

Start off by requesting the participant to think of a number between one and ten. This will force them to
think of one of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9.

Once they have a secret value in mind you state that you will name 13 random suits and they are to
remember the suit that falls on their secret number.

For example, if they are thinking of the number 3 then they are to remember the third suit you name, if
the are thinking of the number 5 then they are to remember the fifth suit you name.

The order of the suits you must name are:

DHS CHC HDS DDC

You only name 12 suits but no one notices this. It is also advisable to call out the suits in groups of 3's to
make it easier to remember and for the participant to count along with you to ensure they think of the
correct suit.

The participant will now be thinking of one of the first 8 cards in the stack.

You now use the fishing chart to determine the correct card.

To turn the questions into statements I recommend the following but feel free to use your own wording
if it feels more natural:
"You're not thinking of a red card are you?"

No matter what the participant replies with you can reply with one of the following phrases to show
that your first statement was correct:

They reply no: "I didn't think so, the image is coming through dark which tells me it's either a spade or
club."

They reply yes: "Yes I thought so, the image is coming through really bright which tells me it's either a
heart or a diamond"

"Spell the entire cards name for me, there isn't a letter "i" in there is there?"

Again no matter what they reply you can use a similar phrase to the ones above to show your statement
was correct.

"That's not a "D" is it?"

Once they reply to this question you instantly know the card they are thinking of and can reveal it any
way you desire.

IDEAS FOR RECIEVING THE LETTERS & MORE

One presentation I like to use is the following:

"Remember at the start of The Simpsons you see Bart writing lines on the blackboard over and over
again for being naughty? I want you to imagine you are doing the same thing, but instead of writing a
rude phrase like Bart did, I want you to write out the playing card you're thinking of over and over again.
The more you write it the better I'll be able to pick up on aspects of the card, colours, shapes, letters and
so forth. Can you do they for me?"

You could have someone deal down to a position in the deck and have two people take a card each.
Now you would ask questions such as:

"Who has the red card?"

And so on...

If you have the first 8 cards in the stack plus two court cards on top of the deck in a random order,
perform some false shuffles and cuts. Then perform the cross cut force on the participant and after
some verbal misdirection tell them to remove the next ten cards from where they cut the deck. They will
now have the first 8 cards of the stack plus two court cards. Request for them to think of any card but
not a court cards as they confuse you with the multiple colours and shapes. From here you use the
fishing chart to reveal the correct card.

CREDITS

Doug Dyment - For his work on deck stacks which can be found in his book Calculated Thoughts

Kennedy - For his work on fishing stacks notably the Mind Power Deck

Ben Harris - For his Silent Running effect which goes far beyond anything in this ebook and can be
purchased directly from Ben

Al Mann - For his work on the one ahead principle and much, much more

CONTACT

matthewbenjamincreations@gmail.com