Ring Report
April 17, 2011

The theme for April was the sixth annual Dr. James William Elliott Card Challenge. Contestants were given a deck of cards whose design had been kept secret and had up to ten minutes to perform card magic.

Alex Turanski caused a selected red card to move to a pile of black cards. He made a packet of eleven cards into a lie detector, including a selected card in the packet. He asked a series of questions of the audience volunteer; each time, as a card was pushed into the packet, another emerged, revealing first whether the card was even or odd, then the color, then the suit, and finally the actual selection. He closed with a fast ambitious card routine.

Nick Graham explained that the contest rules were meant to prevent the use of trick cards. He showed a trick card selected from the deck. The card went through a series of transformations, becoming at times a double-faced card, a double-backed card, and three different values before becoming the Ace of Spades. He followed with some rapid card manipulations, plucking cards from the air one at a time.

The Great Stephan had a card selected and returned to the deck, then produced the selected card from his mouth. He followed with a three-phase card selection routine in which the first selection was the sister card of a prediction, the second card was the last card left after groups of cards were eliminated by a volunteer, and the third was revealed by thought transmission to his cell phone. Finally, he demonstrated his pickpocket skills, removing a selected card from the boxed deck placed into a volunteer's pocket.

Dennis Labbe gave half the deck to a volunteer, who assisted him in shuffling the deck in a crazy way, with some cards reversed. He then showed a piece of paper with a series of predictions about the mixed-up cards, each of which was correct. He had a card selected and returned, then made a gun out of the deck. He loaded the gun with the Ace of Spades, then fired, producing the selected card. He had the selected card signed, then caused it to vanish. He unclipped a folded prediction card that he had placed on the table at the beginning of his routine, showing it to be the signed card.

Reigning Elliott Card Champion Prashant Srivastava had two cards selected; both turned out to be aces. He placed these into the deck, where they found the other two aces. After the aces mysteriously turned over in the deck, Prashant had three cards selected and returned. The aces gathered and trapped the three selected cards. He caused a selected card to vanish from a packet of four cards and return to the deck. Prashant and three volunteers tried cutting exactly thirteen cards off the deck. Prashant was left with four piles of cards and a single face-down card. He showed a photographic prediction of the four top cards and the odd remaining card, which proved to be correct.

The winner was selected by a vote of all I.B.M. members present. Prashant Srivastava was declared the winner, becoming the Elliott Card Champion for the third year in a row.

Full details of the business meeting, photos, and videos can be found at www.ibmring362.org.