Magic Tricks

I felt I had to write a review since I believe this is such a brilliant effect and the existing reviews didn't do it justice.
This effect is based on Dai Vernon's "Trick that cannot be explained" plot. (Although the effect pre-existed Vernon, most magicians have connected this effect with him). Having said that, what remains to be examined in this project is if Luke Jermay has added to this effect or not.
I can honestly say that he knocked it out of the park. Not only there is a great amount of thinking behind this effect but I can say that the best improvement on the classic is that it is given a logical structure that allows it to have very few variations from one performance to another and always leads to the same final result of course (as seen in the trailer).
Another major improvement is that although in the classic effect the performer sometimes had to spell certain words using the cards to arrive to a certain card, in this effect the poker theme takes care of that beautifully. Last but not least, even though the handling is so clean and the final selection is never switched, Luke has added an ingenious method that makes the effect easier compared to the classic. (I cannot say more here in order not to expose the secret, but let's just say that the chances of getting "lucky" in this poker hand, have increased dramatically with this method).
Points to consider:
- Handling is easy - no difficult sleights or anything complicated.
- If you perform the effect properly the final result is always the same - Royal Flush from 10 to Ace.
- Can be performed with the performer's -not so innocent deck- (all cards are different though), or with a borrowed deck (that is Luke's suggestion) with a small difference in performance (a face up spread - the rest is exactly the same as in the demo).
- Although this effect might not be for the faint of heart, Luke gives suggestions and variations on how to make this even easier. Personally I think the effect is beautiful in its simplicity and there is no reason for any changes.
If you like what you see in the demo I think you will like the method as well. Very clean, very open and very impossible. Definitely 5 stars from me.