The Gambling Lesson

This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. More improvised performance piece than magic routine, the pre-climax outcomes are random, the illusion of purpose and intent depending entirely on the acting skills of the performer. The sequence of effects has a logic to it — three “games”: with one, two, then three cards — and serves to imply, if not demonstrate, the random selection and order of the cards. The climax itself uses the same kind of distribution of the cards among four packets familiar to many non-magicians from the Thanksgiving packet trick demonstrations of that one uncle everyone has (or is), so this won’t fool everyone. In sum: though the routine is well-structured and requires only elementary card handling, you’ll need advanced performance skills to pull it off.

This is a powerful trick for laymen, probably not going to be very impressive for magicians but that's not who it's intended for. There is a small set-up but it's an instant reset which is always nice. I mostly perform walk-around magic so it's not exactly practical for me because you have to have a table, but this would be great for the end of the night when someone wants to see one last trick.

There is a lot of potential for fun here but it depends on your personality and your ability to play off of people and improvise. This is a great trick to work on that with because it is virtually self-working so you can focus entirely on presentation.

It genuinely feels like the cards are being mixed and there is no way you could have any control over the cards, so the ending really surprises people and usually gets a good laugh.

The major flaw with this trick is it's fairly long, and can seem procedural, so it's definitely up to you to make it entertaining. So in all it's a good trick, as long as you can keep it moving and keep it fun.

Definitely a good trick that can get great reactions from the audience.

The good: I have yet to run into a layperson who understands how the trick can possibly work. The reaction when you reveal your kings is wow. The reaction when they reveal their own aces is incredible.

The bad: the outcomes before the climax are (if the trick is done as described) completely random and the trick is rather long so you need to be an entertaining and engaging performer and make sure your patter is set up in such a way that your audience isn't sure what to expect in any of these games you're playing. If you base your trick around a theme of hustling or gambling and then proceed to randomly win some games and lose some games for a few minutes you better have a very good patter set up to justify this or be very good at improvising.

An alternative: Without getting into too much detail, you could adjust the trick in such a way that you would eek out perfect victories in every game you play until the final moment which plays out just as in the trailer. It would simply require a much higher degree of a preparation. I have done this a few times and found the results very satisfying.

I would recommend purchasing this, especially if you are getting it along with Benjamin Earl's other video download, The Answer.

Got this with The Answer and this is not so quick to get to performance level as the route to the final reveal (for me) needs a bit of thought to carefully script spontaneous material for the other stages. But that's not him, that's me. Still recommended.

If you like what you see in this trailer, then you will love performing Ben Earl's "Gambling Lesson". It is a very strong version of Chad Long's "Shuffling Lesson" and gives you so much freedom to have fun with the spectator and create your own moments throughout the routine. Yes, it may be a little procedural, but the end result is completely worth it and will give your spectator something to fascinate about and enjoy for a long time.

The Gambling Lesson, what a great card trick, very easy to do, just remember the very easy sequences that follows while doing this trick, the great thing with this card trick is, it involves a spectator who is hands on, which is great in itself, with the way the magician controls this trick, so the spectator who's involved just follows the magicians lead, it doesn't look or feel like a card trick, as it seems so natural, and you make it fun, once you no the method, it's so easy, with a kicker ending for the spectator, it fooled me.

I’m a huge fan!!!!
The slow speed an calm delivery has changed the way and mood I do things. Also renewed my faith in simple methods. Bens biggest fan in Arizona!

I was so pleasantly surprised with this trick (of course everything where Ben is teaching I lend up loving). What surprised me is how simple of a method this was and so, therefore, how much freedom you have with the spectator. What a breath of fresh air. This reminded me of Ben's trick Red Herring where simplicity is king and you can just relax and go along for the ride making your presentation the real focus because it isn't 'method-intense". Of course, that's when the spectator is hit hard!