GOOD CARDS

So you're learning the tabled faro?

You've studied the usual sources and practiced day and night but still cannot achieve a reliable consistent action? Here is my top tip.

Break open a fresh pack of Monarchs. Man! These are nice cards. They are not especially over designed. They have a simple but stylish back design and pretty "regular" faces. The reds and face cards are a little dark but that's a small complaint. The point is, they handle beautifully, and I've found that they make easy work of otherwise difficult techniques. The batch I have are traditionally cut. Monarchs also happen to have one of the most beautifully produced boxes that you are likely to find, so at least you'll look the part whist working on your technique.

Changing cards is not the ultimate solution for improving technique, but good cards may make practice easier and allow you to develop a familiarity with techniques like the faro, that can, in the beginning, be inconsistent when using a lesser quality product. Once that familiarity is set, you can move to different cards, now you have a feel for the technique.

Learning new techniques is often broken down by starting simple. Usually this means adjusting the technique itself, like learning the bottom deal by first using fewer cards, and working towards being able to use the full deck, little by little, over time. This is the same basic idea, but changing the tool, rather than the technique. I have not tested this theory extensively but after a weekend out of the box, these cards handle like a dream, and may help improve your technique.

Or you may just end up with a new deck of really nice cards. Either way, you can't go wrong.