The Damsel Cull Force - Version 2

I haven’t tried this yet, so I don’t really know how it would play, but I think it would work pretty well. [Update: I have now tried this a bunch of times. It’s been perfect. And this is now the variation on the force that I will likely do most often.]

First, make sure you’re familiar with the force I explained in Tuesday’s post.

Here’s how this alternate procedure works.

Give them the joker to slide into the deck. But for this version, they are going to slide the joker in face down. To make things more clean looking, I would recommend using a joker with a different back color or a big X on the back or something, so there’s no confusion about which is the joker or suspicion that you might be changing it for something else or anything.

So they slide the joker in part way, you cull the force card above the joker, close the deck and put it in their hands or on the table.

Now you say something like, “Okay, so I shuffled, and you placed the joker anywhere you wanted in the deck. So you placed the joker next to a random card… well, I guess technically it’s between two random cards. Which do you want to go with… the card at the face or the card at the back?”

If they say “face”

“Okay, then your card will be the one whose face is touching the joker.”

If they say “back”

“Okay, then your card will be the one touching the back of the joker.”

That’s all there is to it.

The nice thing is that this final free choice happens with the cards out of your hands.

And I think the equivoque here is pretty strong. Third Wave Equivoque is about statements that sound definitive, but aren’t. (As opposed to Second Wave Equivoque which is about statements and actions that don’t have meaning, and you give them meaning afterward).

“Do you want the card at the face or the card at the back?” sounds like a clear choice. But it’s not so definitive that they would be getting ahead of you and expecting the card above or below the joker.

I think it’s better if you make it sound like this question wasn’t planned. As I wrote in the wording above: “So you placed the joker next to a random card… well, I guess technically it’s between two random cards.” You want it to feel like you haven’t anticipated this decision on their part, so you couldn’t have prepared for it in any way until now, when the deck is on the table.

Again, I haven’t tried this out yet, but my instincts tell me it will probably be pretty strong. That final choice with the cards out of your hand should be a nice extra convincer of a free choice.