This site is only useful in conjunction with Pit Hartling's book In Order to Amaze (2016) and the routine "The Poker Formulas" therein. So make sure to get the book on www.inordertoamaze.com, read the effect and then come back.

You can download the formulas for either the Tamariz or Aronson stack in two different formats using the links above. If you are using a different stack, you can generate the formulas by clicking on "Custom Stack", entering your stack and selecting the "Export Formulas" option before clicking "Generate". Print those formulas and use them as described in Pit's book.

If you click on "Tamariz Stack" or "Aronson Stack", you'll be led to a view that you can use on your phone in the browser to perform the effect. By clicking your way through the options you can select any poker hand and the corresponding formula will be displayed. (If you have no internet connection, you can load the site first and once it is loaded, no more connection is needed. You can use "save to home screen" to have a direct link to the site as an icon on your phone.)

The same can be done with your own custom stack. Enter the stack under "Custom Stack" and click "Generate" without selecting the export option. Then you'll have the same view and can save this the URL. For future use you'll be redirected directly to the formulas for your stack, as the stack will be part of the URL.

This makes it possible to repeat the effect with a different poker hand, without resetting your stack. After the first poker hand has been selected in the browser interface and the formula is in view, click onto the formula itself. You will notice that the site reloads without the visible content changing. (For this version you will need an internet connection.) Now deal the cards and show the effect. Collect the hands by placing the last one face-down onto the one before, and so on, until all hands are collected. This packet is placed on top of the remainder. Now click on the bottom line with the ⟨ sign below the formula.

You are now back in starting position and can repeat the effect with the order you have in your hand. The program generated the formulas for the order you are now in, after the deal and assembly. You'll notice that when you repeat the effect, the first number of the formula is a double number of the form "A\B". Number A indicates how many cards you need to cut to the bottom, and number B indicates the stack number of the card that should then be on the bottom. (This is necessary as the current order is not memorized, so you need to know which card actually is at position A now. It is the card that is at position B in your normal memorized deck.)

Then deal the cards and repeat. This can be repeated as often as you like.

Pit Hartling came up with the idea in 2003. Martin Eisele took on the task to generate the formulas with a computer program to make the effect possible. It was first published, with formulas for Tamariz stack, in Spanish in the June 2004 issue of Circular. In 2010 I brainstormed the possibility of a web application with Martin and Pit and went on to build an interface so it could be performed with the browser on a smartphone. The same year I had the idea of the above "The Repeat Version" and programmed the on-the-fly generation of the formulas into the website to allow a continuous performance without adjustments. It all remained underground until Pit published the effect in In Order to Amaze in 2016. Martin Eisele made an iPhone app available that incorporates the formulas, my repeat version and several interesting new possibilities. You can check it out in the Apple App Store.

Denis Behr, April 24th 2016