I've seen it done and described both ways and I know it's going to sound like a dumb question but what's the order of transposition? Are you moving the packet from top to bottom or from bottom to top? Seriously. I've been fiddling with both and I'm just wondering is there an "official" version? Classic Pass. Is one way easier for you? Do you reccomend one way over another.

Famous question, this is. The Classic Pass is where you go top to bottom. A Shift is when you do bottom to top. I created a Shift that I call the "Shake Pass". It's mainly for a color change. A very VISUAL change.

Not necessarily. I believe that Darwin Ortiz was the first to point out that Erdnase was the only source in the literature to ever refer to a pass as a "shift", and given Vernon's reputation and fondness for Expert at the Card Table, the term stuck over the ages. The terms pass and shift are interchangeable - a shift can refer to either top to bottom or bottom to top.



There are no dumb questions. A pass or a shift is a transposition of two packets, it can occur either bottom to top or top to bottom depending on the technique. As duds mentioned, the "Classic Pass" is done with a top to bottom transposition. The 'best' pass is dependent on the situation, my suggestion is to learn both - there's no shortage of techniques of both in the literature, and use whichever pass you feel is best for the effect at hand.

Cheers
Ted

Sounds good.

To expand on what Ted said, the Classic Pass means you're moving the top half to the bottom, while the Herrmann or Herman Pass is the style that moves the bottom half to the top.

Different passes will work better for different situations. Some have certain angle issues that others don't and you can't just turn for no reason during performance. There is no "best" pass to use. I generally use a Classic Pass or Spread Pass in my work, depending on what I'm going for. I love the Turnover and Invisible Passes, as well, which are both Herrmann style.