Congratulation to Rich Ferguson, creator of iTricks’ Trick of the Year for 2008.

In a final four fight to the death, Tagged took on Branded by Tim Trono. Also in the first round, Richard Sanders’ Extreme Burn beat out Wayne Houchin’s Thread. That led to a final round between Tagged and Extreme Burn. In a breakneck race, Tagged won 56 percent of the vote, leading Ferguson’s effect to win the title.

The final four was determined by viewers submitting votes to iTricks. Congratulations to all the creators whose effects were nominated, and a special congratulations all the finalists!

The winners in our holiday giveaway have been drawn. Congratulations to everyone who won!

And that closes out a hectic, crazy 2008. From all of us at Ellusionist, we thank you all for your support, participation and business throughout the year, especially through server crashes on release dates. Even with those problems, 2008 was a great year! The hardest part about it, however, was containing our anticipation for 2009. There is SO MUCH cool stuff coming out — I wish I could tell you all about it. You already know about Justin Miller working on an M5 video, you already know about Ringtone from Frozen creator Adam Grace and Serial Biller from Tagged creator Rich Ferguson. And I am absolutely stoked about other projects coming down the pike.

Anyway, from all of us at Ellusionist, we hope you have an incredible new year where you reach all your goals and blow more minds than ever before! Now, onto the holiday winners:

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Ellusionist’s final sale of the year is a steal in steel. For 48 hours, you can get one of Ellusionist’s classy card clips for $9.97 plus shipping — when you do the math, you’ll see that’s more than 40 percent off. These clips are custom fit for Ellusionist’s larger decks, and you can choose your favorite style: Ghost, Black Tiger or Masters. Because of the demand for them and their prestige, they have never been offered up for a discount before. They will protect your cards and look great doing it.

There is a limit of two clips per customer. The sale ends at midnight on Dec. 30. These clips will likely not be discounted again for a while, so don’t miss out.

Rich Ferguson’s latest effect “Tagged,” the best thing to happen to mentalism since knives and styrofoam cups, may be headed toward its first official honor. As of last Friday, Tagged led the votes for iTricks’ “Trick of the Year” for 2008. The final winner will be decided during a live chat on Dec. 30.

Other effects available from Ellusionist getting nods from voters are Flow by Dan Hauss and Extreme Burn by Richard Sanders. Have your say by e-mailing iTricks.

The Amazing Kreskin has released his predictions for the upcoming year, which begins this Thursday. Among them, as reported in the Ithaca Times:

• If Obama doesn’t win a second term, it is not going to be because of who is running against him. There will be a growing effort to have Hillary Clinton run for president again in 2012.
• The economy is going to stink like the Detroit Lions. Specifically: If the (government) increases bailouts to more and more areas of the economy, then the recession will last longer, up to 4 1/2 years.
• Hollywood will slowly disappear. The entertainment capital is more of a legend than a reality. Hollywood will move to India and the state of Connecticut. Connecticut will have one of the greatest financial boosts in decades; give it 2 to 2 1/2 years (to happen).
• UFO sightings and talking to the dead will increase. This bothers Kreskin, who doesn’t believe in spirit communications, but does believe in UFOs. There will be more and more sightings of UFOs and more and more cases of people who believe they talked to the dead, he said.
• Clowns will gain new status. The clown will have new degrees of prestige and importance. They are important in therapy. They communicate in a nonverbal way. They will have an important role in ways to come.

Kreskin nailed this year’s Super Bowl and presidential election winners, according to his Web site.