Perform a Card Trick Without Touching the Deck

Do you need a quick, impromptu card trick that can be done with any deck? This article reveals the secrets magicians need to know.

Steps

  1. Hand a whole deck of cards (all 52) to an audience member and tell them to shuffle it.
  2. Ask the volunteer to count out 26 cards, which is half of the deck.
  3. As they are counting, remember the seventh card.
  4. Ask the volunteer to set the counted cards aside.
  5. You must remember that seventh card all throughout the trick (it'll come in handy)
  6. Ask the volunteer to pick any three cards from the other half of the deck, pull them out and set them aside, in a row, face up
  7. Have the volunteer place the 26 counted cards back below of the full deck.
  8. Tell your volunteer to add to the three cards up to the value of 10. In other words, add the number of cards that would make the card a ten. For example, if the three cards are a six, a seven, and a king you add four cards to six, three cards to seven and zero to king, as it is considered 10 together with a jack or queen. Aces are considered ones.
  9. Add the numbers, in our case: 6 + 7 + 10 (king) = 23.
  10. Then subtract 1.
  11. Ask the volunteer to count out 21 cards (in this case) face down.
  12. The next will be the card you remembered.
  13. Tell the volunteer "The next card will be the _____ of _____'s" (that's the card you remembered).
  14. Watch them be amazed!

Variation

  1. After the first step, ask the volunteer to count out 3 stacks of 8 cards each. It doesn't matter how they do this, so long as there are 3 stacks with 8 cards each.
  2. Ask the volunteer to pick one of the stacks. Remember the top card from this stack.
  3. Ask the volunteer to place the other two stacks on top of theirs, then place this stack underneath the remaining cards.
  4. Have the volunteer remove the top two cards, then flip over the next three cards.
  5. As above, have the volunteer add up these three cards (A is one, face cards are 10) and direct them to remove that many cards from the top of the deck and replace them to the bottom of the deck.
  6. As above, have the volunteer flip cards face-up onto each card to bring the value up to 10.
  7. The card the volunteer picked is now on top of the deck.
    • This could also be done with two decks, you using one and the volunteer using one.



How It Works

This is a math-based card trick, and can be easily modified if you do your calculations.
Essentially, you are doing a Force card trick, directing the volunteer to pick the 33rd card in the deck. By simple math, this trick causes the volunteer to always remove 33 cards from the top of the deck, revealing the forced card.
The math can be done with any three cards. Flip them over and add them up (6 + 7 + K (10) = 23, in the example above). Then add 4 (10 - 6) plus 3 (10 - 7) plus 0 (10 - 10) is 7, added to 23 is 30. This, along with the three cards already flipped over, always gives you the 33rd card.
By playing around with different numbers, you will come up with subtle variations of this trick, helping you to prevent the audience from catching on.

Tips

  • Practice this a number of times until you get it right.
  • Make sure to tell them to deal from top not bottom. Or else the card will get lost and you will have to start all over.

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