MATHEMATICAL ACES

Pick up the cards and say, “I’m going to show you a card trick that never fails to mystify me,
every time I do it. Now, ordinarily, I don’t like mathematical card tricks, but this is quite
different.” You fan the deck toward yourself and start running through the cards. “Frankly,
I’m going to set up the deck in a very special order.”
As you fan through the deck, you move cards at random from one place to another. During
the course of this, you pull out the four Aces and put them on top of the deck, but you move
enough other cards so that what you’re doing isn’t apparent. Once you have the four Aces on
top of the deck, you put the deck on the table. “Now, this is what baffles me. I know the
cards are set up in a certain order and so do you. But I want you to cut the deck into four
piles. Some of them can be thick piles and some as few as six or seven cards. The only
restriction is that once you make a cut, you can’t change it. That, you see, would alter the
special arrangement. I won’t influence your choice of where to cut in any way.” The
spectator cuts the deck into four piles. He may cut from the top and he may drop piles of
cards from the bottom of the deck. However he chooses to cut, all you have to do is keep
track of the top of the deck, the pile that has the four Aces on top of it.
“The mathematical formula for this trick is three under and three across,” you explain, as
you pick up any pile except the top one that has the four Aces on it.
“Three under and three across,” you repeat. You deal off three cards from the top of the pile
to the bottom, openly and cleanly. Then you deal a card from the top of the pile onto each of
the three other piles—three across. You pick up a second pile and repeat the process. You do
the same thing with the third pile. Lastly, you pick up the pile that was originally the top of
the deck. It now has three indifferent cards on top of the four Aces. You deal exactly as you
did with the three other piles—three under and three across. In other words, the three
indifferent cards are dealt one by one from the top to the bottom of the pile. Then three
cards are dealt from the top of the pile onto the top of the three other piles.
“I don’t pretend to know why this works,” you admit. “If you had cut one less card or one
more card into any pile, you would have changed the entire outcome of the trick. But you cut
as your fancy dictated. Now, would you please turn over the top card on each of the four
piles.”
The spectator turns over the four top cards, and, of course, reveals the four Aces.
MIRASKILL
This creation of Stewart James is one of the greatest card tricks ever invented. It’s both
simple and baffling.
You have the cards shuffled, and fan them to your audience, showing that they’re not in any
set order. Say, “I’m going to write a prediction,” and put the deck into the card case. You
want two red cards at the top of the deck and two black cards at the bottom, or vice versa.
You should never have to rearrange more than two cards to get this result.
“I’m going to write a prediction,” you announce, and pick up a slip of paper and pencil. You
put the piece of paper on the back of the card case, see that it’s too flimsy to write on, and
shove the deck into the case to give it solidity. You write on the slip, “You will have two cards
less than I do.”
Fold the slip without showing it, and put it on the table. You’re holding the card case, flap
toward yourself.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” you announce. “You’ll deal off two cards at a time from the
deck, face up. If both cards are red, they go into the red pile. If both cards are black, they go
into the black pile. If you deal off a red and a black card, they go into the discard pile. Now,
tell me which color you want for yourself, red or black.” You’re holding the card case in your
hands, flap toward your body.
If the spectator chooses red, pull out the deck minus the two red cards at the top. If he
chooses black, leave the two black cards on the bottom behind. Toss the cards to him and
say, “Shuffle the deck again before you start dealing. Shuffle as much as you like. Cut, too.
Whenever you think the cards are thoroughly mixed, start dealing. A pair of reds go into the
red pile, a pair of blacks go into the black pile, and one of each puts the pair of cards into the
discard pile.”
He deals off the cards, counts the number in the red and black piles, and then opens your
prediction slip, which proves to be correct.
Put the cards back into the case and write another prediction. This time you write, “We will
both have the same number of cards in our piles.”
Hand him the card case, have him remove the deck, shuffle to his heart’s content, and deal
out the pairs. Again, your prediction will prove correct. You’ve given him a free choice of
color both times and have never touched the cards once he starts dealing. He shuffles and
cuts, for both deal-throughs.
If there’s a better card trick around, I don’t know where you’ll find it, and you don’t have to
worry about any complicated sleight of hand.
. MENTAL CARD SANDWICH
This is another easy one to do, with an entirely different effect. It gives you an unusual
production of a chosen card that people will remember.
Let anyone shuffle the deck and remove five cards from it, face down. You fan the five cards
toward the spectator, without looking at them yourself.
“I want you to think of any one card in this fan of five,” you say. “You’ve thought of one?
Good! Remove it from the fan and show it to someone else for verification; then replace it
where it was. Don’t let me see what it is. Just put it back where you got it, face down.”
Now, it has to be either the top card of the five face-down ones, second from the top, third
from the top, fourth, or the bottom card. All you need to do is keep track of it.
You toss the five card fan face down on the table, pick up the balance of the deck and fan it
as evenly as possible. Now, you insert one of the cards from the fan of five face down
between two cards in the deck, jutting out for about three-fourths of its length from the
front end of the deck. It is inserted just deep enough to hold it firmly. You pick up the
second of the five cards and insert it in the same front end of the deck, with one indifferent
card between it and the first one. The third card you insert is the card the spectator removed
to show to somebody. You don’t know what it is and don’t need to. All you care about is
making it the middle card of the original five as they go back into the deck. After it’s in place,
protruding for three-fourths of its length out in front of the indifferent cards on either side
of it, put a fourth card next to it, one indifferent card intervening. Do the same with the fifth
and last card. Now, close the fan carefully so that the five cards stay in place.
They protrude from the top of the deck, and there’s a card between each two that is level
with the top edge of the deck.
Turn the deck so the backs face the audience and hold it in the left hand, thumb on the
bottom long edge, the other four fingers on the top long edge.
“We now have a five-decker card sandwich,” you announce. “If I push the cards through the
deck, only four emerge at the other end.” You push the five cards gently but firmly down
level with the deck and as you do so, four cards move out at the opposite end. “If we push
them into the deck again,” you say, “only three come out.” Now, we push the three cards
through, and only two emerge. We push the two in, and one lone card comes out. What is
the card you originally thought of?”
He names it, and you slowly turn the deck so that the protruding card faces him. It’s the
card he ‘mentally’ selected!
The trick is self-working. But practice it a few times, please, before you do it. You have to get
the “feel” of pushing the cards back and forth. It’s easy to do, but know you can do it.

Enjoy ! From The Magic Man

SELF WORKING CARD