Friday, October 12, 2007

Build The House

Deal 3 cards face up in a row, and continue dealing until you have 3 columns of 7 cards each. Then find the card the easy way. Ask the spectator to remember any one of the visible cards and to point out its column. Close up each column and combine them into a packet of 21 cards, putting the selected column between the other two. Again deal the columns and have the spectator point to the one with his (or her) card. Again collect the 3 columns with selected column between the others, and deal them out again. But this time, when the spectator points out the colm, pick up that column first and put the other two on top of it.
Now it is time to build the houses. To build a house, deal one card face down at your left and another card about an inch to its right. Then deal a card horizontally at the top of the first two, and another horizontally about an inch below it. You have created a little square open space in the midlle.
In exactly the same way, build another house to the right of the first one, another one to its right, and so on. There will be enough cards to build 5 house with one card left over. Put that card in the deck. (The spectator's card is the card at the right in the 5th house.)
Now here is how you make the trick seem unbelievable. But don't do it more than a couple times because the spectator might cacth on. There are 5 house. To find the spectator's card you have to eliminate all the other house and cards. Tel the spectator to pick three houses. If his (or her) three choice include the house with the selected card, take away the other two houses. If the spectator's three choices do not include the card, take those three houses away. Then ask him to pick 2 houses (if there are 3 left), or 1 house (if there are only 2 left). Do this till there is only one house, the house with the selected card. Ask the spectator to pick 2 cards. If he picks the top and bottom, take them away. If he picks left and right, keep them. You know the drill now. Ask him to pick one more card. If he picks the card, keep it, if not, throw it away, and boom, there is his card. Wow, we're all finished.


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Sunday, October 07, 2007

Counted Cards

1. Tell a spectator that each card represents a number--A is 1, J is 11, Q is 12, K is 13, and the rest have their face value.
2. Tell the person to pick up the top card and place it face up on the table.
3. State its number and then count onto it enough cards to reach 13. For example, if the card is a jack, say "Eleven..." and then deal two cards onto it while you say,"...twelve, thirteen."
4. Flip over this stack and set it aside.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until 13 cannot be reached with remaining cards. Set these aside (if the count works out evenly, don't worry).
6. Have the spectator choose 3 piles. Remove all of the other piles and add them to the cards (if any) remaining from step 5.
7. Pick up the pile of cards remaining from steps 5-6, count off 10 cards and set them aside.
8. Have the spectator choose 2 of the remaining 3 piles. Turn the top cards on these 2 piles face up.
9. Add together the values of the two face-up cards, count out their sum from the cards you're holding and set them aside.
10. Have the spectator count the number of cards left in your hand.
11. Tell him or her to flip over the top card on the remaining pile. It is equal to the number of cards left in your hand.


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Any Way You Count 'Em

Shuffle the cards well. Holding them face down, turn over the top card and place it face up on the table. Think of it as a stack. Starting with its face value, deal face up on top of it as many more cards as needed to reach 10. For instance if it's a 3, deal seven cards on top of it; if it's a 5, deal five cards. Face cards count as 10, so no more cards are needed. An ace counts as 1 and needs nine more cards.
Continue making stacks as above, keeping them separate, until the deck is exhausted. If there are not enough cards to complete a final stack, keep that incomplete stack in your hand. Now choose at random any three stacks that contain at least four cards each, and turn these stacks face down.
Gather all the remaining cards in any order and add them to the cards (if any) in your hand. Pick any two of the three face-down stacks on the table, and turn up the top card on each of those two piles. Add their values together. Discard that many cards from those in your hand, and then discard 19 additional cards.
Count the remaining cards in your hand. Now turn up the top card of the third stack. Its value will equal the number of cards in your hand.


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Saturday, October 06, 2007

Real 4 Aces Variation

Description:
Set up the cards as in the original trick except that you have from the top of the deck the values 10 through 2 and then the Aces. (Note: that the order is reversed from the original)

1. Follow the original trick through step 1.
2. In step 2, if the spectator's number is 10-19, follow the instructions above except that after adding the digits and dealing the sum back onto the deck, you turn up the LAST card dealt rather than the next card. If the spectator's number is 20, divide it by two instead of adding its digits. This gives you 10, so you count off 10 cards and turn up the NEXT card.
3. Follow step 4 and 5, but with 5 you do this THREE more times, for four aces not just three asa indicated by the original trick.
4. Flip over this stack and set it aside.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until 13 cannot be reached with remaining cards. Set these aside (if the count works out evenly, don't worry).
6. Have the spectator choose 3 piles. Remove all of the other piles and add them to the cards (if any) remaining from step 5.
7. Pick up the pile of cards remaining from steps 5-6, count off 10 cards and set them aside.
8. Have the spectator choose 2 of the remaining 3 piles. Turn the top cards on these 2 piles face up.
9. Add together the values of the two face-up cards, count out their sum from the cards you're holding and set them aside.
10. Have the spectator count the number of cards left in your hand.
11. Tell him or her to flip over the top card on the remaining pile. It is equal to the number of cards left in your hand.


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Friday, October 05, 2007

The Four Ace Extravaganza

Preparation:
Remove the four aces from the deck and the cards 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 (any suits). Put the four aces on top of the deck. (Later they'll be found in order from the top down) Put the other eight cards in order from 2 through 9 and place them on top of aces. Starting with the top card, the deck should be 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,A,A,A, then the rest of the cards. Now you are ready!

Procedure:
1. Bet the audience that they can find all the aces. Shuffle the deck, making sure that the top 12 cards stay in order on the top. (The audience won't notice, I guarantee).
2. Ask a member of the audience to name a number between 10 and 20 (not including 20). Count that many cards one at a time face down onto the table.
3. Now ask him (or her) to add the 2 digits of his number together and state the sum. Pick up the cards on the table and count that many cards back onto the deck.
4.Remove the NEXT card and lay it face up on the table (it will be the first ace). Place the remaining cards on top of the deck without disarranging them!!!
5. Suffle again without disarranging the top 11 cards and repeat steps 2-4 two more times!!
6. Now place the deck face down in front of the person and tell him to think of a number between 1 and 9. Have him count that many cards face down onto the table and turn the last card dealt face up.
7. If he thought of 9, he'll turn up the ace. When this happen it makes the trick better, but it usually doesn't. If he thought of another number, he'll turn up a 9,8,7,6,5,4,3 or 2. Tell him to deal off that many cards--counting the turned up card as the FIRST-- and the last card he deals will be the fourth ACE!
8. It's good trick but don't do it more than once for the same audience.


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