The noun sleight refers to cunning or cleverness so together with a little cheeky misdirection these moves can help a trick achieve a very powerful effect.
They are even used by card hustlers in street hustle routines such as the three card monte.Double Lift
This is one of the most useful card manipulation moves that the aspiring magician can learn.
The double lift is an essential sleight that can be incorporated into thousands of your favorite performances.
It is very important to perform the double lift in the exact same manner as you lift single cards, so that your audience do not notice any discrepancy.
If you get caught performing this deceptively simple but very important move, the trick can be ruined as the secret is out.
How To Palm A CardThe card palm is another very useful sleight of hand move that is used in hundreds of card tricks.
Easy Way To Force A Card
Do A Riffle Shuffle
A strong deception where the deck is split into two packets, the ends put together, the cards being bent upwards and released in such a way that they become interlaced.
If the bottom cards are to be kept in position then they are allowed to fall from the left hand in the first movement of the shuffle.
To keep a card or a small number of cards on the top of the pack, you have simply to release it or them from the right hand portion of cards, last of all.
Pinky break
The pinky break is an essential move to secretly mark the position of a card that you wish to force on the spectator. This is done by barely touching the side of the card in the pack to form a break.
The cards on top of the break are held down in place by your middle finger as you grip the pack. This hides the break from your spectator.
A greatly exaggerated illustration is shown below here.
Glide Card ChangeThis video shows a convincing card change with the use of a simple slide trick.
You can learn about card sleights by viewing some good quality learning card trick DVD' or downloads which are a good way to learn card sleights by watching close up videos of professional hands performing popular sleights, accompanied by a clear explanation which are available from most good magic shops.
How To Spin A Card
Being able to spin a card in your hands looks really impressive.
This link will take you to our magic tutorial page to learn the basics of this amazing stunt to help take your wizardry to another level.
Conclusion
The above are just a few of the many sleights that can be used to take your shows and displays of manual dexterity to the next level.
To summarise. a sleight is just a little manipulation tool, used to make an impossible feat, actually possible i.e. you appear to have defied reasonable logic to pull off a truly impressive act of prestidigitation.
Go on and practice using these useful tools now and reap the rewards of your efforts.
