Self Working Card Trick

Learn this very impressive but easy to do mind reading type method of plucking a freely chosen card out of the pack. 

The beauty of this method is that the secret is in the set up. Leaving you free to let your patter and over the top acting ability, flow.

This type of almost completely self working magic is always popular and works every time if you follow the simple set up instructions that we will explain now.

First and foremost. Separate the cards into four piles of each suit. Next, place each pile in new deck order i.e

Place them in order from Ace through to king ( same as shown in the photo below here ).

Now comes possibly, the most important part of the set up. The magic numbers we need to remember are 10 , 7 and 4 . These numbers relate to to the first three of the piles in front of you going from left to right . I will explain the set up and you can see a working example in the next photo.

Pick up the pile on the left hand side and filter through the cards until you come to the 10 card. Remove the ten and all the cards under it and place these cards on top of the pile. Then place the pile back down on the table.

Repeat this set up with the second from the left pile except stop at the 7 card and place the seven and the cards under it on to the top of the pile.

Repeat the sequence with the next pile on the right and this time, remove the 4 card and all cards under it to the top.

Leave the last pile on the right in the same order that its in.

Next, pick up the cards as shown below from left to right.

Pick up all the cards on the table, the final card that you pick up will be a king ( this is important as will be explained shortly.)

How it works is as follows: You place a pack of cards on the table and ask your spectator to think of any card in the pack.

Then ask them what is the suit of the card that they are thinking of.

If the suit they mention is the same suit as the king on the bottom of the pack, then the work is has all be done for you and the rest of the trick is self working.

If the bottom king is a different suit, dont worry, heres how to set the deck up quickly and without the spectator knowing.

Explain to them that you are "going to have a quick look at the pack and put a card in a specific location." ( or some other convincing bull s%£t )

Push through the cards in your hand until you locate the king that matches their chosen suit.

Now lift off the king and the cards below it and place them on top of your pile. An example is shown in the next photo.

Place the pack face down again on the table ( the deck is now in the correct order with the king of their chosen suit on the bottom of the pile . )

Now its time to work your magic to perform a buttery smooth reveal trick.

Ask them to think of the number of their chosen card i.e 3 of clubs. 4 of diamonds e.t.c . Face cards are asssigned the following values

Jack 11 , Queen 12 , King 13 , Ace, 1 ,

Tell them to concentrate on their number and to double it .

Then tell them, to make trick even harder and interesting, tell them to double the new number again !

The example below shows the workings for a three of clubs.

Think of a card 3 . Double the number 6 . Double it again 12 .

Whatever number the spectator tells you, double it, double it again and you have the position of their card.

Pick up the deck and slowly count of cards, face up. On turning over the twelfth card, you will see that its the spectator's card.

Take a bow and accept your applause !

NOTE FOR THE BRAVE

When you feel confident doing this trick, you can add an extra layer of impossibility to the feat of finding their card, by inviting the customer to cut the pack of cards on the table as many times as they like before you begin the trick.

As long as they are complete cuts and you reset the cards as above so that the correct suited king is on the bottom of the pack , the trick will still work.

Want to learn an easy card vanish method ?