Effect: You’re in a room with a bunch of friends and a deck of cards. You allow a friend to pick any card, then put it back in the deck. After shuffling the deck, you start turning over cards until you see your friend’s. You bet everybody in the room $1, $2, $5, or whatever, that the next card you turn over is theirs. Seeing that it’s already there, they greedily make the bet. You turn over the card lying on top of the face-up pile. Be sure to collect your cash.
Method:
1. Shuffle deck (it works better without Jokers, and you may want to use only half the deck).
2. Fan out the cards and allow somebody to pick ANY one. (Editor’s suggestion: Have him or her show the card to others. Otherwise they won’t have any reason to take your bet later. RS)
3. Shuffle deck again, cut it near the middle, and let the person put their card back. Note the card that goes on top of theirs (this is the Key Card), but try not to let them see you.
4. Cut the deck (single cuts only!!) as many times as you would like. After the last cut, glimpse the bottom card if you can. If it’s the Key Card, cut the cards once more. (Otherwise, you’ll have 1:52 odds of winning the bet, NOT 52:1.) This works because even if you separate the two cards, the next cut puts them back together again.
5. With the deck face-down, start flipping over cards. Continue until the one AFTER the Key Card. This is their card (remember it!).
6. While holding the next card in the deck as though you are about to flip it, bet everybody in the room a couple of dollars that the next card you TURN OVER is theirs.
7. After they make the bet (if you do this trick casually, they probably will. Don’t act overconfident), flip over their card, which should be lying on top of the face-up pile. Collect reward.
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