Impromptu thought of card tricks have always been welcome and many letters have come to me in the course of years asking about similar effects that have fooled the writers. I’ll explain this exactly as I have been using it. The deck is spread out face down and the spectator asked to remove three cards at will and hold them. He is to carefully study them and finally make a mental choice of one and keep it firmly in mind. Squaring up the deck, the performer has them replaced and then proceeds to mix a little. Each performer will use his favorite method of getting these three cards to the top or bottom for that is where they must be.

Putting the deck behind his back, the performer tries to locate the thought of card, drawing one out and throwing it face up on the table. He is wrong, of course, and explaining that the spectator is not concentrating enough, fans the deck facing that person, and asks that he see his card once more. Behind his back, the performer, having the three cards on top, has put the top one on the bottom and the second one in his hip pocket. Now the third one is silently run into tenth place, by running off ten and putting the card under them. Then the deck is turned face up and that card (i.e. the one you previously placed at the bottom) placed tenth from the bottom. This takes but twenty seconds and a card is then thrown out and found to be wrong.

Now the deck is fanned through for the spectator’s second glimpse. After about half of them have gone by, the performer can ask if the card has been seen, but nine times out of ten, the spectator himself will say he has seen it if so. If it has been seen, it must be tenth from the top and the performer can spread the deck face down on the table and pick it out. If it hasn’t been seen, the deck is handed to the spectator to finish running through himself. If he then sees it, it is the tenth from the bottom. If he can’t find it at all, he is asked to name it and the performer then removes it from his pocket. The middle card of the three is the one pocketed, as it improves the percentage quite a little in favor of the latter finish. Those who use this will find it a clean and effective trick.