Often performers are called upon to exhibit their talent in a Poker dealing trick, yet very few know how to stack packs or employ other card table artifices. The following enables the performer to deal out a four handed game of poker with each member holding a pat hand, yet the performer who does the actual dealing holds the highest and best hand, the same thing occurring after each dealing for several hands.

Requiring some showmanship, the effect otherwise needs no skill and it looks impossible to the audience. There is a bit of prearrangement beforehand, but I will endeavor to show my reader how this is overcome so that it will appear as though no such thing ever could have occurred.

I do not recommend this deal as a single magical effect, but by all means put it in your regular card act, especially when someone pulls the usual remark “I wouldn’t like to play cards with him”. This would be the logical time to switch packs for this occasion.

Prepare the deck as follows : First take out all of the high cards, i.e., Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks and Tens. Separate these twenty cards and arrange as follows : JH, QD, KS, AD, 10H, QC, JC, AS, 10S, QH, KD, AH, 10D, JS, JD, AC, 10C, KH, QS, KC. Now reverse their order by dealing one at a time in one heap so that afterwards the King of Clubs will be the top card while the Jack of Hearts will be the bottom card of this heap. Place these cards on the bottom of the rest of the deck and all go into the card case.

To perform, remove the deck and instruct a nearby spectator to cut the deck into two about even heaps and dovetail shuffle them together. This apparent shuffle takes away all thoughts of a stack, but because the upper half is only shuffled into the lower half, the arrangement of the bottom twenty cards is not disturbed although they are separated a little by the mixed in cards. Now state that in order to get the highest hands possible, it will be best to use only the high cards. Turn the deck face up and deal off the cards singly, dealing the high cards into a separate pile, which action brings them out of the deck exactly as stacked but now in reverse order, but as they should be. Put the rest of the deck aside and taking the packet of twenty in hand, deal a four handed game with yourself as the fourth man. These cards are dealt face down each time and the hands then turned up but kept in order.

The first deal around will show the first man with four Tens, second man holds three Queens, the third man has two pairs, Jacks and Kings, while you have four Aces.

Begin picking up the hands of cards in clock fashion. Pick up your hand first, face up, and then around to the left putting each face up hand on top of yours. Turn the packet face down, false cut if you can, and deal again. This time each player holds a high straight, but you hold a royal flush of Spades.

Pick up the hands as before but pick up the third hand first and so on around the table clockwise. Deal face down. The first man holds a pair of Tens, second has a pair of Aces, third has a pair of Kings, and you have a straight.

Pick up the hands again but start with the first hand. Deal as before. The first has two pairs, Jacks and Kings, the second has three Queens, third has a pair of Tens, and you beat them with three Aces.

For still another deal, pick them up again starting with your own hand. Deal them out and everybody gets a high straight while you have the spade royal flush as in the second deal.

Write the arrangement on the inside of a card case flap. You’ll find that this business at a card table will make you out to be quite a “shark”.