With a full deck of 52 cards which you have borrowed, it is possible to present rather an astonishing method of discovering a thought of card. Such a method was first introduced in Hatton and Plate’s Magician’s Tricks, but only a 32 card euchre deck could be used. Using such a deck today is rather artificial, unless done at a time when euchre is being played, and such a deck is handy without requesting it. Therefore, this method with a full pack should find a more welcome reception with the average reader.
Have the deck shuffled and dealt into four piles of thirteen cards each. It would be well for the reader to follow this routine with the cards actually in hand. A spectator chooses any one of the four piles, and you fan it face down with both hands. Then, taking 6 cards in your right hand, and 7 in your left, you raise them quickly, at the same time telling the spectator to think of any card he sees.
Notice, if possible, in which hand the noted card is. You only give him a moment or two in which to note a card, and it is seldom that you won’t be able to know in which hand he sees a card to remember. Then place the 6 cards on top of the 7, and drop these on one of the 13 card piles on the table. At the same time, the right hand picks up the other two piles, and drops them on top of all. Square up the cards by tapping them on the table, and casually glimpse the bottom card. Now you may give the deck several genuine cuts.
Now ask the spectator to concentrate upon his thought of card. Act as if you are trying to get an impression of same, and look through the deck for the glimpsed card which you cut back to the bottom. The selected card will now be 14th to 20th from the face of the pack if in the left hand originally, and 21st to 26th if in the right. Make a stab at the color, but, whether right or wrong, complain of a weak impression and say that you will try to get a better one.
Again lay out the cards one at a time, from left to right, into four piles. Fan the cards in front of him, pile by pile, and ask him to tell you when he sees his card. It will always be from 7th to 10th from the face of the packet. If the thought of card was in the right hand, and is now in either the 1st or 2nd pile, counting from left to right, it is the 8th card from the face. If in the 3rd or 4th pile, it is either 7th or 8th.
If the card was originally in the left hand, and is now in one of the first three piles, it is either 9th or 10th from the face. If in the 4th pile, it is 9th. Even if you didn’t notice from which hand the spectator originally thought of a card, it will be easy to locate, because you already know the color, having stabbed at it at the start, and received either an acknowledgement or denial.
You are supposed to be reading the spectator’s mind, so act like it. You can look at the bottom card of the packet in which the card is seen by the spectator on the second deal and fanning, put it together with the other three piles, and have the deck cut again before you locate the card. However, as first explained, it is an easily worked problem, and does not require too much mind effort on the part of the watching audience. And the initial shuffling and dealing by a spectator, makes them realize (you mention it, too) that no one can know the location of any card, and that they have free selection of the pile, and finally of a card.
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