Aces in your face

You spread the cards out, removing the jokers. You then hand the deck to your victim, asking him to deal them down onto the table, one at a time into a neat pile, and to stop whenever he likes. When he does, you give him the option to add on a couple of extra cards or take a couple back. You then tell him to pick up the pile he’s dealt and deal them, one at a time, into four additional piles until he runs out of cards. Now bet him that, whichever one of the four piles he chooses, not only will there be an ace in the pile, but it’ll be the top card. Given the odds, and considering that he dealt the cards himself, it’s an irresistible flutter.

He picks a pile and turns over the top card. Of course, it’s an ace. After you pocket his money, you add insult to injury by turning over the top card of the three remaining piles. They’re all aces! Sit back smugly and watch his head melt down his shoulders.

This one requires a little pre-show work but, once it’s done, the trick pretty much works itself. So, before you interrupt everybody by announcing that you’re going to stun them with your magical powers, take your deck of cards and remove the four aces and place them on top of the pack. Obviously make sure nobody sees you doing this.

Now that you’ve got that done, let’s break this down step by step.

You’ll note I’ve put some points in parentheses that explain the psychology behind the scam. These are what make it really work and determine how big a payoff the punter will put down when you make the bet. So grab your deck and follow along… I said deck!

Turn the deck face up and, under the guise of “checking you’ve removed the jokers,” spread the cards so that your audience can see them. (This is a subtle way of showing that the cards are in no set order. Just make sure you don’t spread them so far that anyone can see the aces on top.)

Hand the deck to your victim and tell him to listen carefully to your instructions since you don’t want to touch the cards and you don’t want him to mess things up in front of everybody. (Saying this serves two purposes: Firstly, it makes him feel quite self conscious as he doesn’t want to look stupid in front of his peers. This guarantees they don’t screw the whole thing up on you. It also stresses how fair everything is, a point that will become much more important when you ask him to put down money.)

Ask him to start dealing the cards face down, one at a time, into a pile on the table.

Tell him he can stop dealing whenever he likes, but there must be at least twenty cards on the table so it’s not too easy for you.

This positions the aces on the bottom of the pile he dealt down

(Remember, he doesn’t know what’s coming up, so he doesn’t know whether it’s going to be easy for you or not, but it does make you sound considerate. The actual reason is that, with fewer cards, the method becomes too obvious.)

When he stops, ask him if he would like to add a few more cards to the pile or take a few off. If he decides to do neither, remind him that in the morning when he’s buttering his toast, he’ll wonder what would have happened if he had. (The reason we’re pressuring him is that when it comes time to bet and he reconstructs what’s happened, it will once again all have seemed amazingly fair).

To prevent confusion, take the remainder of the deck from him. Ask him to pick up the pile of cards he’s just dealt onto the table and instruct him to deal them one at a time, in a circular fashion, into four more piles until he runs out of cards. The bottom four cards — the aces — are now on top of the four piles.

All that’s left for you to do is to sell it to him and get him to pick a pile and the money is yours.

The next one is quick and easy and doesn’t take much explaining (see Figure 1). Bet your mate that he can’t free the coin without knocking over or touching the matches. All you’ve got to do is set fire to the heads of the matches (Figure 2). The heat causes the heads of the matches to fuse together (Figure 3). As the flame travels down the match, it lifts up, allowing you to slide the coin free (Figure 4). This is a trick that’s very satisfying to watch but quite hard to set up. It requires a steady hand and definitely is not one for when you’re hung over or if you suffer from Parkinson’s.

Until next time, Jack Wise