| By :
George Hutton
Here's a quick and simple magic trick that never fails to impress almost any crowd. All you need is a deck of cards and a table. And the best part is, you don't even have to touch the deck to do this trick. Here's how it looks to your audience. You turn your back, and tell them to pick any non face card. Ace through ten. Then have them put a number of cards on top of their chosen card, equal to the chosen card, on the top of the deck. So if they pick a three, then they'd put three cards on top of the three, and then put this new stack of four cards on top of the deck. After they've chosen their card, and stacked them onto the deck, ask them to spread out ten cards or so, face up, from the top of the deck, on the table in any order they choose. No matter how many times you do this, it takes a pretty astute reverse engineer to figure out how you do this. Because this is a pure mathematical trick, there is no sleight of hand to give it away. The trick is actually pretty simple. Here's how you do it. When they start laying the cards out, remember the order they put them in. Discount the first card, and then start to mentally count, starting from the second card, with number one. The third card would be two, and so on. As soon as you get to a card where the card's number is the same as your secret mental count, that's their card. The best way to do this is quickly and silently, while they are laying the cards out. That gives you more time to do your psychic impression. You can even give them the entire instructions, and not turn back around (or come back into the room) until after they've not only chosen their card, but also laid them all out on the table. This works great at parties. Be forewarned, as there is about a ten percent chance that two cards will actually match up with your mental count. Don't worry, you can play this off pretty easily. Pick which ever card you like, and then choose it as their card. If you're wrong, they'll question your mental powers, and start giving you a hard time, which is when you say "just kidding," and then pick their real card right away, as if you knew what it was all along. This is particularly fun to do with kids, as after you finish, you can teach it to them, so they can go and show their friends.
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