Self-Working or Sleightless in Cards

These tricks were taught to US soldiers in military hospitals to keep up their spirits. They do not require any sleight of hand. Originally published by the Association of American Playing Card Manufacturers.

• Foreword
• Three Deep
• Spellbinder
• Dead Duck
• Club Sandwich
• On Tap
• Topsy-Turvy
• Plus Ten
• Two-By-Two
• Seven-Eleven
• Frying Pan

1st edition ~1950s, 21 pages; PDF 23 pages.

A completely self-working effect requiring no sleight of hand. The magician introduces a prediction card and has the spectator freely cut a small packet. The deck is then divided into three piles, and cards are dealt down according to a freely chosen number. The four Aces are cleanly located. In addition, the spectator's cut card, the prediction card, and the bottom cards of the three piles combine to form a Royal Flush. For the full procedure, please refer to the video demonstration.

1st edition 2025, video 6:56.

A double "Any Card At Any Number" effect, fully automatic, with a secretly ordered stack that will practically do all the work for you.

An incredible and Self-Working pair of Card Magic tricks, based on the properties of a variant, unknown to most but in any case unrecognizable to the public, derived from what is probably one of the most famous mathematical stacks... In addition to learn a practical method for building it easily, starting from a new deck, you will find two effects explained here on the theme of "Any Card At Any Number."

In the first effect, the magician will announce...

The magician apparently memorizes a shuffled deck and locates the spectator's made-up card.

A deck of cards is thoroughly shuffled by the spectator and spread face-up. The magician claims he can memorize the order of any deck within seconds thanks to his training and a bit of luck. To demonstrate this, he turns away and instructs the spectator to create a card at random, thereby ensuring complete fairness and eliminating any suspicion of forcing. To do so, the spectator cuts into the deck twice - once to select a suit and once to select a value - and combines them to get a made-up playing...

Two chosen cards, seemingly impossible to track, are miraculously found by the magician.

From a shuffled deck, two spectators each select a card. While they look at their card, the magician divides the deck into two piles and turns away from the audience.

Each spectator places their card on top of a pile and thinks of a number between 1 and 10. To lose their card, they move that number of cards from the top to the bottom of their pile. Then, they assemble the deck by placing one pile on the other and may cut as much as they like.

Only now does the magician face the audience again. ...

After the spectator creates a two-digit number from cards numbered from 1 to 16, he shuffles the 16 cards, not once but twice. The magician deals them out, once for the past, once for the present and once for the future. The dealt matrix forms a magic square adding to the spectator's number in 80 different ways!

Works automatically. No memorization. No calculations. A new combination of principles never before used.

1st edition 2025, PDF 34 pages.

An incredible mentalism effect with cards, totally impromptu and hands-off, in which the illusionist will find the card thought of and scattered within a deck that the spectator himself, cutting in various parts, will shuffle several times, also faces against backs.

This is an incredible effect involving the retrieval of a thought-of card, totally impromptu, practically hands-off (the illusionist will only pick up the deck of cards at the end of the experiment) and therefore always ready for a performance, even if the magician only has a borrowed deck of cards, which may even be incomplete. ...

Five effects that connect into one routine.

Tired of forgetting your best tricks when an audience asks for a spontaneous performance? Magic a la Card solves the routine problem, offering a complete, five-effect card set that requires zero sleight of hand. This is a fully sequenced act designed to build in crescendo to a powerful climax: a sleightless Card in the Wallet effect. From the psychological deception of The Lie Detector (where the back of the card predicts the outcome) to a modernized 21 Card Trick and an impossible Mathematical Prediction, the pack is prearranged, and the tricks...

A card game between four players, in which the magician seems to have no control, unless he manages to use magic to enchant the cards of each of the players.

This is a completely improvised card trick that the illusionist performs by randomly choosing three spectators and giving them a common deck of cards (even borrowed) that they can freely shuffle, before dealing a hand of cards (five apiece) to each of them.

The magician will show that, after everyone has looked at their cards, they must choose and remember the highest value card, placing it on top of their deck, keeping all cards...

A card conceit based on a scientific principle never before used with a complete deck of 52 cards.

That statement above was true in 1921 when Adamathica was first released in a very limited run of 100 copies. Bertram Adams expanded the 27-card trick to a pack of 52 cards. The mathematics are based on Gergonne's Pile Problem.

EFFECT: The spectator is asked to make a free mental selection of any card in a deck of 52. This selection is made purely mentally without reference to any deck, hence it is not forced in any way. The same spectator or another, if there be more than one,...

The Spectator thinks of a card. Only he knows its identity. Cards are mixed together face-up and face-down. Now - in rapid succession - there are three shocking climaxes:

• Instantly, all of the cards turn face-up - with the exception of the thought card. It is the only card still face-down!
• Suddenly, the thought card vanishes and turns into the Hand O' Doom.
• The Spectator reaches into his pocket and finds among some other cards he placed there previously - the missing thought card.

FEATURES

• Entirely mechanical and self-working: requires no skill, no memorization, no sleights. ...

Forcing a card is one of the strongest moves you can do. When the spectator handles the cards and the magician seemingly never touches the cards, you have a miracle waiting to happen. The reveal can be as extravagant as you want. All of these forces require no sleight of hand and are not well known. They can be done with the spectator's deck.

1st edition 2025, PDF 12 pages.

Imagine this: A spectator shuffles a regular blue-backed deck and freely selects any card - no forcing, no restrictions. That card is immediately sealed inside an envelope, in full view. On the table, untouched from the beginning, lies a wallet - secured by elastic bands. Inside, the spectator discovers another sealed envelope. The envelope in the wallet is opened and a red-backed card is extracted. The spectator's blue-backed card is taken out from the envelope, two different cards from two different places. No envelope switch (only two envelopes used). No sleights. No clue. Yet when both...

A close-up routine for the people in your audience who'd rather be fishing.

(Psst! I don't want to say this is self-working, but...)

The effect: Sixteen fish cards are dealt face down in a 4x4 grid, and your helper is asked to choose a number from 1 to 4 so you can eliminate that fishing spot. Remove all the cards from the chosen column and row, and show a few of the faces to display what trophy fish were not caught.

Ask them to eliminate another fishing spot by choosing from the rows/columns that are left and remove those cards, again showing some of the world-class fish that weren't...

An amazing automatic effect about magical coincidences, where two spectators are amazed by their mutual sympathy and romantic affinity.

This is an intriguing and utterly self-working card magic effect, where a stunning coincidence unfolds despite the wide range of free choices made by two spectators.

The magician invites two participants to assist with the experiment - ideally a couple, or at least two people who share a strong affinity. After introducing a deck of cards, the performer gives it a shuffle and allows both participants to cut and complete the cut. To test the strength of...

Excerpt from the introduction:

Predict two playing cards and how they are ordered on the table.

A piece of cardboard/prediction lays on the table from the start. The magician introduces two decks of cards and explains that he is going to perform an experiment in order to test his mental compatibility with a spectator. For that, they have to combine their lucky numbers.

The magician's is the number 4. The spectator is asked to find his own lucky number through a very quick and simple procedure. Let's say that, in our example, it ends up being the number 18. They combine the two numbers and obtain the number 22.

The...

The Relentless Human-Machine Challenge.

A duel with an incredible outcome where the magician stages, through a simple deck of cards, a real challenge between human and artificial intelligence, in a setting inspired by the famous sci-fi saga "The Matrix".

Strengths

1. The effect is self-working and practically impromptu.
2. No special memory efforts are required for the illusionist.
3. No need to follow complicated rules or apply special techniques.
4. Easy to perform, but with absolutely incredible results.
5. It will amaze anyone who should witness the execution, including yourself.

A...

Hummer's Word is a card magic effect based on a variant of the principle called CATO (Cut And Turn Over), developed by Bob Hummer. This version uses updated techniques to achieve even more surprising and unpredictable results.

For execution, the use of an alphabetical deck is recommended, in which each card represents a single letter of the alphabet. Alternatively, you can create a craft deck using business cards, blank cards or cut-out cardstock. You can also replace the alphabetical deck with classic poker cards, and perform the effect in a completely improvised way, even with a borrowed and incomplete...

Effect: A prediction identifies both the freely selected card (Wild Card) and its precise location in the deck, despite the deck (52 cards) being thoroughly shuffled by the spectator after the prediction was made. The routine is framed within the context of a card game. The spectator chooses the specific card game, number of players, the Wild Card, and they deal the game. The magician never touches the cards.

Are you looking for a killer prediction effect that'll knock their socks off and is easy to do? Well, you're in luck - this is exactly what you need. This effect represents the pinnacle...

Are you looking for a fun effect to perform that leaves the spectator in awe? This is an effect for you. You are in complete control all the time, yet it appears the spectator makes all the choices. You relax and focus on your presentation rather than worrying about the method. This approach incorporates multiple outs into a card trick without relying on suspicious props or your pockets as an out. This method provides multiple options to easily handle different outcomes based on what your spectator chooses.

• Easy to do
• No sleight of hand
• No card indexes
• No using your pockets as an out ...

Two different versions of an effect, incredibly impromptu and practically self-working, which stages a play at an imaginary poker game with strange rules that always make the spectator the overwhelming favorite, but where, in the end, the magician will win against all odds, closing the game in a true Triumph of the four Aces.

A truly amazing card magic effect that will leave both you, when you try it the first few times, incredulous (it still happens even to me who came up with it, I guarantee) and your audience, as soon as you manage to propose it to them.

You will learn two versions,...

The magician finds the spectator's card despite impossible conditions.

A spectator selects a card from a shuffled deck and remembers it. Before he puts it back on top and cuts the deck, the magician suggests that he shuffles a few cards from the top so nobody knows what the top card is. The spectator does so and puts the packet back on the deck. Then, the magician suggests that he also shuffles a few cards from the bottom for the same reason. The spectator does so and, this time, drops the deck on the bottom packet. The magician actually doesn't know what the top or the bottom cards are....

A new impromptu and self-working card magic effect, in which the magician leaves a prediction in sight, a card is chosen and lost into a packet of a few cards taken at random and, when the prediction is opened and read aloud, what appears to be a joke, magically turns out to be the key to finding the chosen card!

A new self-working card magic effect, always possible to improvise (practically a packet trick) that will both amuse and fool you. The magician leaves a prediction in sight, then sets aside the two red Aces and has a spectator choose any nine cards from the deck. After one of them...

The Lie Detector is a card magic and mentalism effect that can be performed at any time and employs six cards, randomly chosen by the spectator, which put together in a pack will act as a polygraph. Alternatively, it is possible to use six cards on which to write as many names, cities, emotions, instruments, or any other idea that makes it possible to freely choose between six elements. The spectator will have to choose the six cards, one of which will have to remain a secret, to be guarded at all costs, even in the face of the four questions that the illusionist will have to ask him so that...

An unprecedented self-working effect in which 2 cards chosen to represent two bratty kids hiding among the other cards, will be captured by three cards called to represent daddy, a lady, and a boy.

This is a new automatic card effect, accompanied by a nice story, where the magician, drawing from a common deck of cards, uses only the face cards, dividing them into three piles: the Jacks, the Queens, and the Kings. He introduces the latter as a small group of friends, four separated fathers, who decide to hold a party to which they invite four dames and four Jacks, their sons. Nevertheless,...