A selected card lost in a packet is found by a randomly chosen Ace detective.


Remove the four Aces from the deck, then stack the remainder in alternating colours. Finally insert the Aces at random places in the deck.

1. Remove the four Aces and place then in a face up spread on the table, saying, “These are Ace detectives who specialize in tracking down heavy villains.” Give the rest of the deck to a spectator and ask him to give a it a few cuts.

Tell him to deal the top three cards into a face up row. These will either be RBR or BRB. Later when you combine the three piles the size will be important. So, RBR = small and BRB = large.


2. Tell him to deal a pile below each card by spelling its colour. So if the three cards are BRB, he spells BLACK dealing 5 cards, then RED and finally BLACK. The rest of the deck is discarded. You can also discard the three FU cards now as they are no longer needed.


3. Turn away and ask him to look at the top card of any pile and leave it there, saying, “That card will be our heavy villain.” He now picks up the other two piles, shuffles them together and drops this pile on top of his card.

Point out that, because of the random quantities you couldn’t know precisely where his cards is - which is true.


4. Say, “You need to program the cards by inputting some information about your card, but we’ll make it as minimal as possible. Spell its colour by dealing a card for each letter into a pile on the table, then drop the rest on top.”

This positions his card 8th from the face always. And 4th or 6th from top, depending on whether the packet is small or large respectively.


5. The card is now revealed as follows:

Draw attention to the Ace detectives, saying, “You’ll remember I told you that these are Ace detectives who specialize in tracking down heavy villains? Well now it’s time to test them. We only need one of them. It’s up to you to guess which one is the best for this job.” 

Ask the spectator to name any Ace. He now spells the chosen Ace.

If the packet is “small” he spells ACE dealing 3 cards to the table, then drops the balance on top. Then he spells the suit (what he spells here is irrelevent) and drops the balance on top. The selection is on the bottom.

If the packet is “large” he spells ACE dealing 3 cards to the table, then drops the balance on top. Then he spells OF dealing 2 cards and drops the balance on top. Then he spells the suit and drops the balance on top. The selection is on the bottom.

Finish by saying, “If you’ve been successful, the heavy villain will be easy to find because he’ll have sunk to the bottom.” He announces the name of his card then turns the packet over revealing it.