Cards in Magic & Mentalism

This is a doubly magical effect in which a spectator selects a card from the deck - twice - based on the number resulting from the roll of two imaginary dice.

It's an effect in which the magician shows the entire deck to the audience while removing the two Jokers, shuffes it, and has a spectator cut the deck and complete - over and over again, as many times as the spectator wishes. When satisfied, the magician will stack a small pile of face-down cards, setting aside the rest of the deck. The spectator will imagine rolling two six-sided dice and mentally read the total (from 2 to 12). He...

This book contains a collection of effects utilizing one of my favorite gimmicks: double-sided tape.

This hard-to-find ebook is once again available for purchase. Contains 12 illusions, plus a tutorial on printing custom cards.

"... strong magic... interesting plots... devious methods. What more could one ask for?" - Martin Lewis

"... will keep you glued to the pages." - Paul Hallas

YFW!
Four Jokers and an Ace are shown. The Ace is set aside. One by one the four Jokers turn face down. But wait... this trick doesn't use four Jokers and one Ace. It uses...

A complete guide to the crimp in card magic.

Tired of spectators catching your pinky break? The Bent Truth: A Complete Guide to the Crimp is your essential guide to mastering one of the most reliable tools in card magic.

Why the crimp is your new best friend:

• It's Set-and-Forget: Unlike a pinky break, a crimp requires zero muscular effort to maintain. Once it's set, you can do anything with your hands-or even hand the deck to a spectator.
• It Survives the Shuffle: Whether it's a riffle, overhand, or Hindu shuffle, a properly applied crimp stays intact. Your spectator can genuinely shuffle...

A completely impromptu ACAAN routine in which a single card points in two directions.

The spectator freely selects two cards and they are returned to the deck and shuffled. The magician then has the spectator freely name another card, which is openly placed into the center of the deck. After being controlled to the middle, the value of the indicator card points left and right to reveal the spectator's two original selections.

Performance transcript:

• Give the deck a shuffle.
• Have the spectator freely name two cards.
• The 3 of Spades and the Jack of Diamonds.
• Insert the two cards...

"Absolutely Amazing." - Roberto Giobbi

"Incredible thinking." - Teller

The most wonderful gaffed Tarot cards (or even playing cards) ever conceived. A gaffed deck of the 22 Major Arcana cards infused with multiple layers of deceptive mechanisms.

METHODS NEVER BEFORE POSSIBLE: with the Major Arcana for predictions, mindreading, magic squares, Out of This World, vanishes, teleportations, and more.

SPECTATOR CUTS TO A CARD. You immediately know the card and its position in the deck.

A SPECTATOR CUTS THE DECK INTO THREE PILES. You immediately know the bottom card of each...

A compilation of four of my gimmicked decks that I use constantly in both professional and casual performances.

Serendipity Deck: (From the No Briefcase Act) Any named card is predicted using the two Jokers from the deck. A dynamic and entertaining approach to predicting any freely named card.

Smile Deck: (From the Motivational Mentalism Act) The named card is the only one with a smiley face in an otherwise blank-backed deck. No roughing spray, no thin cards.

Telepathic Deck: Your participant merely thinks of any card, and you instantly know it. A forgotten classic reimagined through...

A collection of miniature stage illusions using playing cards.

Still more miniature stage illusions from the critically acclaimed "I Hate Card Tricks" series. Volume 3 features effects based on both classic and contemporary stage illusions.

This hard-to-find e-book is once again available for purchase. Contains instructions for constructing and performing 12 illusions, plus a tutorial on printing custom cards.

The Aztec Queen

This effect is based on the "Aztec Lady" illusion. A Queen is placed into a playing card cabinet. She can be clearly seen through windows in the front of...

A collection of miniature stage illusions using playing cards.

What's that you say? You still hate card tricks?! Here, in volume two, I present an all-new collection of miniature "stage illusion" recreations made popular in the original I Hate Card Tricks.

This hard-to-find ebook is once again available for purchase. It contains instructions for constructing and performing 11 illusions, plus a tutorial on printing custom cards. Foreword by Martin Lewis.

The Origami Queen

This effect was inspired by Jim Steinmeyer's "Origami" illusion. A signed Queen is placed...

An almost self-working card location effect with an ACAAN feel.

Fool your magician friends. A powerful routine that can be performed with a single deck.

The spectator selects a card, returns it to the center of the deck, and cuts the cards. The magician then has the spectator cut off another packet. Using that packet, cards are dealt one to the table and one to the bottom of the packet repeatedly until only a single card remains. That final card reveals the exact location of the selection. As a bonus, the spectator also discovers the other three cards matching the selection's value. ...

Stop ignoring the back of your cards.

There is a secret hiding in plain sight on almost every deck of cards you own. It's been there for decades, but most of us overlook it because we're too busy practicing our passes and bottom deals. It's called the one-way back principle, and it is arguably the most undervalued tool in card magic.

Why should you care? Because the one-way back principle allows for genuine miracles that require zero sleight of hand. We're talking about effects where the spectator shuffles the deck themselves, yet you can still find their card instantly. It survives genuine...

A collection of miniature stage illusions using playing cards.

This hard-to-find ebook is once again available for purchase. It contains instructions for constructing and performing 11 illusions, plus a tutorial on printing custom cards. Foreword by Marty "Martini" Grams.

"Highly recommended ... pure genius ... 10 out of 10." - Marty "Martini" Grams

"...the effects look so astonishing." - Aldo Colombini

"Remarkably different and visual." - Kenton Knepper

The Divided Queen

This effect was inspired by Jim Steinmeyer's illusion, "Modern Art." Your assistant...

A pool-table card revelation.

A spectator freely selects and remembers a playing card. Every decision appears to remain firmly in their hands as the deck is divided and the procedure unfolds with complete fairness. The remaining cards are scattered face down across a pool table. The spectator is handed the cue ball. They decide the shot, the angle and the strength. The only condition is that the cue ball must strike at least two cushions before coming to rest.

When the ball finally stops, the card nearest to it is turned over. It is the very card they merely thought of.

The Cue Ball...

Two sandwich routines based on the same principle, each with a different handling and ending.

Completely self-working. No sleight of hand required. Performed with a regular deck. Fools magicians.

Miracle Count 15 & 47:
No complicated stack. The spectator freely cuts to a card and remembers it. The magician turns the 15th and 47th cards face up, then deals alternately into two tabled piles. The two face-up cards always remain in the same pile. In the end, they sandwich a single card—the spectator's selection. The other piles are then revealed to contain the four Kings.

15 & 47 Sandwich:...

An absolute hot favourite with Dai Vernon, Nate Leipzig, Faucett Ross, Al Koran, Jean Hugard, Cy Endfield and a host of others, Matching The Cards is right up at the top of the ladder for sheer popularity and always has been. This is not some careless overstatement: Matching The Cards is one of the most highly prized card mysteries - ever!

Lewis Ganson wrote a best-selling booklet devoted to just this one effect, Matching the Cards Teach-In. MTC has been making the rounds for years and you will most likely recognize it. The effect...

A spectator cuts a shuffled deck and, with the first three cards he places on the table, creates an ACAAN, which, immediately afterward, miraculously occurs again.

Double Realy to ACAAN is a new card magic trick in which the magician, after showing and shuffling a deck of cards, hands it to a spectator who, after cutting and completing it one or more times as desired, places the top three cards face down on the table. The magician explains that the last two cards will yield a random number: by adding their values together (and subtracting 13 if necessary, should the sum be greater than...

You will find more than 50 ideas and effects, some old that have been released before, and some brand new that Jozsef has never shared before.

"A lovely collection of mostly close-up card magic that had me reaching for cards almost immediately!" - Paul Hallas

"József, you have the 'knack' to create direct effects with simple methods, which is, in my opinion, the essence of commercial magic." - Aldo Colombini

• PREFACE
• PERFECT
• BES-TEST
• ESP BUNDLE
• FIVE CARD BRAINWAVE
• MATCHING PAIRS
• ESJ (ELMSLEY–SIVA–JORDAN) PREDICTION
• CENTRIFUGAL TRIUMPH
• JAZZ
• FARO 21 ...

Are you tired of magic effects that fool people - but don't amaze them? Have you ever watched a spectator's face "break open in genuine, unguarded astonishment" and realized they weren't amazed by a trick, but by a fundamental violation of reality?

Most magicians treat the duplicate card like a last resort. A gimmick. Something you use when you don't have the chops for the "real" method. That's exactly backwards. The duplicate card doesn't ask your spectator to miss something happening in front of them - it asks them to fail to conceive of something entirely. Nobody watching card magic...

This is a completely impromptu ACAAN. The spectator names any number and freely remembers a random card. In the end, the remembered card appears exactly at the named position.

However, I prefer to think of it as a card control system - a method for controlling a merely remembered card to any desired position with no setup whatsoever. Without question, this concept can take your card magic to the next level.

1st edition 2026, video 8:50

A card chosen "blindly" by the magician will inevitably be revealed by the spectator, inexplicably.

A brand-new card magic effect in which the magician, after showing and shuffling a deck of cards, hands it to a spectator who, after cutting and completing, one or more times as desired, returns it to the illusionist. The latter, without ever turning the deck face up, runs his fingers along the backs of the cards until he chooses a mysterious card, which he draws from the deck and places, face down, on the table.

Before choosing a card himself, the spectator is free to ask the magician...

A convincing poker demonstration and more.

A routine of poker deals that can be performed without long practice or great skill, plus it can be done anywhere and with absolutely any pack!

The performer deals two-handed stud, five-handed stud, four and five-handed draw poker, and finally gives an exhibition of "cold deck" work.

The magician has absolute control of the cards at all times and yet no resort is made to bottom dealing, second dealing, shuffle stacking or other difficult methods. This routine is a boon to the performer who is requested, after he has performed a few card effects,...

Using the classic Gemini Twins principle, these are two expanded routines with much stronger climaxes. The spectator may call stop at any time, and face-up cards are placed at those stopping points, leading to effects far beyond the original plot.

Performed with a regular deck. Easy handling, powerful impact.

Triple-Path Gemini Twins:

A spectator freely selects a card. The performer then deals three piles, and the spectator calls stop three times at any moment during the deal. A face-up card is placed on top of each pile at the stopping points. The cards are squared, and the deck...

Here's a question worth sitting with for a moment. What if you already knew the card before the spectator touched the deck? Not because you're skillful. Not because you're fast. Not because you forced it with your hands. But because no matter what they do - shuffle, cut, mix, choose freely - they are going to pick the same card every single time.

That's the one-way forcing deck. And in the right hands, it's the most devastatingly fair-looking card magic you can perform.

What this eBook covers: The one-way forcing deck is one of the most underrated tools in card magic. Most performers...

A card mystery that focuses on chaos? Now, who among close-up workers wouldn't like to check out something as novel as that?

The term "At Sixes and Sevens" is a term from the distant past and means simply being in a state of confusion or disorder. This manuscript offers something off the beaten path - carefully paired off cards that instantly end up in a jumbled state.

The Sixes and Sevens, reds and blacks, eight in all, are openly sorted and paired off by colour, then with a wave of the hand, disorder occurs. Two pairs now consist of a red Six and a black Seven - yet the other pairs...

Here's a great way to show an audience that you're a top-flight manipulator. This routine will bring you plenty of "oohs" and "aahs" from the crowd.

The performer's hands are placed together - fingers interlocked - then shown empty by showing first the palms and then the backs. Suddenly, up pops a playing card. The hands are shown empty again and another card is produced. This can be continued for 15 to 20 cards without reloading.

The thumbs are free - no preparation. The audience sees it the same as illustrated on the cover. Can be done any time. Use any playing cards. You'll understand...

A simple and direct effect with an unexpected ending.

A card-and-number routine that I particularly enjoy performing. This project collects two of my most frequently used routines. Three cards are used to locate a spectator's selection, and in the finale, those same three cards lead to every matching mate of the selection.

Predicted Number ACAAN: A card is selected, returned to the deck, shuffled, cut, and the deck is divided into three packets. The top cards of the three packets not only predict the exact number of cards cut by the spectator, but also locate the selection. Just when...

Stop burning your fingers on complex sleights and start performing miracles.

Master the Key Card Principle, a "secret weapon" of card magic that has empowered magicians for centuries and remains a favorite of legends like Dani DaOrtiz and John Bannon. This eBook is your essential guide to a principle that allows you to know the "impossible" while maintaining the illusion of complete fairness and randomness.

Why Use the Key Card Principle?

• Deceptive Power: Locate chosen cards and make perfect predictions without the need for intricate sleight of hand.
• Versatility:...

A complete act with a deck of cards, totally impromptu and with minimum skill.

This is undoubtedly one of Aldo Colombini's most successful works. Originally published only in Italian, now available for the first time in English.

A small treasure that allows you to perform five seemingly impossible effects without difficult sleights. In a few words, the artist finds several chosen cards in incredible ways, despite the cards being repeatedly shuffled by the spectators themselves. And the good news is that the routine is fully impromptu and almost automatic.

In Aldo's own words:

A spectator freely selects a card and loses it into the middle of the deck. The magician claims he only needs three chances to cut to the selection, but all three cards cut to are misses. In the end, the combined values of those three cards reveal the exact position of the spectator’s selection.

1st edition 2026, video 6:51.

A hands-off cheating demonstration.

The traditional card-cheating demonstration ends with the audience admiring the performer's hands. This one ends somewhere else entirely.

The spectator shuffles a borrowed deck. They cut as many times as they like. They deal five poker hands, face down, in front of them. Before a single card is turned, you commit aloud: the winning hand will be a full house, sitting in the third seat from my left.

It is.

The cheating happened somewhere they cannot point to. They shuffled, they cut, they dealt - by their own hand. And the outcome arrived exactly...

A variation on the classic Invisible Palm plot. A powerful visual effect performed with just a few playing cards.

1st edition 2026, video 10:37.

A compendium of mysteries from 20th century experts.

Here is a rare opportunity to purchase seven separate manuscripts at a heavily discounted price. All seven have been written by Ian Baxter and feature careful revisions of exceptional mysteries stemming from these brilliant magicians:

• John Scarne
• Stewart James
• Dai Vernon
• Ed Marlo
• Paul Curry
• Jean Hugard
• Walter B. Gibson

This exceptional assortment of card magic from lybrary.com is now on sale for almost half the price. A bargain indeed! Do yourself a favour and secure your purchase now. This special offer of Seven Revised...

A theatrical two-card revelation.

A spectator selects a card. The card is returned to the deck. The performer begins to shuffle... and suddenly loses control. Cards spill from the hands and scatter across the table in what appears to be a genuine mistake.

Recovering, the performer invites a second spectator to also select a card. Both cards are lost in the deck. Then the tone changes.

The performer speaks quietly about moments of stillness - about the instinct people have to bring their hands together when they want to focus, reflect, or ask for something beyond themselves.

Cards...

A made-up card at a made-up number effect where the spectator does (almost) all the work.

While the performer's back is turned, a spectator cuts the deck twice to two different cards. He adds their values together, then adds 10 to obtain a random number - let's say, 23.

He deals that many cards into a pile and divides the pile into two packets. He freely chooses one of the packets, looks at its top card and remembers its value. He repeats the same procedure with the second packet, this time remembering the suit of the top card. By combining the chosen value and suit, he mentally creates...

The performer offers to demonstrate an effect that is part mentalism and part magic. For the mentalism part, he slides a blue-backed prediction card from a pay envelope, displaying that the envelope is otherwise empty before returning the card and leaving the envelope in view.

A red-backed deck is shown to be well mixed, and a spectator genuinely freely (no force) touches the back of any face-down card. This selection is left reversed in the centre of the deck.

The blue-backed prediction card is now removed from the envelope and its face displayed - let's say it is the QC. When the red...

A spectator freely selects a card, freely cuts the deck to determine a number, and divides the deck into four packets. After multiple rounds of reassembling and cutting, the selection still arrives at the exact corresponding number. A self-working, fooling card routine.

1st edition 2026, video 6:26.

Astonishing card tricks using the rough and smooth principle.

The R&S (Rough and Smooth) principle is one of the best subterfuges of card magic, with trick decks like the Brainwave Deck by Dai Vernon (originally described in October 1938 - Issue 49 of Annemann's Jinx) being one of the classic trick decks of all times, and several dozens of other decks and packet tricks based on this principle.

Basically, cards roughed with roughing treatment cling together in pairs, to show as a single card when fanned with slight pressure, and separate when fanned lightly.

One can...

Transform your card magic from mechanical to memorable.

Most card magic books teach you the moves. But moves alone don't make magic. What separates a forgettable trick from a standing ovation is the story you tell while doing it. Card Tricks with Patter delivers ten powerful, audience-tested effects alongside something most books ignore entirely: the actual words to say.

Inside these pages, you'll find classics like "The Partagas Sell," "Five Card Plunger," and Dai Vernon's "Matching the Cards," plus original creations like "Three Wrongs Make a Right." Every trick is built on solid, manageable...

A card selected and then lost in a shuffled deck will inexplicably be found by the magician, following a precise path traced by the cards themselves.

The Path Leading to the Choice is a unique card magic trick in which the magician, after showing and shuffling a deck of cards, hands it to a spectator to cut and complete. At that point, he divides the deck in two and asks the spectator to choose one of the two halves, shuffling it as he pleases, while he does the same with his own half of the deck. The spectator then chooses any card from his half and lost it into his own bunch, placing...

The spectator shuffles the deck at the start. The magician removes a prediction card, then the spectator freely selects a card and loses it back into the deck.

Next, the magician has the spectator freely cut the deck, placing Jokers at the cut points. At first, the Jokers isolate a large section containing the selection, and eventually they sandwich the exact selection itself.

The deck is split at the selection, and behind all the apparent randomness, everything leads to the final outcome. There are three packets on the table, and the bottom card of each packet perfectly matches the...

A very fooling card location and ACAAN effect.

Two spectators each cut a packet and remember the bottom card, then replace them into the deck. The performer has a spectator cut a large packet, then deals left and right on the table, eliminating the left pile each time, until only one card remains on the right. That card is spectator two's selection. Not only that, the top cards of the four dealt piles are turned over - their values add up to reveal the final position of spectator one's card.

• No force
• No gimmick
• No crimp

1st edition 2026, video 6:52.