Cards in Magic & Mentalism: page 71

Maurice Kill is a completely reimagined version of the classic effect Miraskill created by Stewart James (participant chooses red or black color and the mentalist has the other, cards are turned over two at a time making three piles. One will be the red pile if both cards are red. One will be the black pile if both are black. The last will be the discard pile if one is red and one is black. The result of the game is predicted in advance by the mentalist).

Maurice Kill is a faster and more stunning version. Variations are offered to you. You may not even know the number of cards used, which was impossible...

A completely open prediction effect. The spectator freely selects a card from 12 cards, then moves the same number of spaces in any direction according to the card's value. The final card matches the value of the original prediction.

Next, the spectator again moves freely according to that value and selects another card with a completely different value - also matching the magician's original prediction.

1st edition 2026, video 9:54.

The magician begins by taking out 9 cards. A spectator then freely cuts off a packet, counts the cards, and remembers the card at that corresponding number. After that, the spectator freely selects 3 cards from the 9, and the sum of those values not only locates the original selection but also reveals the other three cards of the same value.

A classic principle reworked with a special setup turns this into a much stronger ACAAN-style routine.

Full effect shown in the performance video.

1st edition 2025, video 8:10

An entertaining monte effect where the spectator, not the performer, switches the positions of the cards (which may be borrowed).

Here's another mental stunner by Bob Hummer and it's one of the most baffling he's ever released. Briefly, it can be done with any deck, and only three cards are used - any three cards. The performer does not switch the cards around, as in the regular monte. It's the spectator who mixes the position of the cards - while the performer's back is turned. After the cards are mixed as much as desired, the spectator peeks at one card, remembers it, and then makes a...

Bracelet sequences and algorithmic stacks.

Mathematical Stacks contains a collection of various stacks made with 52 standard playing cards. Although some routines and presentations are mentioned, the book is not predominately about either routines or presentations. The very few presentations listed in this book are generally the bare minimum to demonstrate an effect.

The book contains stacks with bracelet sequences and built-in routines. The book includes stacks with binary bracelet sequences, e.g. a red-black suit bracelet sequence, where six consecutive cards identify the cards. Some...

Mathematical Fooler is in fact an impossible location effect. It really is a fooler. The principle appears as already known but will succeed in deceiving even fellow magicians.

First of all, it is possible to proceed with a borrowed deck, a real selling point. The magician borrows a deck. He looks through the deck with faces up and inquires if it is a full deck. Then he asks the spectator to cut a third of the deck and count how many cards he has in his hand. It will certainly have a two-digit number. The spectator adds the two digits together and looks at the card that corresponds to that...

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...

When Lewis Ganson asked Dai Vernon what he considered to be the best card effect, he replied that in his opinion "Matching The Cards" would be difficult to beat, particularly when performed for lay audiences. His opinion is shared by many of the world's leading card experts, who have often featured one version or another in their acts.

The granddaddy of this effect can be found in Magician's Tricks by Hatton and Plate. The effect of Vernon's version is as follows:

A card is selected by a spectator and placed face down on the table without the face being shown, then the performer endeavors to cut to the three other...

Based on an idea by Nick Trost. You will be thrilled with the splendid effect which you achieve in such an easy manner.

You show a packet of five jumbo cards cut in half. Two spectators shuffle the cards and split the packet taking some cards each. For example, one spectator has 4 cards and one has six. You place an envelope on the table and then show the cards to each spectator in turn. They look and remember the one half-card (that corresponds to the number of cards they each had in hand). Then you ask them to remove from the packet the half-card they have seen. Incredibly they match! Not...

Master's ACAAN looks exactly like described below:

You place a pack of cards in full view. The audience decides on a card and names a number. You remove the cards from the box, deal down to that number, and there it is — their card at their number. But wait, that's not the end...

You reveal that it had to be that exact card at that exact number — any change would have resulted in complete failure. Because, apart from their card at their number, all the other cards are blank.

No switches. No sleights. Just one pack of 52 cards.

1st edition 2025, PDF 5 pages, video 6:18.

The performer borrows a pack of cards, which, if desired, may be thoroughly shuffled either by the lender or by another spectator. Without arranging the cards in any special order, and without "sighting" any of them, the magician deals four packets, of five cards each, face down on the table. The entire procedure is exactly as if a game of poker or nap were about to be played.

Any member of the audience selects one of the four hands. No force, direct or indirect, is employed. The three packets not chosen are returned to the pack. The person holding the selected hand is requested to choose...

Effect: The magician, demonstrating remarkable foresight and confidence in his abilities, cuts to the exact poker hand revealed by a secret prediction after the spectator shuffles the deck.

For those seeking a more realistic version of the classic 10-card poker demonstration, this presentation offers enhanced credibility and realism. The spectator thoroughly shuffles the deck both before and during the demonstration. The spectator cuts the deck taking the card he cuts to. Magician does the same. This is repeated until both have 5 cards that form a poker hand.

The demonstration concludes...

Master of the Game is an amazing poker prediction which can be performed totally impromptu, with a spectator shuffled deck and with essentially no sleight-of-hand unless you consider crimping a card sleight-of-hand.

Imagine the following. A spectator shuffles an ordinary deck, perhaps his own. The performer tells of a strange dream in which he and the spectator played a simple game of cards. Furthermore, the performer has set down the details of the dream on a slip of paper which is sealed inside and envelope. The envelope is placed on the table where it remains for the rest of the routine. ...

This is a move Ackerman developed himself. While riffle shuffling you palm the bottom card into a gambler's flat palm using a Kelly-type movement.

runtime: 1min 27s

This is a compilation of two booklets that gambling house supply companies sold. The first part, Master Key, describes various ways playing cards can be marked. Illustrations of many marking methods and systems are included. Some of these methods go under the names of shade, glaze, block-out, line, build-up, trim, sorts, etch, swell natural or edge work, and others. The author of this section is unknown. It appears to be culled from various gambling house supply catalogs.

The second part, Run-Up Systems, was culled without credit from S. W. Erdnase's famous book The Expert at the Card Table. It explains several methods of stacking...

MASQ Stack is a rotational or sequential stack that is very easy to learn and looks very random. You should be able to remember the sequence in under ten minutes. Given any card, you will know the next card instantly. Knowing this stack, you can perform almost all the routines out there which can be performed with a Si Stebbins or 8 Kings or similar stacks.

But behind the "MASQ" there is another hidden secret. Once you know the MASQ Stack you can also perform a magic square routine anytime, anywhere to anyone without breaking a single drop of sweat. Absolutely no extra effort is required....

This technique is an application of the Vernon Push Off and allows you to table a double.

runtime: 36s

Here you learn how to replace a card you hold out in Tenkai palm on the top of the deck.

runtime: 49s

A deck is riffle shuffled. Spectator cuts off a portion and performer can tell by the weight of the packet how many cards were cut. Performer quickly glances through the deck. Spectator calls out a number and performer knows immediately the card at that position in the deck. Then a poker hand is dealt with the magician dealing himself a straight flush. And the routine ends with a game of bridge where the performer receives all 13 spades, the best hand you can have in a game of bridge.

This is a routine Ed Marlo published in the 1940s in his book Spades - that is where the name of the routine comes...

A card is chosen and signed and lost in the deck. The card travels repeatedly to the performers pocket in ever cleaner and more unbelievable fashion.

runtime: 4min 12s

In the early days of the Phoenix, issue number 12 to be exact, Lu Brent had an intriguing idea in an Ace effect titled "Together Again." In the effect, he was able to show each and every Ace being replaced into the deck, except for a chosen packet that contained, of course, the chosen Ace. At the finish, the four Aces were in the chosen pile. It used duplicate Aces. Marlo eliminated the need for duplicate aces.

• Together Again / Lu Brent
• Hindu Aces / Arthur Buckley
• Methods of Apparently Losing the Aces
• Sudden Aces
• Convincing Aces

1st edition 2025, PDF...

The deck is shuffled. Spectator cuts off a small packet and sets it aside. The performer selects one card from the remaining cards. It turns out that this is the mate card to the card on the bottom of the spectator cut packet. The same procedure is repeated and again the performer is able to pick the mate card. In ever more impossible ways the spectator selects cards which turn out to be located next to their mates.

This routine was first published in Faro Control Miracles. It uses the stay stack principle.

runtime: 16min 52s...

By simply dropping and turning a deck, you change the face card twice.

runtime: 2min 16s

The basic plot of the "Chamele Aces" was developed in the late 40s by Edward Marlo, who shared ideas about this motif with Neal Elias in 1949. Elias wrote notes regarding the methods they explored, which he and Marlo then filed away. Neither published the "work;" however, Marlo performed an impromptu version at a Pittsburgh magic convention in 1955. Earlier the same year, Roy Walton published his version of "Chamele Aces" in The Gen (February-1955: Volume 10 - Number 10).

The basic Chamele Aces plot is four red-back and four blue-back Aces transpose one at a time.

1st edition 2008; 80 pages.

Table of Contents

5. Introduction
8. A World About Problemists ...