WAIT! I don’t know The Stack just yet, take me back…
Take Me to Second Effect
The Memorized Deck Starter Pack – Effect #1
The Holy Grail of Card Magic
Well, isn’t that an intimidating title and a half?
How on earth am I going to manage to follow through on a claim like that?
Well, fortunately for me, I’m not the one who made that claim.
For a long time, it’s been commonly accepted in card magic that the ‘holy grail’ of all effects is discovering a freely named card at a freely named number within a deck of cards.
That’s just ‘how it is.’
Of course, that’s not to say you can’t have a different personal opinion.
Just that it’s widely regarded as such. That, in itself, lends it a legendary air that (for my money) makes it one of the strongest, most iconic things you can do with a deck of cards.
In fact, this effect has always intrigued me. When I was younger, I’d sit there and watch that Berglas video over and over again—wondering if maybe, just MAYBE, it really was magic
The good news is, using a memorized deck is by far and away THE easiest and cleanest way to perform the ACAAN effect.
However, a word of warning…
Afore you get too dreamy-eyed, let me remind you:
To the best of my knowledge, we don’t actually have magical powers, and we WILL be using trickery to accomplish our goals with this effect.
I know it’s lovely to fool ourselves into thinking there’s the ‘perfect’ method out there.
But this fascination with this ‘holy grail’ leads to people wondering:
“Is there really a way to make a named card appear in a named position within an ungimmicked deck, without forcing anything, touching the deck, or relying on luck?”
If that’s the question you’re asking, you’re not going to like the answer…
Which, of course, is an emphatic NO.
However, if your question is:
“Is there a way to make it very much SEEM that way—in approximately 5 seconds of work, before the effect even truly begins, by moving a few cards, in a way that they don’t even recall—and sometimes not even that?”
Well, in that case…come on in! I think you’ll love this answer…
Let’s break it down:
At its core, the ACAAN effect comes down to this:
Since you know the position of each card, and the identity of each card at any position, you have a number of options available to ‘arrange’ the deck in your favor.
Maybe that sounds cryptic.
Let’s get deeper into it.
Here are the 4 main methods I would suggest utilizing for this effect:
1 – free choice of number, force card
2 – free choice of card, force number
3 – free choice of both, shift the cards
4 – neither if the card is convenient
Let’s start with that 4th one since it’s the most likely to cause a little confusion.
What do I mean by this?
Well, straight out the gate we’re perfectly set up magically revealing 20/52 of the possible named cards…without even using the ACAAN methods.
Which, actually…is a heck of a lot!
By that, I mean that if my spectator names any of the cards in the top 10 or bottom 10, I have a magical way of revealing that card.
NOTE: these methods for revealing the card are inspired by Mnemonicosis, by Juan Tamariz, Fingertip Miracle by Ed Marlo, and various ideas by Michael Close.
Let’s say, once again, I’m performing for Jacob.
I need to be able to access the top (or bottom) 10 cards in a way that feels natural.
Here’s what I’d do:
- 1st card
If he names the first card, I’d hand him the deck and get him to ‘focus’ on his card and try to draw it up through the deck.
After a sufficient amount of time, get him to lift up his hand and discover the named card has risen to the top of the deck.
Michael Close’s ‘The Wishing Trick’ is another pretty good option for this too.
- 52nd card
By extension, anything I can do to reveal the top card, I can do to reveal the bottom card.
That’s due to one of the most devious ideas in all of memorized deck magic:
You get to CHOOSE which side is the ‘top’ or ‘bottom.’
I.e if you take the cards and turn them face up, you have a ‘new’ top card—the bottom card!
Get it?
Of course, you need a sufficient excuse for doing this. One might be to start with the cards in the box, rather than face down on the table. I think it’s more out of place to take a face-down deck and turn it face up than it is to take the cards out of the box, and place them face up on the table.
After all, that way, for all they know—that’s what you were planning to do all along!
That brings me to another important point.
No matter what you do—no matter which ‘out’ or method—it should feel like that is ALWAYS what was going to happen. It should never feel like you’re making it up on the spot. Whatever you do, they should feel like that’s what you would have done no matter what—no matter the card they chose.
Various mem deck maestros have talked about this before, but Michael Close again stands out in my memory.
Anyway, where was I?
Ah, yes.
Any ‘out’ you have for cards 1 through 10 can also be applied to the bottom 10 cards by simply turning the deck face up.
Ok, that’s a slight lie. There are a couple more limitations when working with the face-up cards—such as not being able to do a double lift—but for the most part, you can do the same thing from the face up as you do in the face down.
So if they name the 52nd card, I’m going to do the same thing as I did for ‘1’ but change the reveal. I’ll get them to hold the cards, focus on their card, and then turn the deck face up to see their card starting back at them.
Already, that’s 2/52 options covered, or 1/26.
And I don’t know about you, but I plan to perform to a whole lot more people than 26—so this situation WILL come up.
(also, make sure you keep in mind what we discussed about ‘throwing a miracle away.’ It can be tempting to pounce on them when they name the top or bottom card, but we should always give them the option to change their mind. It’ll make the final reveal so much stronger.)
- 2nd card/51st card
From here on out, I’ll deal with both the top and bottom options at the same time, since it’s always going to be similar.
In this case, I’m going to do a similar effect to the previous one, with one caveat—a double lift, or a glide.
If they name the second card down, I would hold the cards in my hand but have them place their hand over the deck. This way they still feel the physical connection, but I retain control and it seems justified for me to turn over the card.
At which point, as you may have guessed, I’m going to do a double lift to reveal their card has arrived at the top of the deck.
What about the 51st card?
In this case, I’ll present it the same way, but at the reveal, I’ll perform the glide move.
The glide move simply consists of sliding the real bottom card slightly to the left, so we can draw out the card beneath (aka the second card from bottom) and have it LOOK like we’re drawing out the bottom card.
It’s one of the first sleights (although calling it a ‘sleight’ makes it sound far harder than it really is) taught in The Royal Road to Card Magic.
In our case, it’s pretty useful since we can use it
- 3rd card/50th card
In a case like this, you can either go for a triple lift paired with the above presentation (or a ‘triple glide’ where you push back two and slide out the third) or the following idea, as follows:
Ask them to name any number between 1 and 5. In the majority of cases, they’re going to name a number very convenient to us:
3!
If you don’t believe me, test it. For most people, 3 is just the ‘go to’ number when asked to pick one between 1 and 5.
What if they don’t?
Consider this. If they name 1, we can deal 1 card and then double lift (or glide) to display the named card. If they name 2, we can deal 2 cards and show that the card left on the deck (top or bottom, this works for both) is the named card.
So actually, we’re good for 3/5 of the time. And likely more than that due to how popular the number ‘3’ is.
If they say 4 or 5, the most we’ll have to do is shift two cards from the top to the bottom (but more on that later.)
- 4th card/49th card
I’d actually ask the same question as last time. If they say 3, great! We can deal 3 cards and show that the card left on the deck is their named card.
And of course, if they name 4, we’re golden.
If they name 2, we can deal 2 cards and then do a double lift/glide to display the named card.
So again, we’re covered for 3/5 of the time (and these are the far more likely outcomes, especially since we’ve asked them to name a number BETWEEN 1 and 5).
And again, the worst-case scenario is we might have to shift a few cards. But again, nothing crazy, and we’ll talk about that later.
- 5th card, 48th card.
At this point, I’d be starting to transition into ‘spelling reveals.’
By that I mean spelling a word—their name, my name, or other words—that has the number of letters necessary to take me to the position I need to get to.
If I want to get to the 5th card, I could spell ‘Jacob.’
Notice how that’s 5 letters?
Or I could deal ‘Benji.’
That’s also 5 letters.
And of course, I can spell this word either from the top of the deck and down into the cards, or from the face of the deck up into the cards.
Your options are open!
- 6th card, 47th card.
Notice how earlier we did this interesting subtlety where we would deal cards, and then turn over the NEXT card?
If I hadn’t pointed it out, chances are you wouldn’t have noticed. After all, either way seems natural: we count the cards and turn over where we ‘arrived’ (aka the card on the deck after counting) or where we ‘landed’ (aka the final card of the count.)
We can do a similar thing with spelling.
So in this case, I could spell ‘Jacob’ and then turn over the card left on the deck to reveal the named card (or, in the face up portion, spell Jacob and reveal that the card left on the face of the deck after spelling is the named card.)
- 7th card, 46th card.
Here’s where things get real fun. We can combine the previous principle with the simple double lift to get EXTRA reach.
So we can spell ‘Jacob,’ and then do a double lift on the face-down cards (or a glide on the face-up cards) to reveal the named card.
That’s because spelling ‘Jacob’ deals 5 cards, which leaves us with the 6 on top of the deck. And beneath the 6, the 7. Therefore, using a double lift, we can display that 7!
- 8th card, 45th card.
Now we need to start getting more creative. In this case, I know that Jacob’s last name is ‘Daniels’. That just so happens to be 7 letters. So I could spell ‘Daniels’ and reveal the next card as the named card.
NOTE: Since Daniels is 7 letters, I could also have used it in the previous option to reveal the 7th card. You decide!
- 9th card, 44th card.
Now we really start plugging different ideas together. What if we spelled ‘Daniels’ and then did a double lift (or glide)?
Yep…I think that would just about do it.
- 10th card, 43rd card.
Here’s where I get real crafty.
I know Jacob’s WIFE’s name is…uh, let’s just say it’s ‘Julia.’
(it’s not, but the number of letters is the same – 5.)
Jacob = 5 letters.
Julia = 5 letters.
5 + 5?
Our winning number…
10!
I could then spell ‘Jacob’ and ‘Julia’ to reveal the 10th card (or 43rd by spelling into the face-up portion.)
There you are! That’s us covered for 20 cards out of the 52! Of course, that’s not to say we NEED to do these reveals rather than the ACAAN effect, but it sure gives us a nice out if we’re not feeling it. We can change it up. Some days we might hit the ACAAN, others we might take it breezy with this stuff.
It’s always good to have as many options open as possible.
But honestly…I could go in.
In fact, what the heck. I’m here, you’re here, we’re both ‘in the zone’, so let’s do it.
- 11th card/42nd card
Jacob + Julia = 10 cards.
Spell ‘Jacob’ and ‘Julia’ and then turn over the card left of the deck (or show the card left on face for face up portion) to reveal the named card.
- 12th card/41st card
‘Jacob Daniels’ = 12.
Easy!
- 13th card/40th card
Spell ‘Jacob Ainsley’ and the card left on the deck after spelling is the named card.
(I think that just about brings us to 26/52—or a 50% chance of one of the above cards being called! But let’s see if we can keep going…)
- 14th card/39th card
Spell ‘Jacob Ainsley’ and double lift/glide to show the named card.
- 15th card/38th card
If you thought I was being crafty before, wait until you see this…
I also happen to know that Jacob’s middle name starts with a G. Therefore, I would be justified, would I not, in spelling ‘Jacob G Daniels?’
Jacob G Ainsley = 13 cards. Now double lift/glide to show the named card.
NOTE: I could plug this one in to the previous option too.
- 16th card/37th card
Here’s something interesting that I haven’t really found a reason to use, but might work in a pinch:
Jacob + Julia + Ainsley = 17.
So if we were to spell out ‘Jacob and Julia Ainsley’ (the ‘and’ would be spoken but not spelled) we’d overshoot by one.
But what if we did this:
Deal the cards from the top of the deck as you spell, forming a second pile. The last card you deal goes on top of this second pile. Now pick up that second pile and double lift the top card.
This is a way we can get around things when the count overshoots by one.
What about when counting from the face up?
To do this from the face up portion, just hold the deck face down and slide each card out from the bottom and into the new pile. This will do the same thing—place the 16th card second from the top of the new pile.
OR:
Spell from the face up, but as we near the final card, we turn the deck face down. Then we do the glide move, but rather than using it to reach the next card, we do it once the bottom card IS the named card. So in this case, as we spell ‘l’ we do the glide move and deal the card ABOVE the named card. Then we cleanly take the bottom card for ‘s.’
The reason?
We could definitely play this as an effort on our part to create tension and suspense before revealing the card. You’ll have to figure out what works for you though.
Alternatively, you could do the whole thing counting from the face up, but with the deck face down. So each time you deal a card looks the same as when you glide it—disguising the move.
NOTE: Why spell both names? All about the presentation. I might start by asking one of them to give me a suit and the other to give me a value. Then, if I need to spell both their names, I have a justification—they were both involved in picking the card, so it stands to reason they’d both be involved in FINDING the card. Of course, this option is designed to work best when I’m performing for both of them. Although there might be ways to make it work with one (for example, asking Jacob “what’s your wife’s favorite card?” creates that link that may justify using her name in spelling.)
But that’s just a thought. At the end of the day, the dramatic reason you give for spelling their name is your job to come up with—so that it fits your style and character.
- 17th card/36th card
This time is easy. We just use the same combination as last time, but this time no double lifts are required—the 17 letters bring us to the exact position we need.
- 18th card/35th card
In this case I would spell ‘Jacob (and) Julia Ainsley’ (‘and’ is just spoken) and the next card is the named card.
- 19th card/34th card
I’d wager some of you have guessed this one already…
In the same manner as many of the others, we’re going to spell the same as the last two but double lift the card left on the deck (or glide) to reveal the named card.
- 20th card/33rd card
I must admit, this one had me stumped for a minute. Then I realised we have two pretty viable options.
First option:
Spell ‘Jacob and Julia Daniels.’
This time we spell the ‘and’ which brings our total to a mighty convenient 20.
Second option:
Jacob’s age is 21. I could definitely find a good reason to count that, which would overshoot me by 1. However, I can use the double lift/modified glide technique we talked about earlier (see 17) to make it work regardless.
- 21st card/32nd card
Hopefully the answer to the last one gave you an idea of what we’re going to do here.
We’re going to deal 21 – Jacob’s age.
- 22nd card/31st card
In this scenario, we’re going to deal 21 (for his age) and then turn over/display the card left on the deck.
- 23rd card/30th card
Again, deal 21. This time we double lift/glide for the named card.
- 24th card/29th card
Suppose we return to the wonderful well of names, but this time we spelled both of their full names?
I.e Jacob Daniels (and) Julia Daniels (again, the ‘and’ is spoken but not spelled.)
That adds up to a nice and tidy 24.
- 25th card/28th card
Spell the same as above, but turn over the card left on the deck.
- 26th card/27th card
Spell the same as above, but double lift/glide to reveal the named card.
Well, folks…I think we did it!
ANY card they name in the deck, we have a justified way to spell/count to that card!
You might be wondering what the point of all this is when our intention is to perform the ACAAN effect.
In truth, this little project took on a life of its own. Originally, I was just intending to demonstrate how for many of the possible cards called, you’re already ‘set’ to do something amazing. And the further I got into it, the more I realised how versatile the mem deck is—to the extent that we have a magical way to reveal ANY named card in the deck!
(folks, this is one of those ‘moments’ I was discussing in the introduction to this module. You think you know what the mem deck is capable of—20/52 cards was my original estimation—and then it goes and blows your expectations out of the water! I’m glad you got to witness this ‘live’ with me—I didn’t go back and edit any of my thought process, so you can hear my stream of consciousness as it happened.)
Before we move on, let me briefly talk about why this effect is so powerful, using a lesson from Dale Carnegie.
Dale Carnegie is the author of self-help classic ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’, and one of his ideas is VERY relevant in memorized deck magic…
The lesson Dale shares is this:
“A person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
It’s true.
As Darwin Ortiz has commented: people are most interested in…people!
And when that ‘people’ means THEM, they’re almost ‘duty bound’ to sit up and give you their time.
So any time we can work their name into our magic, we instantly increase their:
- Attention. People can pick out the sound of their name over a huge amount of sound—we’re practically hardwired to pay attention to it (simply calling out someone’s name will automatically make them ‘lean in’ and take an interest in what you’re doing—try it!)
- Connection. You’re using THEIR name, so suddenly this trick is personal—and unique.
- Reaction. Because they feel that CONNECTION and are paying ATTENTION, their REACTION will be so much stronger than otherwise (this is one of the easiest ‘hacks’ to increase response, but it’s often overlooked)
As far as I know, there’s no better way to use a spectator’s name in our card magic than in this effect.
NOTE: Notice how all of these scenarios have been planned out beforehand? We’re not just making this up on the spot.
This is the kind of effect Michael Close would define as ‘riffing’ rather than truly improvising.
Which I think, in this context, is correct.
However, some of the other ideas we’ll be getting into here (and have previously gotten into) don’t fall into this definition.
Anyhow, this is all very exciting stuff, but let’s bring it back to the topic at hand, the ACAAN effect…
The point is simply that—often when a card is named, you have a pretty magical way of revealing it ANYWAY.
Often you’ll ask someone early in the routine to name a number—as part of a different effect. Then you’ll remember their number. Then you’ll do the same for other people.
Later, perhaps you fancy taking a crack at the ACAAN. You ask someone to name a card. Often that card will be in a location close to one of the previously named numbers, at which point you can return to the spectator you picked and say to them “remind me what number you’re thinking of?” and even prompt them if necessary for the number.
(a sneaky way of forcing a number while making it feel free.)
But if the named card doesn’t fall in a convenient location, and you don’t feel like doing the methods below, it doesn’t matter! You can use one of the methods above to reveal the card.
Either way, your options are open. You get to decide what happens. And the more familiar you are with these ‘outs’, the more you’ll be able to combine the ACAAN techniques with the revelations about to create some dazzling, spur of the moment, stuff.
But we’ll talk more about that in the next section on ‘two card revelations.’
Let’s return to the ACAAN.
Method 1 – free choice of number, force card
There’s a lot going for this method.
The number is freely chosen. The cards aren’t touched. The spectator can count. The card feels free. You don’t rely on luck.
If you want a surefire way of doing it that is still VERY powerful, this is the way to go.
Of course, the only caveat to it is that the card is most definitely NOT free.
But at the end of the day, each of these methods is about tradeoffs. Sometimes the card is forced, but it means they have a free choice of the number. Sometimes the number is forced, but they have a free choice of the card. Sometimes they have a free choice of both, but you need to touch the deck.
You simply have to decide which factors are the most important for you, and then go for the versions that emphasise those factors.
For example, if you aren’t bothered about needing to force a card, this method is pretty much the ‘go to.’
I personally like a challenge, so I prefer the third method. But again, that attitude in itself is probably the WRONG attitude—because it’s not about you or your ego. The question is really, “which version will have the strongest impact on my audience?”
Whatever the answer is, go for that one.
(the answer, of course, will depend on your ability to smoothly and cleanly execute the method without sacrificing the integrity of the performance.)
But enough dilly-dallying.
Here’s the method:
- You isolate the deck (in box, spectator’s hand, wherever)
- They freely name any number between 1 and 52
- In a second memorized deck, you force the card positioned at whichever number they name
- They count down to that number in the isolated deck and find the card they chose
For example:
- They name the number 27.
- In a second mem deck, you force the 2C (the 27th card.)
- They then count 27 cards in the deck they’ve been holding, and find the 2C.
It’s really that simple!
Of course, it’s a good idea to make sure you have a good forcing technique. If you have it mastered (to the extent that one can master such a move), the classic force is the option favored by many.
But ever since I read these articles…
https://www.thejerx.com/blog/2017/10/8/the-force-awakens
https://www.thejerx.com/blog/2017/10/8/the-force-unleashed
…I’ve been open to other forcing methods, such as the simple cross-cut force.
The cross-cut force simply involves letting the spectator cut the deck, placing the lower half on top of the upper half, letting sufficient time pass, and then lifting the cards and revealing the ‘card they cut to’ (which is actually the original top card.)
If that sounds confusing, feast yer eyes on this tutorial until you ‘get it’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysInSl0-AYY
Of course, the only remaining question is how we get the 2C to the top of the deck, but after all the work we’ve done on estimation cuts—I think that answer speaks for itself.
That’s all there is to Method 1. But don’t underestimate how powerful it is. I recall when someone first used this method on me (although I didn’t know it as such at the time) it fooled me so hard I couldn’t stop thinking about it. In my mind, there was no solution.
“But I was holding the deck the entire time! You didn’t even come near it! Isadjhkasd snlaksnd…”
NOTE: Another nice subtlety for this method (and subsequent methods) is to ask for a number, then interrupt them as they answer, citing that we need to pick a card first. Then, once we force the card, we can ask for their number as if we forgot, and do our best to sell it as the first time we heard it. That’s a subtlety I first saw Dani DaOrtiz use, but I’m sure he would forgive me for saying I believe its origin to be in Juan Tamariz’ work.
Method 2 – Free choice of card, force number
This is basically the inverse of the previous method.
- You isolate the deck (in box, spectator’s hand, wherever)
- They freely name any card in the deck
- You, knowing the position of that card in the deck, force that number
- They count down to that number and find their card
This method I personally find far weaker. If you’re choosing between this and Method 1—you’re going to have to force something either way,
See, it’s natural and justified to get someone to pick a card using the deck. Whereas getting someone to pick a number by having them write a bunch of numbers down, place them in a bag, and then pull one out seems very strange and reeks of sneaky behaviour.
It just seems so contrived, while forcing a card seems so natural, that I don’t imagine many of you opting for this option over the first.
(The only natural way I’ve found to have a number selected, other than just naming it, is by rolling dice. But see my ACAAD routine for more on that.)
However, for the sake of completeness, here are a few ways to force numbers:
- Add-A-Number Pad
- Forcing bag
- Toxic force (using iPhone calculator)
- Psychological forces (see Banachek’s work)
Of course, there’s another way to force numbers that may be easier than all of the above, which is:
Your ‘number deck!’
If you’ve been following along with the training, you’ll have created a ‘number deck’ by now to help you understand the concepts we’ve been dealing with.
Well, it turns out that your number deck also has another use altogether—to easily force any number from one to 52.
Since you know where each number is in the deck (if it’s arranged from 1 to 52) you can catch a break below that number and force it using a dribble force (dribble cards and drop everything under the break as soon as they start to say ‘stop’). Any other card force will work, as long as you know the location of the card with that number.
The cross cut force will work too, just be careful of one thing—you’ll need to make it seem like the deck is shuffled and there’s no order to the numbers. Otherwise they might end up cutting half the deck but somehow the number they cut to is 4 (the number you brought to the top to force). So false shuffles prior and real shuffles immediately following.
Either that or you start in faro 5, display briefly (there are some patterns but nothing obvious at a glance – just perhaps watch out for displaying that the top card is 1 and bottom card is 52. So perhaps cut the deck before displaying, then cut the 1 back to top.), and then give 3 out faros so the deck is ordered 1-52 and you can force, then shuffle again.
(see how the faro comes in handy even when you least expect it to?)
Anyhow, there are some ideas on Method 2, but as I said, I expect the majority of you will either be using Method 1, or…
Method 3 – Free choice of both, shift the cards
This is how the very best performers do it, and I think it’s the natural ‘pinnacle’ of this effect.
Here’s why it works so well with the memorized deck:
- Since you know the position of every card in the deck, you can, with a single cut, place any named card in any named location.
- Best of all, that cut often just amounts to one or two cards—and can be done before the spectators even know the effect has started.
And often, you won’t need to do anything at all beforehand. That’s because, for any number named, you actually have about 8 possible revelations.
- Counting from the face down, the card at that number.
- Counting from the face down, the card left on the deck after you deal that number.
- Counting from the face down, the card 2nd from the top of the deck after you deal that number. (which we show with a double lift.)
- Counting from the face down, the card before the number—which we show with a double lift after dealing the cards into a second pile (see reveal 17 way back in the first stuff we talked about)
- Counting from the face up, the card at that number
- Counting from the face up, the card left on the deck after you deal that number
- Counting from the face up, the card 2nd from the face after you deal the number (that we can steal out using the glide move)
- Counting from the face up, the card before the number (we use the glide move to deal the card after it, which leaves it on the face of the deck to be dealt cleanly on the number)
So for each card named, there’s an 8/52 chance that you’ll have a VERY direct and clean effect.
But for the remaining 44/52 times, you’re still not going to need to do an awful lot of work.
Often you’ll just need to move a few cards from the top to the bottom, or vice versa.
I think the best way of demonstrating why exactly that’s the case is with a healthy dose of examples.
As ever, I’ll be using a random card generator alongside a random number generator for the range 1-52.
Example 1.
Card = 8D (29).
Number = 24. (23, 25, 26.) (face up or face down.)
Above you’ll see more or less the mental model that I use when deciding what to do. I know that, for whatever number is named, we also have a few more numbers we could deal to and 8 locations total (using the 8 methods listed above).
At a glance it’s obvious I can’t reach 29 from 24. So is that it?
Not so.
What’s 52 – 23?
…29.
But actually, it’s even better than that. If you try this with cards in hand, you’ll see that dealing 23 cards will leave the 29th card on the face.
Which means we can deal 24, and the 8D will be the 24th card.
I know you might be thinking I could have just said that to begin with, but if I’d said ‘52 – 24 = 29, you probably would have questioned my maths’.
That’s because 52 – 23 is 29, which means we can deal 23 cards and the NEXT card on the deck is the 29th card.
So if we dealt 24 cards, that means the last card of the deal is the named card. In our case, the 8D.
Direct hit! Not bad for our first time, If this was a performance, we wouldn’t have even needed to touch the cards. To anyone watching, we just pulled off the Berglas effect (free card, free number, we didn’t touch the deck.)
Of course, what they don’t know is that if they’d named a different card or number, a very different counting process might have occurred.
Again, I know I keep saying this, but it’s essential: this should feel like the ONLY way this could ever have played out. You have to sell it.
Got it?
So, by way of recapping what we learned, if we want to know the card we’re going to deal on that number (when counting from the face up) we do 53 – the number.
Does that make sense?
Don’t worry if it doesn’t, because more examples are a-comin’…
Example 2.
Card = 3S (21)
Number = 26 (25, 27, 28) (face up or face down)
Here’s an example where, although it’s not a direct hit, we have very minimal work to do.
The 3S is in position 21, and we need it in 26. To do that, we need to steal 5 cards from the bottom of the deck to the top of the deck.
Here are a few methods of doing so:
- Estimation cut while not in ‘performing mode.’
Again, we have Pit Hartling to thank for this excellent contribution (along with Rafael Benatar, the originator of the theory).
The idea is that we, via an estimation cut or two, move 5 cards from the bottom to the top before they even realise the effect has ‘officially’ started.
To begin with, we ask for the number and then interrupt whoever is giving us the answer. Of course, we don’t want to be rude about it, it’s more of a “ah, but wait! I forgot…we need a card first!”
After the card is selected, we now know both the card and the number and can do the estimation cuts and glimpses while toying with the deck. All of this should feel like we’re building up to an effect but haven’t really got going.
Once we’ve finished the estimation cut, we place the deck on the table and make it clear that the effect has now begun.
We return to the spectator who gave us the number, and ask them something along the lines of:
“Are you thinking of a number? You are? Good. What’s your number?”
We already know what number they’re thinking of, since they told us! But we act as if we don’t know it, which is a really important part of this.
All of it should feel like this is the first time saying that number.
- Pass/shift
If you have a decent pass, you can shift the required cards invisibly by getting a break above that number. To get a break above 5 cards, for example, I would grip the deck in both hands and riffle off 5 cards with my right thumb, then catch a pinky break in that gap. If we’re shifting from the top to the bottom, I would pull down with my pinky and catch a break at the required spot.
I’m not going to get super technical and make a new entry for each version of the pass, so instead I’ll lump them all in here.
The turnover pass can work nicely if you need to count from the face up AND you need to shift a certain number of cards. The motion of the turnover pass itself turns the deck face up and accomplishes the shift at the same time. The phrase ‘economy of motion’ comes to mind.
- Double Undercut
If the number is small (1-5) we could shift via a series of double undercuts, obtaining a break above the bottom card or below the top card and transferring to the bottom, then repeating that however many times it takes. This isn’t ideal though since the cards will be in motion longer than when using a single cut or two.
- Accidentally
This is the kind of thing I see Dani DaOrtiz do, and it’s both brilliant to watch and brilliant in construction.
He picks up the deck to move it into view, and in the process drops a few cards, which he casually tosses back on the deck. However, the key thing is that he tosses the cards back on to the TOP of the deck, even though they came from the bottom (the opposite is also possible, I suppose, if the deck is face up).
But that’s completely justified because it’s EASIER to put them back on top than bottom. That’s what anyone else would do. It’s natural.
The boldest version of this was when I saw Dani openly just move one card from the bottom to top (or vice versa, I can’t recall exactly).
If you’re someone who is constantly messing with the cards, this sort of thing can slip under the radar since it’s just ‘you.’
- Via the technical view
Now, here’s an interesting one. If you want to present the ‘ACAAN’ as a display of technical skill, it doesn’t matter that they see you openly cut the deck—the whole point is that you’re going to control the card to the location in the process of shuffling the deck!
So do the estimation cut, false shuffles, and voila…you’re set.
NOTE: If this stuff is up your alley, you should revisit the ‘Fingertip Fumble #3’ to see how you can place practically any card in any position using a few faros and a double undercut or two.
For our purposes, let’s suppose we picked an appropriate one of the above 4 methods and shifted 5 cards from the bottom to the top.
We can now let the spectator themselves deal 26 cards to find the 3S on the 26th card.
Example 3.
Card = 8H (14)
Number = 17 (16, 18, 19) (face up or face down)
Again, an easy one. Just shift three cards from the bottom to the top and we’re set.
You might be wondering why I wouldn’t shift 2 to bring us to 16, since 16 is one of our listed numbers. The answer is—I’m only really looking to use 16 if it means i don’t need to touch the cards. Since I need to touch the cards anyway, I might as well shift 3 rather than 2 so that I can let the spectator deal. Letting the spectator deal is more important than shifting one less card.
Example 4.
Card = 4D (42)
Number = 46 (45, 47, 48) (face up or face down)
Again, just shift 4 cards from the bottom to the top and you’re set.
Example 5.
Card = 10S (34)
Number = 37 (36, 38, 39) (face up or face down)
Shift 3 cards from bottom to top and you’re set.
Example 6.
Card = AD (39)
Number = 23 (22, 24, 25) (face up or face down)
Shift 10 cards from top to bottom, then count 23.
63 – 23 = 40
40 will be the last card dealt, leaving the 39th card visible on the face of the deck.
Why 63?
Well, we usually use 53 – number to figure out which card will be the last card dealt, but since we added 10 cards onto the bottom of the deck, we need to make that 53 + 10 (aka 63.)
This has been our most difficult card yet…and we still only needed to move TEN cards!
Example 7.
Card = 10D (49)
Number = 2 (1, 3, 4) (face up or face down)
53 – 4 = 49.
So if we use the ‘3’ option (deal 2 and glide to display the 4th card), we can do this without shifting any cards. However, we’ll need to handle the cards—but we can do so very slowly and cleanly.
Example 8.
Card = 5S (16)
Number = 36 (35, 37, 38) (face up or facedown)
This one looks tricky at first, but it’s actually mighty convenient.
We can use the ‘37’ option.
53 – 37 = 16.
So if we were to deal 36 cards from the face up, and display the card left on the deck after dealing, we’d see the 5S (16th card).
Another way of thinking about this is 53 – 36 = 17.
As we established, doing 53 – number tells us which card will be the last card dealt.
In this case, the last card we deal is the 17th card…which means the 16th card will be left on the face of the deck.
Hence, we’ve used the ‘37’ option because we’ve really gone one card further than 36 without it being obvious.
Alright, I think that’s enough examples. You can see that most of the time, our job is pretty easy. Often it’s very easy, and sometimes it’s handed to us on a plate!
Again, we should always remember to ask ‘do you want to change your mind?’ in this routine.
Really, the hardest part of any of this is the mental maths.
That comes with time, and practice.
As you may have noticed, often the spectator will name a card/number combination that turns out to be quite ‘convenient’ for you.
If you want to double your chances of this happening, there’s a pretty simple way to do so…
Use two stacks!
With two stacks, your chances of a ‘direct hit’ double. For our purposes, I consider a direct hit to anything within 2 cards of the desired position. So if they name the 9H (17), a direct hit would be either 15, 16, or 17. If we’re using 1 stack, our chances of a direct hit are 3/52. But if we use two stacks, our odds go up to 6/52.
The more stacks we know, the higher these odds go.
Not only that, but having multiple stacks will often mean that the card/number combination they choose is, even not a direct hit, VERY easy to get to using one of the alternate stacks.
I’ll talk more about using multiple stacks in Module 7, but I thought it was worth mentioning here just to let you know that it’s a possibility.
But when you become familiar with it, you begin to see why it’s so much fun to do.
It’s another example of why I think true improvisation is possible with the memorized deck. After all, we just went through 8 examples there—but we certainly didn’t exhaust all the possible combinations.
(if we were, we’d need to go through 2704 possibilities…which I suppose is ‘technically’ possible but not something you’d do in practice.)
I’ll leave the remaining 2696 possibilities to you to discover in performance 
NOTE: How do you deal the cards without reversing the stack?
- If you’re dealing from the top down, deal them face up (unless you’re using our method to display the card before the number, in which case they need to be face down. If that is the case, see below)
- If you forget to do this, just pick up the cards dealt and overhand shuffle run them one by one, reversing the reversal.
- If you’re dealing from the face up, deal the cards face down.
NOTE: As I discussed earlier, the best way of handling dealing the cards face up is to leave them in the box so we aren’t ‘locked in’ to either face up or face down already.
NOTE: we got our feet wet with ACAAD a few modules back. Now that I’ve shown you this, you might be wondering which one I prefer. Honestly, I’m not sure. I find ACAAD so much fun. But this is powerful stuff.
NOTE – If you want further reading on this effect, check out:
Asi Wind – Repertoire (especially ‘A.A.C.A.A.N’)
The Berglas Effects.
Mnemonica – although it doesn’t go super in depth, I owe my first exploration of these ACAAN ideas to Tamariz.
Alright, before we close out this section, here’s a super ‘out there’ method I’ve been playing with…
I didn’t even list this as one of the official methods just because it’s so crazy, but I figure it’s such a fun idea I might as well share it with you.
I won’t judge you if you read this and think “that has to be a joke, right?”
Fortunately, I can prove it’s not. If you watch the Live Session for this module, you’ll see me doing this on camera. No edits, no nothing.
It’s not easy, not by a long shot, but it doesn’t require any advanced sleight of hand.
Alright, enough ‘hype.’
What’s the skinny on this method?
During an earlier routine, I find a reason to deal through the deck face up. As I do so, I memorise every fourth card.
(NOTE: If i’m being REALLY technical, I’m actually memorizing every fourth card starting AFTER the first card. So I memorize card 1, then 5, then 9, then 13, and so on. In the Live Session I just refer to this as ‘every fourth card’ since it’s simpler to refer to it that way, but make sure you do so starting by memorizing the first card, then the firth, then the ninth, and so on.)
I then pick up a second, shuffled, deck and force one of those 13 cards. When someone names a number, I know where my card is in relation to that number, and can shift it into position.
Ok. I get it. That sounds crazy.
It’s more doable than it sounds. You just need to be REALLY familiar with the list we gave you. You select a memory palace, and then as you deal, you note each fourth card. Every 3 cards gives you a single image using our PAO structure.
How do you justify this?
I would do it as a selection procedure.
“I want you to pick a card, but I don’t want to influence your choice in any way. I’m going to deal through the deck, and I want you to think of just one of the cards you see. Really concentrate. But don’t tell me when you’re done, otherwise I might be able to work out which card you looked at—and I WILL try if you let me.”
This gives you a reason to deal through each card silently, without stopping.
This took me about 40 seconds to do in the Live Session.
You’ll then want to use their card for a different effect, preferably with a different deck. Allow some time to elapse. This time is useful for you to run through your memory palace in your mind (perhaps under cover of focusing on reading HIS mind or whatever the routine you’re doing demands).
If you need to, you can simply spread the cards and take a quick look again. I didn’t do this to show that you can do it without needing to, but there’s nothing stopping you doing that.
I would then leave that deck alone on the table, isolated.
Return to it once enough time has passed that the memory of you dealing through the cards won’t be connected to this routine.
I would get someone to name a number. Say they name 34. I’ve memorised the cards in positions 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37, 41, 45, 49.
So I know the card in position 33, which is 1 card away from 34. I can shift one card from the bottom to top (or use my method for revealing the card before the named number). And then in a separate deck (shuffled or stacked – although stacked will let me locate the desired card faster), I can force that card.
So it’s similar to Method 1, in that the number is freely chosen, and then I force a card. 1/4 of the time I won’t need to shift any cards (13/52 is 1/4), and of the 3/4 times that I DO need to—it’s only ever going to be one or two cards.
Alternatively, when you take into consideration my method for revealing either the card at the number named, the card at the number after, the card two places after, or the card before—I think we’re just about covered.
For example, let’s say someone named 43.
I could force the card I memorised at position 45, then deal 43 cards and double lift the cards on the deck to reveal the 45th card.
You’ll need to use a memory palace where the locations are clearly numbered in your mind, to make the calculation seamless.
(In the Live Session I talk about another way of forcing one of these cards and adjusting.)
Of course, this method allows you to do it with a shuffled, or even borrowed, deck.
But here’s where this gets really sexy.
Remember the chart I gave you last module? The faro shuffle charts?
Look at the ‘2nd shuffle’ chart.
Do you see how, every fourth card, we see the numbers 1 – 13?
Now if we move through another 6 faro shuffles, those numbers 1-13 come together at the front of the deck (which makes sense, given that they’re numbers 1-13.)
What this means is that after I do this effect, I can faro the cards 6 times and bring my memorized cards to the top, in order from 1 – 13.
I can then do any of the ‘quarter stack’ effects we’ve discussed. Heck, if I memorise another 3 cards, I can do some of the 16 card packet tricks we discussed in Squared.
(I could also perform Pit Hartling’s ‘Unforgettable’ from Card Fictions.)
It’s breathy stuff.
Or I can use my knowledge of the cards positions with the ‘Fingertip Fumble #3’ I gave you yesterday to place it using faros—although if that requires moving cards, it means it’s going to be harder for me to bring the 13 cards together at the top of the deck (if I REALLY wanted to, I’d need to follow through on the the faro chain until I was back where I started, at which point i could undo the shift and faro until the 13 cards are together at the top. Don’t worry if that made no sense.)
If it doesn’t require moving cards (or the cards are moved after we faro, which is easily undone after we reveal the card is in position) the Fingertip Fumble Method is nice because it moves us one faro closer to all the cards being in the top 13 in order.
So, there we have it.
The Holy Grail of Card Magic.
The real reason I love this effect is not just because of the effect—it’s because of the method. It’s fascinating how economical and effective the memorized deck is when trying to accomplish this effect, and the way all the various subtleties, dealing procedures, and revelations line up makes it so much fun.
And while we could undoubtedly go on for far longer, I think we’re covered enough to move forward.
Let’s discuss another one of my favorite things to do with the memorized deck…