Inspired by the work I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks, I want to end our ACAAN foray with one last banger…
Any Card At That Card’s Number (Occasionally)
Or in other words…
ACATCN(O)
(Even I’ll admit it—these ACAAN variations are really getting out of hand now!)
Here’s what it looks like:
The spectator freely chooses a card—for example, the 6D. You pick up the deck and count cards equivalent to the value of their chosen card—in this case, 6 cards. When you turn over the 6th card, you see the 6D!
Now, you might be thinking that’s a ‘one-off’ case. In fact, it’s a lot more common than you might think.
Let me show you how…
See, anyone halfway familiar with the Mnemonica stack will recognize that the 6D is the 6th card, so ‘of course that works.’
If you don’t know the Mnemonica stack, here’s a friendly reminder that you can learn it FOR FREE, here: https://innercircle.jasoncoppage.com/module-1-part-1-transformation/
What you may not be aware of is how many OTHER cards we can also make this work for.
This week, I’ll show you how we can make the above effect work for exactly 21 cards in the deck (that’s nearly HALF).
This isn’t the kind of effect we plan to do. I would recommend performing other effects, and when you get a ‘hit’ on one of the following cards, transition into this effect.
Alright, enough chit-chat.
Let’s get into the list of cards this works for, and how.
First of all, here’s the only ‘work’ we need to do…
Before performing this, we need to hold three breaks. These breaks roughly line up with the 4 ‘quarters’ of the deck.
Break 1: under the QC
Break 2: under the 5D
Break 3: under the 10H
Let’s go through the cards that will work one by one, and you’ll soon see why those breaks come in so handy…
- 2H
If they name the 2H, relax the breaks and simply deal 2 cards, showing the 2H is the 2nd card.
- 3C
If they name the 3C, relax the breaks and simply deal 3 cards. Next, turn over the facedown card left on top of the deck to show the 3C.
- 4H
If they name the 4H, relax the breaks and simply deal 4 cards. Next, turn over the facedown card left on top of the deck to show the 4H.
- 6D
If they name the 6D, relax the breaks and simply deal 6 cards, showing the 6D is the 6th card.
- 9S
If they name the 9S, relax the breaks and simply deal 9 cards, showing the 9S is the 9th card.
- QC
If they name the QC, first remind them that the Queen has a value of 12. Then relax the breaks and deal 12 cards. Next, turn over the facedown card left on top of the deck to show the QC.
- 8S
In this case, relax all but the break you have under the QC. Cut at the break so the 8H becomes the new top card. Deal 8 cards. Next, turn over the facedown card left on top of the deck to show the 8S.
- 10C
In this case, relax all but the break you have under the QC. Cut at the break so the 8H becomes the new top card. Deal 10 cards. Next, turn over the facedown card left on top of the deck to show the 10C.
- 2C
In this case, relax all but the break you have under the 5D. Cut at the break so the KD becomes the new top card. Deal 2 cards, showing the 2nd card is the 2C.
- 3H
In this case, relax all but the break you have under the 5D. Cut at the break so the KD becomes the new top card. Deal 3 cards, showing the 3rd card is the 3H.
- 5C
In this case, relax all but the break you have under the 5D. Cut at the break so the KD becomes the new top card. Deal 5 cards, showing the 5th card is the 5C.
- 10S
In this case, relax all but the break you have under the 5D. Cut at the break so the KD becomes the new top card. Deal 10 cards into a facedown pile. Double lift the top card of the new pile to show the 10S.
- JC
In this case, relax all but the break you have under the 5D. Cut at the break so the KD becomes the new top card. Remind them that the Jack has a value of 11, and then deal 11 cards, showing the 11th card is the JC.
- 4D
In this case, relax all but the break you have under the 10H. Cut at the break so the AD becomes the new top card. Deal 4 cards, showing the 4th card is the 4D.
- 10D
In this case, relax all but the break you have under the 10H. Cut at the break so the AD becomes the new top card. Deal 10 cards. Next, turn over the facedown card left on top of the deck to show the 10D.
In total that’s 16 cards you can get a powerful revelation from.
You might think that’s all of them, but we can actually get a few more by doing one thing differently…
- 5H
In this case, relax all but the break you have under the QC. Cut at the break so the 8H becomes the new top card. Now…simply turn the deck face up. Deal 5 face up cards, and the card left on the face of the deck is the 5H.
- 9H
(kinda neat how 9H ended up being number 17 on this list too, huh?)
In this case, relax all but the break you have under the 5D. Cut at the break so the KD becomes the new top card. Now…simply turn the deck face up. Deal 9 face up cards, showing that the 9th card is the 9H.
- KD
In this case, relax all but the break you have under the 10H. Cut at the break so the AD becomes the new top card. Now…simply turn the deck face up. Remind them that the KD has a value of 13. Deal 13 face up cards, showing the KD is the 13th card.
- AH
Simply turn the deck face up, deal 1 card, and show the AH is on the face of the deck.
- 9C
Simply turn the deck face up, deal 9 cards, and show the 9C is the 9th card.
- 7C
Keep the deck face down, and remove the bottom cards one by one, dealing them into a facedown pile. Once you’ve dealt 7 cards, double lift the top card of the new facedown pile to show the 7C.
There you have it…
As promised—21 cards!
Like I mentioned earlier, this is the kind of effect I would be ‘always ready’ for, since there’s a nearly 50% chance someone is going to name one of these cards at any time.
However, I wouldn’t tell them what you’re going to do in advance—since there’s also a 50% chance they WON’T name one of the cards.
If they name one of the cards that aren’t on this list, simply perform one of the other 100,000 card tricks that will work for that card…
(see my previous entries for ‘ACAAN’, for example 😉 )
I think that’s enough ACAAN for a little while. It’s been a heck of a ride!
I’ll be back next week.
Your friend,
Benji