Easy Card Tricks from Cocktail Mixing Master

Welcome to our Easy Card Tricks Guide

Amuze and impress your friends with these easy to learn card tricks

There are millions of easy card tricks around. Just about most people know at least one or two and you have probably seen many before. So, the trick is to find some easy card tricks few people have seen before if you really want to awe your audience.

There are a few basic techniques you can learn which will open up a whole new world of tricks that require these techniques. Also, the more techniques you know and do well, the more impressive it will look when you perform your card tricks.

These techniques include:

• Normal overhand shuffles
This is a fundamental technique that you should master before doing any card tricks. It is done by holding the deck of cards in your left hand (or right hand if you are left), taking about 3/4’s of the cards in your right (left) hand and shuffling it at random into the deck held in your left hand.

• False overhand shuffle
This appears to your audience like the normal overhand shuffle but it allows you to keep a card or group of card together without them noticing.

• Gliding
This is a useful technique that you use to keep the bottom card of the pack at the bottom while you are apparently dealing it to someone in the audience.

• Double lift
You show the audience what appears to be the top card of a face down deck. However, you have actually picked up the top two cards as is showing the second card. In this way you can keep the identity of the top card a secret.

• Peeking
In many card tricks you are required to locate a specific card chosen by an audience member for example. This often requires you to know the bottom card. This technique allows you to un-suspiciously peek at the bottom card without the audience noticing.

• Palming
This is a technique whereby you add cards to a deck or take on or cards from the top of a deck without the audience noticing. The card(s) are held in your palm and out of sight. This is a difficult technique to master at first, but becomes easy after a bit of practice.

More on these and other easy card trick techniques can be found in Peter Arnold’s book Easy Card Tricks. This books contains many easy card tricks at a very reasonable price. You can get it from kalahari.net or Amazon.com. It of course make for a nice gift as well!

When performing any sort of card or other tricks, you can entertain your audience and distract their attention - this is called misdirection - by making interesting conversation about the trick (explaining what you do) and cracking a joke or two. You of course want to distract their attention from the actual misdirection you are doing to get the trick right.

Remember, as always, practice makes perfect, so practice your tricks thoroughly before performing them in front of people.

Here are some easy card tricks carefully selected by Cocktail Mixing Master:

MEMORY TRICK

This is a very basic and easy card trick that can even be done even by small children.

You need:
A deck of cards

The trick: A spectator chooses a card from 21 cards and shows it to the audience (by not you). Three times you deal three three piles of 7 cards each, face up, with the spectator indicating in which pile the card is every time. You then point out the card selected.

How to do it:
Offer a spectator 21 cards, face down, to shuffle, choose one card and show it to the audience (but not to you). Let him put it back in the deck and shuffle it again.

Now deal the cards face up onto three piles of 7 cards each. Start by dealing three cards next to one another and then repeating this until all the cards are dealt. The spectator then needs to indicate in which pile his card is.

Pick up the piles ensuring the one with his card is in the middle of the other two. Repeat this 2 more times. Once you have picked up the cards for the third time, announce that you will now reveal his card. Deal 10 cards face down onto the table. Put the 11th face up – this is his card.

There is no trick to this trick, really. It is all simple maths and it works every time.

TIP: Make it as unobvious as possible that you pick up the indicated pile in between the other two as this might invite some suspicion from your audience.

TRICKY BAND

You need:
A deck of cards and an elastic bank that fits tightly around the deck without damaging the cards.

The trick:
A spectator chooses a card and the elastic band is put around the deck. The card is then inserted back into the deck. Another spectator twangs the band, it gets removed and the selected card is found to have turned over.

How to do it:
For this trick you require the card at the face-up end of the deck to be turned over so that the deck appears face down from both ends. You need to achieve this without your audience noticing. For example, when the spectator selects his card you say that you will briefly turn around while he shows it to the rest of the audience at which time you, of course, turn around the card at the face-up end.

Hold the deck face-up and let another spectator put the elastic band around the deck while you hold the deck. Keep the card tightly on top of one another so that no-one can see that the deck is actually face-up. There should now be only two cards facing down: the spectator’s one and the one the top of the deck.

Let the spectator insert his card as close as possible to the centre of the pack so that when you turn the deck around and reveal the card, it is not obvious what has happened.

Now comes the misdirection, which is the hardest part of the trick – to turn the deck around without anybody noticing. Take the deck in your left hand and drop your hand next to your body. While announcing you (or the spectators) will now make the chosen card turn around, place the deck to your right hand, squaring them up and simultaneously turning the deck around.

Now let a spectator twang the band and take it off. Fan through the cards and reveal the “turned” card. Make sure not the fan up to the end of the deck and the second turned up card. Also, make sure to quickly after the trick correct this card without anyone noticing.

How about a cocktail? See our Cocktail Recipe Guide for simple and delicious cocktail recipes.

NUMBERS

You need:
A deck of cards, pen, paper and an envelope.

The trick:
A spectator deals about 15 cards face-up on the table while you write a prediction of a card on a piece of paper and place it in an envelope. The same or another spectator does a simple numbers calculation and arrives at a number. The pile of cards is dealt to that number and the card corresponds to your prediction in the envelope.

How to do it:
Let a spectator take the deck and deal the cards face-up on the table. Carefully and unnoticed count the cards while he deals. Start writing you prediction “You pick up the …” and complete it with the 9th card he deals, without anyone seeing what you write, put the paper in the envelope and put it on the table.

After about 20 cards dealt, let the spectator stop dealing and turn the cards face-down on the table. You of course now know what the 9th card from the top is and this is your predicted card.

Let’s assume the 9th card was the ace of spades. Now, let a spectator write a 3 digit number on a piece of paper, while you look away as not to see what he does. The let him write the same number the backwards. For example, if he wrote 346, he should now write 643. You should say that the number should not be the same after being written backwards, for example 212.

Now let the spectator subtract the small number from the big number. Ask how many digits in the answer – there will either be 3, with a 9 as the centre number or 99. Do not mention this – let your audience think you have no idea what the answer is. Ask whether his answer has 3 or 2 digits. If it has 3, tell him to select the middle digit. If it has 2, tell him to pick anyone or the digits. Then, let him deal the corresponding number of cards from the pile face-up.

Reveal the card in the envelope – it magically corresponds to the last card dealt!

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More on these and other easy card tricks can be found in Peter Arnold’s book Easy Card Tricks. This books contains many easy card tricks at a very reasonable price. You can get it from kalahari.net or Amazon.com. It of course make for a nice gift as well!

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Amuze and impress your friends with these easy to learn card tricks

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