How is this trick done?

[brewerpaul]

I've seen several versions of this magic trick, but this one is particularly entertaining:

http://biggeekdaddy.com/humorpages/Humo ... Trick.html

Question is, how is this trick done? Obviously the deck is prepared, but how does he avoid upsetting the setup? How is the "extra" card inserted (watch the video).

[Wanderer]

he doesn't let them shuffle the cards. He only lets them cut it. This doesn't reorder the cards. It merely changes the card that's on top. The original order is still in place. (computer nerds can think of this as like a circular buffer...no matter which part of the buffer you start on, everything else comes out in a predetermined order).

Watch closely. After they cut the deck, but before he does his routine, HE cuts the deck again in his hand.

He probably has a bent card or a short card or something similar. That lets him cut the deck exactly where he wants to and puts the proper card back on top, which puts all the cards in the order he expects.

[emmline]

That makes sense, but didn't he start by shuffling?

[Innocent Bystander]

That makes sense, but didn't he start by shuffling?

He certainly did, but as he pointed out it, was a riffle shuffle. A skilled card-mechanic can make two riffle shuffles and set the cards back exactly as they were. To set a new deck into anything like random order takes thirteen honest riffle shuffles. I mean, each consecutive riffle-shuffle must increase the randomness of the deck. It's not easy to tell this by observation. In fact, it's nearly impossible. Faro shuffles are much more random, especially if someone cuts the cards between two faro shuffles. Never trust a deck that has been only riffle-shuffled.

[brewerpaul]

That makes sense, but didn't he start by shuffling?

That's what you're supposed to think:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/659532/mo ... and_poker/

I'm not sure how he false shuffled the whole deck without disturbing the order, but I guess these are the basic concepts. Presentation is everything.

[emmline]

It is. My kid--the zombie fan one--does quite a few card tricks, and named a few possible maneuvers that may have been included in this guy's trick, but he didn't have a complete answer by any means. But I've seen him (my kid) do this thing where he holds 3 kings in a stack and keeps making the king of spades turn up wherever he wants it--top, bottom, middle. I've watched this several times and don't see what he's doing. He's shown me, in slow motion, several of the moves he does in performing tricks, but I still am too slow to catch them in action.

[Sliabh Luachra]

I think it takes eight perfect shuffles to get a deck back in it's original order (I might be off but I think that's what I remember). It's far more likely a false shuffle. It's also a lot easier to do a false shuffle than to do eight perfect shuffles. There are hundreds of false shuffles. Some simple, some not, mostly all very deceptive.

Mark

PS I wouldn't "trust" a faro shuffled deck any more than any other shuffled deck. There are plenty of false faros as well.

PPS If you play in local poker games you've probably seen far more false shuffles than you ever knew. Or rather, NOT seen. . .

[Wanderer]

it's definitely a false shuffle.

Watch the video again. At the beginning of the trick, he spreads the cards out to show that they're all "different"...

Pause it, and show the video full screen. You can't see all of the card values, but you can see almost all of them.

If you were to write down those cards in that order, you'd see that the cards are already prearranged in the proper order. The 9's in a row, the straight flush at the end, the 2-5's, etc.

So, he comes out with a prearranged deck, does a false dovetail shuffle (description here), lets some people cut the cards, cuts it himself to bring it back to the original state, and then does his little story.

[Scott McCallister]

I've seen several versions of this magic trick...Question is, how is this trick done? ...

It's F---ing MAGIC!

[gonzo914]

This kind of thing is greatly facilitated by the use of a stripper deck. A monkey can unshuffle a deck if it's a stripper.