Using the Overhand Shuffle

Controlling the Top Card

Controlling the Bottom Card

Retaining the Top and Bottom Cards in Position

Top Card to Next to Bottom and Back to the Top

The Run

The Injog

The Undercut

Controlling the Top Card

1. Holding the deck as explained, lift it with the right hand, and with the left thumb draw off the top card only in the first movement of the shuffle. Without the slightest pause or hesitation shuffle the other cards on to this one until the shuffle has been completed. The top card is now at the bottom of the pack.

2. Again lift the entire pack and repeat the shuffle you have just made down to the last card, which we know was the card originally at the top. Drop this card on top of all the others in the last movement of the shuffle. After a few trials you will find that this last card will cling to the thumb and fingers without any conscious effort on your part.

In this sleight, as well as in the others to follow, the action must become automatic so that you can look at, talk with, and give your whole attention to your audience. Only in this way can you convince the onlookers that the shuffle is genuine, and you should never forget that it is at this very starting point that illusion begins or is destroyed. If you stare fixedly at your hands while shuffling, Suspicion will inevitably be aroused, and if a spectator suspects that you have "done something" the illusion of your magic is gone.

In practising this shuffle and those that follow, it is a good plan to turn the top card face upwards so that at the finish you can see at a glance if you have made it correctly.

Controlling the Bottom Card

1. Lift the lower half of the pack to begin the shuffle, and in so doing press lightly on the bottom card with the tips of the left middle and ring fingers, holding it back and thus adding it to the bottom of the packet remaining in the left hand.

2. Shuffle off the cards remaining in the right hand, and repeat the action if desired. Nothing could be simpler than this control, and the sleight is valuable because of its ease and naturalness.

Retaining the Top and Bottom Cards in Position

1. Grip the entire pack with the right hand to start the shuffle, at the same time pressing lightly on the top card with the left thumb and on the bottom card (Fig. 2) with the left middle and ring fingers holding them back so that all the cards except these two are lifted clear, the top card falling upon the bottom card. Continue the shuffle, without pause, until completed.

2. Pat the upper side of the deck square and repeat the moves exactly as before by lifting out all but the top and bottom cards, then shuffle off to the last card of those held in the right hand, the card originally at the top, and drop it back again on the top.

Be careful not to pull the cards away sharply in the first movement of the shuffle, making the top and bottom cards come together with a "click." Use a light touch. Note that by placing two known cards at the bottom and a third at the top, all three cards can be controlled by this valuable artifice. Practise the sleight in this way until you can do it with ease and certainty.

Top Card to Next to Bottom and Back to the Top

1. Lift the pack for the shuffle, retaining the top and bottom cards in the left hand as in the preceding sleight. Shuffle the cards in the right hand on to the two cards in the left hand without hesitation. The card originally on the top is now next to the bottom card.

2. Again lift the pack, retaining the top and bottom cards in the left hand. Shuffle off the cards in the fight hand upon the two in the left, allowing the bottom card to fall last, thus returning the top card to its original position.

Later you will find that this sleight is useful for showing that a chosen card which you are controlling is neither at the top nor at the bottom of the pack.

The Run

In magical parlance, this term means the pulling off of cards one by one from the right hand packet with the aid of the left thumb in the course of the shuffle. To make the run, press the left thumb lightly on the back of the top card of the right hand packet while holding this latter packet just tightly enough to allow one card only to escape. It is very important that the single cards be drawn off at the same tempo as the rest of the shuffle, so that there will be no hesitation at the start of the shuffle or its end.

A few minutes' practice with cards that are in good condition will prove how easy the sleight is, yet it is one of the most useful in the card man's arsenal.

The Injog

This term is applied to the subterfuge of causing a card to project about one quarter of an inch from the inner end of the deck. It is one of the oldest stratagems in magic, having been in use for three and a half centuries. It was first mentioned in Scott's Discouverie of Witchcraft , published in 1584.

The action of jogging a card is a simple one. In the course of the shuffle, when a card is to be jogged, move the fight hand slightly towards the body, draw off one card with the left thumb, then move the hand back to its former position and continue the shuffle in the usual way. The card thus jogged should rest on the little finger tip, which enables you to know, by sense of touch alone, that the card is in the proper position (Fig. 3).

It is advisable at the start to make the card protrude about half an inch and, in shuffling off the remaining cards from the right hand, to make them lie irregularly so that the protruding card is covered and concealed. With practice the jogging of the card can be reduced to approximately a quarter of an inch. Here again it is most important that there shall be no alteration in the tempo. The card must be jogged and the shuffle continued without the least hesitation.

The Undercut

This sleight is used to bring the cards directly under a jogged card to the top of the pack, in the following manner:

A card having been jogged and the shuffle completed, bring the fight hand upwards from a position a little below the left hand so that the point of the thumb will strike against the face of the jogged card, lifting it and the cards above it slightly; then move the right hand outwards with the lower packet, the thumbnail scraping against the face of the jogged card while the middle and ring fingers close on the outer end of the packet. Lift the packet clear and throw it on the top of the deck. This action brings the jogged card to the bottom and the card directly below it to the top of the pack.

To undercut to a jogged card is a very simple action if the right thumb strikes upward , not inward (Fig. 4).