The Sevens

The following trick, a good one, makes use of the overhand shuffle to force a card and to bring a number of required cards to the top of the pack so that they can be used in the course of a "coincidence" trick. Four cards are selected, apparently by purest chance, and the cards prove to be the four seven-spots, a remarkable violation of the laws of probability.

1. To prepare for the trick place the four sevens secretly on the top of the pack, then force the top card (the first seven) on a spectator by means of the lift shuffle force. Have the spectator place that card face downwards on the table, without looking at it, and place his hand on it. As he does this, place the packet in your right hand under those in your left, so that the remaining three sevens are on the top of the pack. Shuffle by running off two cards into the left hand, drop the pack on them, and pick up the whole pack. One seven will now be on the top and two at the bottom.

At once continue the shuffle as in step No. 2, retaining top and bottom cards in position , thus keeping the sevens in the same position, two at the bottom and one at the top.

2. Spread the entire deck face downwards on the table in a neat row, and request the spectator to touch any card. Remove the card and turn it face upwards. Whatever its value, gather up the remainder of the deck and deal beside it, face downwards and in an orderly pile, cards to correspond in number. For example, if the card is an eight- spot, deal eight cards. If the card is a picture card, announce that you will count all such cards as tens and treat them as such. Thus you have a seven-spot at the bottom of this pile.

3. Repeat the same overhand shuffle , retaining one of the other two sevens on the bottom and bringing the other one to the top of the pack. The position now is that you have a seven on the top and the fourth seven on the bottom.

4. Spread the cards on the table again and request another spectator to touch a card. Remove it, turn it face upwards, gather up the remaining cards and deal beside it, as before, the number of cards to correspond with its value.

5. Shuffle the cards once more, this time simply bringing the bottom card (the fourth seven) to the top. "You will notice," you say, "that your choice of cards is entirely fair. Neither you nor I can know the value of the cards you will select."

6. Have a third spectator touch still another card after you have spread the deck on the table, and proceed in exactly the same way as before. There will then be three piles of cards on the table, and at the bottom of each of them, unknown to the spectators, there is a seven- spot

7. Turn now to the spectator whose hand still rests on the seven spot which you forced on him at the start of the feat. "Will you, sir, turn up your card and show it to all of us?"He does so and it is seen to be a seven-spot.

"The vagaries of chance are inexplicable," you observe thoughtfully, "for here we have four cards selected by four different persons in the fairest possible way. The probability of each selecting a card of the same value is so remote as to be practically impossible. And yet–" (slowly turn each of the packets face upwards and show, at their faces, the three remaining sevens!) "–that is exactly what has happened."

The student will be gratified, upon performing this feat, to notice the astonishment which it arouses. This is caused largely because the spectators were not told beforehand just what you proposed to do and for this reason did not scrutinize your preliminary actions so closely as they might have had they known your objective.

This is one of the psychological advantages which the good card conjurer keeps to himself. He does not tell in advance what he proposes to do. If he forewarns his audience, their vigilance will be aroused and they will study what he does to determine how he does it. Since they do not know his purpose, however, they are not alerted and later, when they attempt to reconstruct what has been done, their memory fails them.

This should also make clear why the expert card conjurer rarely if ever repeats a trick for an audience, no matter how great their importunity.

There are two good rules to remember:

1. Never tell your audience the effect of a feat until all the preliminary actions which make it possible have been completed.

2. Do not repeat a trick unless you can produce the same effect by a different method.