21 Cards

Effect

This is a mathematical based trick involving three rows of twenty-one cards. After dealing them out a couple of times, you can deduce the spectator's card.


Sleights

Shuffle

Method

1. You set up 3 rows of 7 cards each, face up.

2. You have someone come up and think of one of the cards (not telling you what it is).
3. Ask which row of cards their card is in
4. Gather up the cards, but be sure to put the row they said INTO THE MIDDLE of the 3 piles. Lay the cards out again, like this. Deal three cards in a column, then the another three cards in a column next to the first. Deal the rest the same way, until you again have 3 rows of 7 cards each. Ask again which row. Gather the cards and repeat for the third time. (Remember to put their row in the MIDDLE of the pile.) The 3rd time, you know what card it is because when you ask them which row, it's the 4th card in that row.

Advice: Here are two alternative endings -

* Say you will find their card. Shuffle, then flip cards into a face up pile, until you go past theirs. Say: "The next card I flip will be yours." They'll be thinking: " he/she doesn't know it went by already..." You amaze them by flipping over their card in the discard pile!
* You can square the deck out (so it's face down) and explain that the word ABRACADABRA is a very magical word which changes and truly defies nature! Spelling ABRACADABRA, deal out the cards face down, one for each letter. So you would be spelling A-B-R-A-C-A-D-A-B-R-A , at the last A you should have 10 cards already dealt out onto the table, pause for a beat at the 11th letter of ABRACADABRA, and turn over the card to reveal it to be the spectators!