TEN NIGHTS IN A CARD ROOM State that a famous card expert has explained to you various subtle bits of chicanery which he detected on ten different nights in the card room of a notorious gambling casino. You are now going to use that knowledge to demonstrate the almost unbelievable control that is possible in games that depend— apparently—on chance alone.
1—Deck shuffled in any manner by spectator. Without glancing in the face of a single card, you deal for Draw Poker. No matter how he draws, you win with Aces. This is not a deck switch.
2— Four spectators each name a number you count to and toss out the cards at those positions. They are four cards of the same value.
3— After shuffling the deck in any manner, spectator deals a hand face down. You name every card before they are dealt. The hand is not switched.
4— Spectator satisfies himself that your pocket is empty. He selects a card and it is buried in the deck. You cause the card to vanish from the deck and appear in your pocket. To show how impossible it is to detect, you do it again. No palming and no duplicates. He may search the deck and take the card from your pocket himself.
5— Spectator shuffles a card, that he selected, back in the deck in any manner. You locate and remove it without seeing the back or front of any card.
6— You demonstrate by predicting a card, that control may be exercised over the deck even though it is cut by anyone. This works EVERY time.
7— You deal for Poker using the left hand only, and succeed in treating yourself to some remarkably useful cards.
8— A spectator is holding a prediction that you made before you ever handled the cards. It tells what cards will be in the hand that you are going to deal yourself next. This hand will win or lose as the spectator chooses. NOT the “magician’s choice” but a rather unusual control.
9— Spectator names a number. We will suppose that he has selected Eight. You deal 8 hands of Black Jack—AND WIN ON THE DEAL. It matters not if he says: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10—YOU WILL HAVE THE ONLY BLACK JACK ON THE BOARD. Most effective to have an elastic band snapped around the deck BEFORE the number is FREELY named AND SLIDE THEM OUT FROM UNDER THE BAND IN THE ACTUAL DEALING.
10— You again start dealing for Poker and then decide to work under the most difficult conditions imaginable. Have them GENUINELY BLINDFOLD YOU and THEY SHUFFLE THE TALON IN ANY WAY THEY PLEASE. When the cards are returned, you proceed without hesitation. Needless to say, at the completion of the deal it is revealed that you have given YOURSELF THE WINNING HAND. Not a single card is faked in any manner. No sleights but an occasional false cut is recommended. Strictly a one-man routine. You do not use one piece of magical apparatus. Nothing for you to make.
