Ask the spectator to deal the cards in his hand into 3 piles again . This time , 2 of the piles will have only 2 cards each while the other pile will have 3 cards ( Fig . 4 ). Pick up the pile that contains 3 cards ( it is usually the leftmost pile ) and push the other 2 piles to the side ( Fig . 5 ). You will now have 3 cards in your hands . Now , deal the 3 cards on the table and the center card will be the selection . You are now going to do a Magician ' s Choice on the spectator . Have the spectator point to any two cards . other card instead of the selection , just eliminate the other card . In either way , the spectator will be left with the selection .
Now , run through the entire process again with the spectator and stress the importance that they made the selection and everything was a fair choice . Have them turn the card that they are left with to show it is the selection ( Fig . 6 ). As a kicker ending , flip the 20 cards as well as the rest of the deck over to show they are completely blank ( Fig . 7 ).
Fig . 4 Fig . 6
Fig . 5
Here are the two scenarios that will occur : 1 ) if your spectator points to the outer two cards except for the center card , push the two outer cards to the side and say that the spectator has eliminated these two cards except for the center card . 2 ) If the spectator points to the center card and a card from the outer end , push off the other outer card and eliminate it . Ask the spectator to point to one of the remaining two cards . If he points to the selection , hand it to him as you eliminate the other card . If he was to point to the
Fig . 7
CREDITS :
• The 21 Card Trick is published in Professor Hoffman ’ s Modern Magic ( 1876 , Page 43 ), under the section ‘ Simple Modes of Discovering a Given Card : Second Method ’.
• For Magician ’ s Choice ( A . K . A Equivocation ), check out works by Max Maven and Theodore Annemann .