Amazing Acestopper:  The Ultimate Card Trick

Effect: The magician riffles down through a borrowed deck and tells a spectator to say stop at any point. The magician cuts off the cards above that point, turns them face up, and replaces them on the deck. Then he spreads the deck from the top until he reaches the first face down card. The magician puts this card face down on the table. He repeats this process three times. When the four card are flipped over, they are found to be all four aces!!!!!

Before the trick starts, remove the four aces and any two other cards. Make two face-up piles of two aces each. Lay one odd card on each pile. Pick up one pile of three cards, turn it face down, and lay it on the other pile. Pick up all six cards and lay them on top of the face-down deck. You're ready to present the trick.

Starting below the top 6 cards, riffle your finger down the edge of the deck and ask the spectator to say stop. Keep the deck squared up so he (or she) won't see the 3 face-up cards. At the point where he says stop, remove all the cards above it carefully, turn them upside down, and replace them on the deck. Then look through the deck from the top down. When you get to the first face-down card, put it face down on the table. (It will be an ace.) Turn the face-up cards face down and put them on the bottom of the deck. Repeat this 3 times, being careful not to reveal the secret face-up cards, and the spectator will always stop on the 4 aces. Don't repeat it to the same crowd!

Editor's suggestions: It's hard to keep the audience from glimpsing one of the secret face-up cards when you're fanning down through the deck. I've found that you needn't give the audience a full view of the fan until you've found the first face-down card. You can hold the fan horizontally and look down at it so that it's edgewise to the audience. When you find the first face-down card, you can make sure that no secret cards are showing before you tip down the fan and show it to the spectators. You can also increase your safety margin by putting two odd cards on each stack of aces rather than one. This gives you more leeway when you're fanning down through the cards. Note that if you do this, the first face-up card will appear 8 cards above the point where you cut the deck. --RS.

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