Another Ace Location

Original Author: Unknown

Effect: After shuffling the deck, the performer cuts the deck and turns up an ace at the point which he/she cut. This is repeated four times (for all of the aces).

Card Trick: Before doing the trick, place all of the aces at the top of the deck. If you know any false shuffles to retain top stock, do so. If not, simply do a false cut or nothing at all. Anyway, the only move involved is what I believe is called the slip (topslip?). This move is rather hard to verbalize, but easy to perform. Here is my attempt at explaining it: The left 2nd 3rd and 4th fingers go on the long side of the deck (facing the spectators) and the thumb on the inner long side and the index finger (which provides the key move, explained later) on the top card of the deck, the right hand in the same position except for the index finger, which is free from the deck. Now, keep the left thumb on the bottom half of the deck, and pull with the left hand while keeping slight pressure with the left index finger. During and immediately before this pull, the right hand should have pressure on the upper half of the deck, the left hand applying pressure on the lower half of the deck and the top card. The result should be as follows: The left hand should pull out the bottom half of the deck, and the top card ONLY. The top card will immediately fall onto the lower half of the deck (now in the left hand) and it should appear as though the deck was merely cut. At this point, I usually provide a little flourish, such as flicking the ace off of the deck. At any rate, take the ace off of the deck and complete the cut, making sure that the remaining aces are on top of the deck. The rest is cake. Again, this move is very hard to verbalize, but with practice, I am sure it will be found that it is not very difficult. A few false shuffles magnify the effect of this trick, and I recommend them as well as any flourishes that could be added in the removal of the aces.

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