The gaming table : its votaries and victims, in all times and countries,
especially in England and in France. Vol. 2 | ||
7. To tell a card thought of without even looking at the cards.
Take any number of cards, — say twenty. Pretend to shuffle them with the faces towards you, and remember the first card as you close the pack — suppose the ten of diamonds. Tell the party that the only condition you require is to be told the order in which the card is dealt out by you; in other words, he must tell you whether in dealing it comes out first, second, third, &.
Remembering your first card, you may then turn your back to him, and deal out the cards one by one, and one upon the top of the other, requesting him to think of a card and its order as before said.
Then take up the cards, and shuffle them repeatedly, by throwing a portion of them from the bottom to the top, taking care not to mix the cards or let any drop, and then let the party cut them as often as he pleases. Then, take the cards in
The reason of this trick is simply that by merely cutting the cards, and shuffling them in the way indicated, you do not alter the sequence of the cards. With regard to this sort of shuffling, I may say that it is simply cutting the cards — always preserving their
This is the trick I alluded to at the commencement of the chapter, the mode of performing which I succeeded in discovering. Of course any number of persons may think of cards, remembering their order, and the operator will tell them, in like manner.
The gaming table : its votaries and victims, in all times and countries,
especially in England and in France. Vol. 2 | ||