Easy Card Tricks Anyone Can Learn with a Standard Deck

You do not need sleight of hand to fool a table. The three tricks below are self-working: the structure of the deck does the work, and your only job is to follow the steps and tell a good story. Each one uses a standard 52-card deck, and each has been checked step by step so the method really does work every time. Practise once alone, then try it on someone who has never seen it.

Before you start

• Use a clean, flat deck. Bent corners and marked backs give the game away; see our care guide.
• Do not repeat a trick for the same audience. Move on to the next one.
• Patter matters. Talk while you work. Misdirection is as much about timing and conversation as hands.

Trick 1: The 21-card trick

The effect: a spectator thinks of one card out of 21, answers three simple questions, and you name it.

How to do it:

1. Take any 21 cards from the deck and hold them face down.
2. Deal them face up into three columns, one card at a time from left to right, so each column has seven cards. Overlap the cards in each column slightly so that every card can be seen.
3. Ask the spectator to silently choose one card and tell you which column it is in. They do not say which card.
4. Pick up the three columns into one stack, placing the column they named between the other two. Pick up each column as it lies, so the last card you dealt into it stays on top, then turn the whole stack face down.
5. Repeat steps 2 to 4 two more times (three rounds in total), each time asking which column holds their card and putting that column in the middle.
6. After the third time, deal off 10 cards face down. Their card is the eleventh one. Turn it up with a flourish.

Why it works: putting the chosen column in the middle moves their card toward the centre of the packet every round. After one round it sits somewhere in positions 8 to 14, after two rounds in positions 10 to 12, and after three it is locked at position 11. It is a neat example of narrowing a range, the kind of reasoning in our playing-card maths problems.

Trick 2: The key card

The effect: a spectator picks a card by looking at the top of a cut pile, the deck is cut as often as they like, and you still find their card.

How to do it:

1. Square the deck and, as you do, glimpse the bottom card. Remember it. This is your key card.
2. Put the deck face down on the table. Ask the spectator to cut off the top portion and place it to one side as a second pile.
3. Ask them to look at the top card of the pile they just cut off, remember it, and put it back on top of that pile.
4. Pick up the other pile (the one that still has your key card at its bottom) and place it on top of the cut-off pile. The key card now sits directly above their card.
5. Invite them to cut the deck as many times as they like. A cut only moves cards from the top to the bottom, so the two cards stay next to each other. If a cut falls exactly between them, the key card simply ends up at the bottom and their card at the top.
6. Take the deck face down and turn cards face up one at a time from the top. Do it slowly and make a show of concentrating. When your key card appears, the very next card is theirs. If the key card turns out to be the last card in the deck, theirs is the first card.

Tip: do not reveal the card straight away. Keep dealing for a moment, pause, then name it or turn it over. The delay is what makes it feel like mind reading.

Trick 3: The red and black pairs

The effect: a spectator deals off part of the deck and shuffles it back in, and you predict that every pair of cards from the top will contain one red and one black card.

Preparation: beforehand, arrange the deck so the colours alternate: red, black, red, black, all the way through all 52 cards. Do this out of sight.

How to do it:

1. Ask the spectator to deal some of the cards from the top, one at a time, face down onto the table. Any number works, though roughly half the deck looks most natural. Dealing them out like this reverses the order of that packet.
2. Have them riffle shuffle the dealt pile and the remaining pile together, once. They can be as sloppy as they like, and cards do not have to alternate neatly.
3. Announce a prediction: “Every pair of cards from the top will have one red and one black.”
4. Take the top two cards, show them, and put them down. Repeat down the deck. Each pair contains exactly one red and one black.

Why it works: this is the Gilbreath principle, discovered by the mathematician Norman Gilbreath. Dealing off a packet reverses it, and a single riffle then interleaves the two packets in a way that always keeps the pairs balanced. It does not matter how many cards were dealt or how uneven the riffle is. Shuffle it twice and the effect breaks, so stop after one riffle.

Choosing a deck for tricks

• Paper or German board gives a crisp edge and a clean riffle, which helps Trick 3. See why in our guide to German board.
• Plastic is forgiving of repeated practice and handles damp hands well. Browse plastic decks.
• A separate practice deck is worth having. A deck you have pre-arranged for a trick should not be the same one you play poker with.

Once a mix looks natural, it is worth learning a few handling skills of its own. Our shuffling guide covers the riffle, Hindu shuffle, overhand, and wash, all of which make your tricks look smoother. For more games once the magic is over, see card games for family night.