A magician splits the seemingly normal deck into four piles in the fashion of a square. He puts the bottom fourth of the deck in the top right, the second fourth of the deck on the top left, the third fourth of the deck on the bottom right, and the very top of the deck in the bottom right corner. He takes the first pile in the upper left, takes three cards from the top and then then takes three cards, and puts one on each of the other three piles. He then moves to the top right pile, does the same thing, moves to the bottom left, does the same thing, moves to the bottom right, and makes the same move as he did to the other three piles. He then turns all of the cards on top of all four piles and reveals the four aces!
Ace Surprise
Preparation
Put all four aces at the top of the deck. Make sure that you don't let your audience shuffle the deck.
Pictures
1. The aces are on top
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Method
Split the deck into four piles, in the fashion of a square. The top of the deck has the four aces, which will be covered by 3 other random cards later.
Start with the first pile you laid down. Take three cards from the top, and move them to the bottom of the pile, then take three cards, and put one of the three on each of the other piles. (Not the one that you are holding.) Do this in any order, BUT, make sure that you do the pile with the aces last. When you reach the pile with the aces, you will move three cards that were put on the pile earlier to the bottom, leaving you to distribute three aces to the three remaining piles. Turn them over, and unleash the four aces.
Comments
| haewkeke 9th Mar 07 | This one is a nice self worker. A bit boring as a stand-alone routine, maybe use this one as a production of the four aces. You could also let the spectator cut the deck into four different piles, would make it better. | |
| darkstar 9th Mar 07 | I think another version of this is on the site. Anyway, you still get pretty good reactions. | |
| lurch 9th Mar 07 | Or you could do it in a way that doesnt look like you are stacking the deck. Not so good in my opinion..... Pick up Lake Tahoe Bar magic with Randy Wakeman, he teaches an excellent version of this where the spectator cuts the cards into 4 piles and the top cards are all aces. | |
| foblozer93 9th Mar 07 | Very good. You could also palm them. As I put them into piles, I then unpalm the cards and put them on the top. Sounds confusing if you don't understand but will work. Try it out :D. ~foblozer93~ | |
| Zboy 9th Mar 07 | When I do this I rather let the spectators cut it into four piles. Makes it seem less "rigged". Nice photos, perfect for a beginner to concentrate on presentation. | |
| brodieboy 10th Mar 07 | Good beginner trick, but a lot of people know it already. Better if you get the spectator more involved by making them cut the piles and deal the cards | |
| rattiemattie 10th Mar 07 | great self working trick it does look better if you shuffle the deck but control the aces to the top | |
| albinoeskimo 10th Mar 07 | thats a pretty good trick but u should prolly let the spectator cut the deck into piles... | |
| StreetSaint 10th Mar 07 | This trick is also known as the New Orleans shuffle. It's fun to say that i learned it from a gypsy on the board walk | |
| dasuprememep 10th Mar 07 | It really isn't that difficult to control four cards on the top when shuffling. Just remember their location, and keep them on the top. I learned this trick from Ellusionist's how to do street magic. | |
| Jungy 11th Mar 07 | Yes, I've tried this, but then they realise after a while. Try to act cool and not be too sus :P Good trick. | |
| chaostryder 11th Mar 07 | wow...this is a brilliant modification of the other version we have on this site, great trick. This is an awesome "spectator can do all the work" kind of trick. | |
| Yexo 11th Mar 07 | I've known this trick and used it. It is pretty effective. The pictures were pretty good too. although if the words were bigger on the pictures it might help, but the names of the pictures were self-explanatory. | |
| theitalianjob 13th Mar 07 | Nice trick. But I think to enhance the trick further you might want to add a false overhand shuffle because it seems more real; the probability of the four aces together on top of the deck after an seemingly innocent shuffle might be less that 1% | |
| patri2 13th Mar 07 | I know a better way to do it. It is much simpler and has the exact same effect. It is buried somewhere in the jungles of youtube. | |
| corona1715 14th Mar 07 | Very simple yet effective effect. I use it a lot. there is another way to do it though and my dad does it all the time. Practice, practice, practice. | |
| Zachymack 15th Mar 07 | Thanks for viewing guys. It's nice to know people like a trick that I found out when I was 6 years old. And now I'm 13, for the record. It's just to bad I don't have the monkey to buy all the stuff needed for good tricks. I like levitation tricks ex. Self levitation, card levitation and pencil levitation. I also like disappearing stuff too, but it's nice to add a little card trick in like this one. Thanks for the comments and ratings. | |
| jacktreg 23rd Mar 07 | it is a good trick a little boring to learn and practice,but once you can get it down, when you are in front of an audience you get a good effect | |
| MandG 28th Mar 07 | Very nice trick especially if you let the spectator do the work. | |
| 195 1st Apr 07 | nice trick but instead of u doing the work the spectator does the work and it seems more magical... | |
| tobygw 2nd Apr 07 | Yeah it seems more like a trick if the spectator does it. Still good for beginners. | |
| fourlock 3rd Apr 07 | U should combine this with another trick | |
| sudsie 3rd Apr 07 | This a clever self working trick. If you do several Triple False Cuts before, it makes it even better as the False cut leaves the deck as it was before the cut ,a very useful cut to have as you can do as many as you like,at any time. | |
| supermuncher 9th Apr 07 | nice and cool..and works all the time... | |
| magianfreak99 15th Apr 07 | this trick really baffles people...its better to make the audience cut the deck into four piles then they dop all the work..... and you get all the credit!!!!!!!!! | |
| Guayo 17th Apr 07 | Its a good trick but doing a false shuffle or anything that leaves the deck in the same order is better because the spectators will get suspicious that you had a prepared deck and the reactions wont be as good. | |
| DenisSeal 19th Apr 07 | this is a good srlf working trick. | |
| magicholmesy 29th Apr 07 | This is one of the first tricks covered in 'Royal Road to Card Magic', by Hugard and Brau - it is called 'A Poker Players Picnic', and the patter and subtleties described can really turn this into a show-stopper. | |
| tourvader 7th May 07 | I tried this one on a couple of people, and most found it quite boring. As someone said before, it should only be used as a fun way to extract the four aces, perhaps preparing for another card trick. | |
| Magicman15 12th May 07 | nice trick for small crowds, i know another variation aces trick. i'll post it when i can | |
| killa37 17th May 07 | I have seen this trick in a book I had (can't remember though) and I think it is a pretty good trick if you just want to get the aces ready for another trick but other than that, not a great trick unless you can make up a really good patter. | |
| 15Sparky15 17th May 07 | I do it all the time no one gets how it works | |
| Kaloride6 24th May 07 | I hava question. can u du this with any other cards? cuz i think that might wurk too stead of the aces | |
| chingaman 14th Jul 07 | Yes, it's a good trick. As "a Poker Player's Picnic" you ask the person if he or she is good at poker when you begin, and at the end of the trick you can say something to the extent of "i knew you were a good poker player, you know why?" *then you flip the cards over* and say "Because you've got four of a kind" | |
| cchapman195 15th Aug 07 | This one works great if before revealing the aces double lift off of each pile. Then say not much of a poker hand, I believe this would be better. Then lift and reveal all of the aces. Make sure you can double lift well so you dont reveal what you are doing | |
| dreamblade77 14th Oct 07 | this is a hard/easy trick thay i didnt really get that much because i got losw the orders of the aces and others | |
| conormcmullan 18th Oct 07 | Nice trick, you should try it with the four piles in a row, it might have been easier to explain. But other than that it seems a pretty neat trick. I wouldn't necessarily use it as a trick on its own it would be better as a lead-up to a trick but a good patter is definitely needed. | |
| Peteiscool1 10th Jan 08 | love this trick! the effect is very convicing i use it in my program if you think the effect is not enough, think again i love it | |
| 200009 29th Jan 08 | Nice Trick! A false shuffle though is better than a cut. The audience might suspect you of rigging the deck. And the explanation could have been a bit more detailed. Nice Work! | |
| bigwurm303 20th Mar 08 | Good trick. I've also seen it in books as "Women's Lib" done with the Queens. I let a spectator do all the work after I riffle shuffle and keep the Aces on top. I use this trick to find the aces (or queens or 3s or 4s) so I can perform "The Daley Show". | |
| MGamer 14th Apr 08 | This is could also be performed if the cards are laid out in a row than a square. You should also tie this into your last trick so there won't be trouble preping the deck. | |
| Gusty 12th Aug 08 | I always let the spectator do self-working tricks like these, makes it look more impossible because I'm not touching it, with the right bit of patter, this could be a decent mid-performance trick. | |
| coreyhammer 4th Dec 08 | I've seen this and done it as "Spectator Cuts the Aces." Except where I learned it had the spec moving a bunch of cards around as misdirection. | |
| siriustheknight 5th Dec 08 | I thought this was a pretty well thought out trick, I really liked it, but the write up should be a little more detailed because i was confused at certain parts and it took me around 15 minutes to understand what i was supposed to be doing. Good trick though its just a bit confusing to understand. | |
Related Tricks
Spin AwayThe magician takes the spectator's card, spins it, and a number flies off. |
Ace DealingDespite cuts, shuffles, and mixes, the spectator inevitably finds the Aces. |
Colour Changing TranspoSelected card appears between two cards, with a different coloured back! |
Quick as a WinkAfter finding a pair of up-turned aces in the deck, they then reveal the chosen card. |
Cut TenAfter the spectator freely cuts a certain number cards from a deck three times, all tens of the deck are found at the top of the piles! |
BurnThe spectators chosen card is written on a piece of paper, then burnt. It turns up written on a previously clean pencil when the ashes are rubbed on it. |
What's Your Number?After following the magician's instructions, the spectator sees the cards revealing his/her phone number! |
Spelling CardsThe magician spells thirteen cards! |
Sponsored Links
Sleights
- None
Details
Author: Zachymack Access Level: 1 Hate it 
Love it Easy Hard
