Card stack technique for Xavier Perret’s Da Vinci’s Code card trick

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPQEF24XWAc for the effect.

Steps

1. Sort the cards into four face up piles, each pile consisting of a single suit in order from the back (A) to the top (K). So when you hold a pile in your hand face up, the Ace is next to your palm and the King is the visible card.
2. Set the hearts, spades and diamonds aside for a moment.
3. Take the clubs and divide them into the following three groups:
4. Ace to six, 7 to 10, and then the Jack, Queen and King
5. Pick up the Jack, Queen and King and move the Jack between the Queen and King.
6. Pick up the 7 to 10 pile and interleave the Queen, Jack and King between the 7, 8, 9, and 10 so you end up with the cards in 7, Q, 8, J, 9, K, and 10 order.
7. Now pick up the A to 6 pile and interleave them into the 7, Q, 8, J, 9, K, and 10 pile so you end up with:
   7, A, Q, 2, 8, 3, J, 4, 9, 5, K, 6, 10
8. Move the 7 from the bottom to the top so you have:
   A, Q, 2, 8, 3, J, 4, 9, 5, K, 6, 10, 7
9. Holding the clubs pile face up in your right hand, pick up the diamonds pile in your left hand and Faro shuffle the two piles face up together, keeping the 7 of clubs on top.
   The order of those cards after the shuffle are:   AD, AC, 2D, QC, 3D, 2C4D, 8C, 5D, 3C, 6D, JC, 7D, 4C, 8D, 9C, 9D, 5C, 10D, KC, JD, 6C, QD, 10C, KD, 7C
10. Place the face up spades packet on the face up hearts, and then Faro shuffle those with the packet that has the 7C on top. Keep the 7C on top as you Faro shuffle

Note that in the video, the performer starts the deal by moving the top card to the bottom and then dealing the next card to the table. With the cards stacked as above you start with the top card dealt to the table and the next card to the bottom

About the Faro shuffle

The Faro shuffle is a techinique that causes two packets of cards to interleave every other card, aka a “perfect” shuffle. There are a lot of youtube “tutorials” on the technique, some good, a lot bad. Thre is a knack to being able to do a perfect Faro shuffle, and it comes with practice.

Here are some links:

An alternative trick to the Da Vinci card trick.

If you don’t want to stack the entire deck the the following is also a good trick. Stack the Clubs as taught above, except don’t move the 7.

Place the clubs on top of the rest of the deck, the rest of the deck being un-ordered. Place the deck in your card box and you are ready to begin.

Take the cards out of the card box and hand the deck to the spectator. Have them do two riffle shuffles. It is important that they do riffle shuffles and not overhand shuffles. The riffle shuffles simple distribute your stacked clubs throughout the rest of the deck.

Now use a Magician’s Choice force to force the spectator to “choose” the clubs suit.

Spread throught the deck, face up in your hands, and upjog the clubs as you come to them. Strip them out of the deck.

Set the rest of the deck aside.

Hand the packet face down to the spectator and have them start by placing the top card to the bottom of the packet and then deal the next card face down. They continue dealing bottom – down, until all of the cards have been dealt.

Turn the dealt pile face up and ribbon spread them on the table to show that the spectator has put the cards into numerical order.