Four ace control

There are several methods I use for “losing” the aces into a deck of cards and controlling them to the top. Several involve cutting the deck into four piles and losing the aces, one in each pile. One day I was looking at some magic sites preview videos and saw a different method that I thought looked good. So I deconstructed the performance, figuring out what the magician had done. While I can’t be certain that this is the same method, I think it is close.

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CHaSeD order

I just noticed something about the Club, Hearts, Spades and Diamonds suit order that is used in many different deck stacks. Since stacks are cyclic, this order of suits is equivalent to Diamonds, Clubs, Hearts and Spades. Which is a numerical progression order if you look at the “points” of the pips of the suit. Diamonds has four points, Clubs has three, Hearts has two, and Spades has one. So instead of looking at a suit and using the mnemonic CHaSeD to figure out the next suit, you can simply look at the “points” and subtract one. Thus a Heart (two points) is followed by a Spade (one point). Diamonds (four points) is followed by a Club (three points).

Only a second

Another “find the aces” trick. This one is good for practicing your second deal.

Begin with secretly having the four aces on top of the deck. I typically have the spectator shuffle the deck, and then use my two-step cull to get the aces on top. Riffle or overhand shuffle to add eight more cards on top of the deck. I usually use two riffle shuffles to add four cards at a time.

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