Many, if not most of us, can relate to the topic of having “uncles” who really aren’t literally uncles, but more like distant cousins whose actual relationship along the bloodlines is too far removed to be anything less than a third or fourth cousin.

So, our elders suggest we call them “Uncle” or “Aunt”.

In this case, was my “Uncle Norman” who I met when I was somewhere between five and seven years old (circa, 1968 to 1970); and I never saw him again after that day.

Anyway, Uncle Norman showed me this card trick that’s based on math, and not sleight of hand.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STEP 1 — CREATING THE PILES

STEP 2 — PICKING UP ALL PILES ( EXCEPT THREE )

STEP 3 —TURNING OVER TWO PILES

STEP 4 — TOTALING THE TWO PILES TO GET FIRST NUMBER

STEP 5 — COUNTING OUT THE FIRST NUMBER

STEP 6 — COUNTING OUT 10 MORE CARDS (ALWAYS 10!)

STEP 7 — COUNTING THE NUMBER OF CARDS LEFT OVER

STEP 8 — VOILA! VERIFYING THE MATCH!

STEP 9 — A VIDEO EXAMPLE

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STEP 1 — CREATING THE PILES

The first step (after shuffling the deck of course, to ensure complete randomness of the cards in the deck) is to create the piles.

To do that you have the entire deck FACE UP in your hand, and you simply count UP from the face value of the first card to 13.

So, if the first card you see is, say, an 8 (of ANY SUIT—Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, or Spades; it does not matter which), you count UP from 8 to 13, as in, 8,9,10,11,12,13.

That’s your first pile, and you place the ENTIRE pile face DOWN on the table.

Next pile.

If your next number is a 4, you’d count up from 4 to 13 : 4,5,6…13.

And so forth.

As per the drawing below, if your next card is an “Ace”, that counts as 1; a “Jack” is 11;  “Queen” = 12; and “King” is 13 all by itself.

 

If your next card is a King, that’s 13 all by itself, and you place that card down by itself, on the table just like any other pile.

It’s not exactly unheard of for the entire deck to be counted out, but most of the time, there’s a few cards left over, since, for example, the “next” card could be a “5” but you have only 4 cards left, so, when counting from 5, you’d only get to 8, as in, “5,6,7,8” and there’s not enough to count to 13.

That’s not a problem at all. Having cards left over happens more often than not having any cards left over.

In any case, the leftover cards just get put with the rest of the cards as the trick goes on.

 

STEP 2 — PICKING UP ALL PILES ( EXCEPT THREE )

If you have, say, 7 piles on the table, PLUS the leftover cards in your hand, you simply REMOVE ALL the piles , except 3.

Leave three piles on the table.

Yes, you MAY shuffle the cards in your hand all you want. That has no effect on the trick.

 

STEP 3 — TURNING OVER TWO PILES

Of the three piles remaining on the table, turn over the ENTIRE PILE (NOT just the “top” card) of TWO piles.

 

STEP 4 — TOTALING THE TWO PILES TO GET FIRST NUMBER

The next step is to count the TOTAL of the two cards at the top of the TWO OVERTURNED PILES.

So, if the top card on one pile is , say, 3, and the other card is 4, the total would obviously be 7

If the two cards were 5 and 9, the total would be 13, and so forth.

STEP 5 — COUNTING OUT THE FIRST TOTAL

Now, simply count out the 7 cards (or 9, or whatever your total was) onto a new separate pile on the table.

 

STEP 6 — COUNTING OUT 10 MORE CARDS (ALWAYS 10!)

Regardless of that total whether that be 7 or 9 or 15 or whatever, you ALWAYS count out TEN MORE! Always 10!

 

STEP 7 — COUNTING THE NUMBER OF CARDS LEFT OVER

Count the cards you have left in your hand.

Whatever that number is, THAT is the number (Face Value) of the card at the BOTTOM of the one, lone UN-overturned pile on the table.

 

STEP 8 — VOILA! VERIFYING THE MATCH!

Now, turn over the ENTIRE STACK of that last pile.

That card will match the number of cards you had left over when you counted out all the cards, as instructed.

STEP 9 — A VIDEO EXAMPLE

Enjoy!

 

 

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