This self working card trick has long been a favorite of magicians of all ages. Since it's self working, you don't need to learn any special sleight of hand or use any special gimmicks. Another plus is that you can quickly show kids, even young ones, how to do this trick, and it will still work perfectly.
Here's how the hoax looks to your shocked observers. You have all the cards of the equivalent suit taken out of the deck. So you've got all the hearts, or clubs, or whatever. Have them prearranged in order, starting from the ace, and ending with the king. If you are doing this with kids, you can even have them set the deck up for them.
After you've got it set up, then you go through the deck once, showing them all that they are certainly in order, beginning from the ace, and ending at the king. If you like you can offer them the short stack and have them verify for themselves to make sure there is nothing funny going on.
Then clarify the secret to them. You have the stack face down. If they say "deal," then you take one card off the top, and place it face down on the table, in a new stack. If they say "double deal" then you take two cards off the top, reverse the order and then place them face down in the same stack. Do this until you've gone through all the cards. Tell them that they have to memorize the new order that the cards are in. While they are busily trying to re compute the order, you pick up the new stack, and begin to turn each card over one by one. They will be astonished to see that the cards are still in the same order, starting from the ace, up to the king.
Most often, they will ask you to do it again, and again. And the cool part is, since this is a self working trick, they can do it themselves and it will still work. The reason it works should be understandable once you do this a few times. If you take only one card off the top, and place it in the new stack, (deal), or take two cards, and reverse the order, placing them in the new stack (double deal) they still end up in the same order, no matter if you deal or double deal them. To observe how this works, do the trick with all the cards facing up, and you'll see how it works out.
This is staggering for kids of all ages, and several of them will never guess how it works even after they do the trick themselves. Of course, you'll intermittently run into a young academic or natural mathematician who'll see right through this trick and understand how it's down. Even so, this trick is amazing for endless amounts of amusement, even with grownups. Have fun with this straightforward trick.
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