This three-card impossible location is designed specifically for other magicians. The selection procedure is similar for all three selections, yet they are found by three different principles. Even i f a magician spots one or even two o f the principles, they will never be able to crack the combined procedure. Effect Tomas has three magicians all select cards (and shuffle them into the deck themselves) in incredibly fair ways. Even though he has his back turned throughout this entire process, he is able to find all three cards with ease. Requirements A deck of cards and a matching double-backed card. Setup From the top down: Double-backed card Face-up force card (any card of your choice, say the Two of Hearts) Twenty-three indifferent cards A known key card (say, the Ace of Spades, 26th from the top) Rest of the deck Handling You need three participants, who will each select a card. I will break down the selection procedure: First Selection Place the deck in front of the first participant and turn your back so that you cannot see the deck. Ask the participant to cut about a third of the cards, to turn them face up and to drop them back on top of the deck.
Next up is an optional ruse to keep the selection procedure consistent as well as to lead magicians down the garden path. Ask that the participant remember the top card of the deck and turn back to point to the top card. Apparently realise that you can see the face card and then quickly turn back around. Apologise and then suggest that, as an alternative, the participant spread down to the first face-down card and put all of the faceup cards onto the table face down. 'Ibis card is the Two of Hearts, which has been automatically forced onto the participant. If you prefer, you can omit this subtlety. Simply never turn to look and just ask the participant to spread off all face-up cards and to table them face down. The idea behind the subtlety, though, is that astute magicians will probably think that you have a stack where you know the next card in the sequence from the card you spotted. If they do, they don’t stand a chance of understanding the next two selections! Ask the participant to place his selection on top of the face-down pile that he tabled. Ask the second participant to take the rest of the deck from the first participant. This frees the first participant to cut the tabled packet to lose his selection. A few moments later in the routine (ideally during the next procedure), look back at him and say, “/see you don’t trust me. F eelfree to shuffle your packet.” Next we come to the second and third selections. Start by having the third participant cut off about half the cards that the second participant is holding. This leaves the second participant with the original bottom portion of the deck, and the third participant with the middle portion with your key card in it and the double-backed card on top. Second Selection Ask the second participant to shuffle his packet, and ask that all three participants place their packets face down in front of them. Ask the second participant to turn about half of his tabled portion face up and to remember the card that he is looking at. Then ask that he pick up his entire packet, spread off the face-up cards and drop them face down onto the first participant’s tabled packet. Finally, ask that he shuffle his remaining cards and drop them on top of the first participants packet, too. Third Selection Instruct the third participant to cut off half of his packet, to turn the cards over and then to replace them. Ask him to remember the card at which he is looking, and then to pick up the packet, to spread through all the face-up cards and to turn them face down on top of the packet.
This procedure has automatically placed the double-backed card directly below the selection. Finally, ask that this participant drop his packet on top of the deck and cut the deck once. Location, Location, Location You can now turn back around to face the audience. Pick up the deck and spread through with the faces toward you. You are looking for your key card (Ace of Spades) or the double-backed card, whichever comes first. If you get to the double-backed card first, upjog the card directly behind it. This is the third person’s selection. When you see your sunken key card, start counting the cards as you spread, counting the key card as number one. Do not include the double-backer in the count should it appear after the key card and don’t forget to upjog the third spectator’s selection, which is directly behind the double-backer. When you reach your force card (Two of Hearts), upjog it (this is the first selection). Finally, when you reach the count of twenty-six, upjog that card, too, as it is the second selection. Cut the deck with the three selections still upjogged, so that the double-backed card ends up second from the back of the deck and a selection is at the back of the deck. They are now in order from face to back, and you will have a double-backer conveniently on top of the deck after the three selections have been removed. Finally reveal all three selections in order ... then help your magician friends pick up their jaws from the floor. Comments You may find that the sunken key card is directly after the double-backed card. If that happens, it simply means that the sunken key is the third person’s selection. You must still continue the count as always, starting with “1” on the key card. If you mark the double-backer, the force card and the key card on their backs, you can locate the cards from a face-down deck without ever looking at the faces of the cards.
Tomas originally published this trick in MAGIC Magazine over a decade ago. This is an updated handling that allows you to perform the trick without a setup. Effect Tomas has a participant shuffle a deck, and then he places a Post-it note with a prediction written on it on the top card of the face-down deck. The participant is asked to randomly cut to a card and to read aloud Tomas’ prediction on the Post-it note. It perfectly matches the selection. Requirements A pad of mini Post-it notes, a pen and a deck of cards. the participant to shuffle. While he is preoccupied, take the pad of Post-its and peel off two Post-its together. "This is essentially a hit double lift, but as the Post-its are glued together, it is exceptionally easy! Take back the deck, turn it face up and stick the double note onto the face card (fig. 1). Tilt up the deck so that the audience can’t see what you are writing, and pull back the top card a little so that you can secretly glimpse the card second from the face. Once the glimpse has been acquired, you can square up the deck. Write the name of the card you just glimpsed on the Post-it and then peel off just the top Post-it of the two, leaving the blank one stuck to the face of the deck. Hold the Post-it with the writing against your fingers (fig. 2, next page) so that nobody can see what is written on it. Handling Hand the deck to
Turn the deck face down, holding it in left-hand dealing grip, and place the note on the back of the top card of the deck, ensuring that you keep the writing hidden. Once the note is stuck down, place your thumb over the Post-it to continue concealing the writing (fig. 3). Don’t belabour this though; it is not a big problem if people see what is written on the prediction, but it is worth trying to keep it private. If your participant doesn’t see it, you can use him not looking at the prediction as motivation for a small convincer a little later. Obtain a little-finger break above the two face cards and turn over all of the cards above the bottom two end for end. This is a simple case of angling the hand back a little to conceal the lower two cards, as you pull the rest of the deck forward and over onto the two cards (figs. 4 and 5). For further cover, you may want to temporarily cop the two cards as you turn over the deck. The end result is that the deck is face up, and the lowermost two cards are face down.
Hand the deck to the participant and ask him to hold it under the table (or behind his back if you don’t have a table). Ask that he turn the deck over and ask him to try to feel what is written on the Post-it note. Of course, he can’t feel the writing, but this is a great way of confirming that the note is on the top card without raising suspicion. Ask him to lift off about half the deck with his free hand and to drop or pick up a few extra cards to make sure the cut is a completely fair one. He is to turn over the portion, and to place it on top so his selection is touching the Post-it. Ask that he bring the deck back into view, and then invite him to spread through the face-up cards and to turn them over, Ifie Post-it note will show on the back of the last face-up card. He can now read your prediction out loud. Finally, turn over the top face-down card to show that your prediction was completely correct. You’ll probably need to clean up at this point, and it’s really easy. Ihc decoy Post-it is below the forced selection, so simply cut it to the face and palm it off. Tomas has a sneaky ploy here of performing the effect with a deck borrowed from a fellow magician. He hands the deck back with the decoy Post-it still attached, and then before they have a chance to examine it, he takes it back to show them one more effect. During that effect, he steals off the Post-it note. Comments If you have the opportunity to set up in advance, put a note on the face of a card and a force card at its back. Have both of these cards face down in your lap at the start of the trick. Have the deck shuffled, take it back, place a Post-it note on top of the top card and write the name of the force card on it. Hold the deck in dealing grip and move the deck below the table, secretly adding the two cards face up on top of the deck. Immediately extend your hand forward to give the deck to the participant. Tomas has a secondary handling of the force for situations where you are not comfortable with the participant taking the deck out of view. Hand the face-up deck to the participant, and ask him to run his fingers over the Post-it on the back of the deck to feel if he can feel what you have written. Ask him to cut off a portion of the deck, to turn it over and to place it on the bottom of the deck so that his selection touches the Post-it note. During this procedure, point at the face-down card after he turned over the portion to ask him if he really wants to cut to that card, or if he’d rather replace the portion and cut again. You are doing this to make it clear that the face-down card is coming from the middle of the deck and is a completely free selection. Now let the participant spread off the face-up cards and finish as in the regular version.
Credits This trick is based on Ed Mario’s “Air-Mail Prediction” from The Hierophant, issue 2 (1969). In this trick, Mario affixes a stamp onto the back of a card during a Christ Force.
Tomas penchant for mathematical effects has taken him in many directions. In this case, we look at a self working gambling effect that plays much bigger than traditional “I dealt myself the best hand” style presentations. Effect Tomas offers to play a game of poker against four spectators. However, to ensure that the game is completely unbiased, he brings out five rule cards: one for him and one for each of the players. The game is played by the rules. In short, the first person reads the rule from his card: a dealer must be nominated to deal the hands. A dealer is nominated and he deals out the first round of cards. After the first round, the second rule is read out; it explains that each participant is given the opportunity to switch one of his or her cards with a card from Tomas’ hand. The rules are read one by one, each making the game seem a little fairer. Once everyone has five cards, the first person is instructed to turn over his rule card and to read what is written on the back. It explains, “If the total sum of your hand is 35, you lose the game.” He totals up his hand out loud (Jacks take on the value of eleven, Queens are twelve, Kings are thirteen and Aces can be either one or fourteen) ... it totals 35! Either Tomas has influenced the game (which seems impossible given how free and fair the dealing process was) or the participant was unbelievably unlucky. In turn, each participant reads the back of their rule card, which all provide a different number on which the participant would lose. Of course, all four participants lose the game. Finally, Tomas turns over his rule card and reads it aloud: “If your hand totals 37, you are the winner!” When his hand is added up, it does indeed total 37. Requirements You must first print or write on five double-blank playing cards or business cards. I will refer to these five cards as “rule cards.” Fig. 1 shows the fronts of the five cards and fig. 2 shows the backs. Instead of writing,
“Choose a dealer next to [your name]” on the first card, you could write, “Choose a dealer next to the person most likely to cheat.” People will always point to you. You also need a deck, from which you will only use 25 specific cards. Setup Stack the deck as follows from the top down (suits are not important): 6, 3, 5, 2, 4, K, 10, Q, 9, J, 7, 4, 6, 3, 5, Q, 9, J, 8, 10, 9, 6, 8, 5, 7 Place the five rule cards on top of this packet (the rule cards being stacked in order from one to five) and place the entire packet into the card box. Tomas writes the stack on the back of the card box so that he can easily reset between performances. Handling Invite four people to play against you and place a rule card in front of each participant, dealing them in order like you would in a normal card game. You will receive the fifth card (which has the number 37 on the back). The participant on your left will get the card with the number 35 written on it, and so on. Instruct each player not to turn over their cards, as they contain some player-specific rules and you don’t want it to influence their choices. Let the first player read his rule card. It says: “Choose a dealer next to Tomas.” Follow the instructions and ask the two players closest to you to decide which of the two should be the dealer. Move on to the second participant and ask him to read his card. It says: “The dealer is to deal one card to each of the players. This is the first of five rounds.” Hand the dealer the packet of twenty-five cards and assist him in dealing a card to each of the five players, just as in a normal game. At this point, you can point out the fairness of the proceedings; if the other participant opted to be the dealer, everyone would get totally different cards. Next up is the third rule: “After each round, a single player may exchange his last card for Tomas’ last.” Invite
1. Choose a dealer next to Tomas. TY POKER RULES The dealer deals one card to each of the players. This is the first of five rounds. RITY POKER RULES 1 After ea: LZ After each round, a single player may exchange his last card for jny POKER RULES Tomas' last. Each player must switch once during the game. EY POKER RULES 5 . Tomas therefore gets to keep the card he is dealt during one of the five rounds. SWEDISH PARITY POKER RULES If the total sum of your hand is 35, you lose the game. SWEDISH PARITY POKER RULES If the total sum of your hand is 43, you lose the game. "1 SWEDISH PARITY POKER RULES 2. 3. If the total sum of your hand is 3 1, you lose the game. SWEDISH PARITY POKER RULES 4. If the total sum of your hand is 39, you lose the game. SWEDISH PARITY POKER RULES If your hand totals 37, you are the winner!
any of the four players to exchange his card with yours. As per the rules, a maximum of one person can exchange his card with yours, but it is not essential that anyone changes. If a participant does exchange cards, Tomas likes to pull the participant’s rule card a little farther away from him so that he can easily remember who has switched. Deal the next round of cards, giving each player a total of two cards. Ask the fourth participant to read out his rule: “Each player must switch once during the game.” Finally, read your rule card out loud, which states: “Tomas therefore gets to keep the card he is dealt during one of the five rounds.” Decide who will switch and then continue dealing the remaining hands until each player has five cards. As the rules state, everyone must switch cards with you once during the game, and therefore on one round, nobody is allowed to switch with you. When everyone has received their five cards, ask them to look at their hands to see who the winner is. One or more players may have a hand that beats yours. Ask everyone to put their cards face down into a pile on the table and say, “As I explained, there are some player-specific rules on the backs o f each o f you r rule cards. Don’t turn them over yet; first we must address the rules. A Jack counts as eleven, a Queen counts as twelve and a K ing counts as thirteen—pretty standard stujf. But here’s where it gets interesting, you may choose whether Aces count as one or fourteen. ” There are no Aces in the setup, so the apparent freedom there is a total bluffi Ask the player on your left to turn over his rule card and to read it aloud: “If the total sum of your hand is 35, you lose the game.” This is a good time to remind the audience what has happened: the players all chose who would be the dealer, and everyone had the opportunity to swap a card with you. Plus, the rule cards have been out on the table the entire time so that you couldn’t secretly change the rules. Ask the participant to turn over one card at a time from his hand and ask everyone to help sum up the cards. There will be some suspense when he only has one card left, and he turns it up to show that the total was 35, making him lose to everyone else. Continue clockwise around the table to the next player. Ask him to read out his rule, which says: “If the total sum of your hand is 43, you lose to all other hands.” His hand adds up to 43, so he is also a loser. Tomas looks at the first two players and quips, “Well, I guess you lost to each other then!” Continue like this with the remaining two players. Their hands will always add up to 31 and 39, respectively, so they will always lose. Effectively, this is a great presentational ploy for a gambling version of being able to predict each players hand.
Finally, turn over your card and read it aloud: “Ifyour hand totals 37, you are the w in n erf Of course, your hand adds up to 37, and you are the winner! Comments The late Jack Parker, suggested a fine presentational ploy. His idea was to purchase a lottery ticket betting on the numbers that you predicted and then saying, “I am good at this—I should win the lottery/” If you think of the stack as five sets of five cards (i.e., cards 1 - 5, 6 - 10, 11-15, and so on), each group can be moved between two other groups, but the cards cannot be moved around within a group. Originally, Tomas put the stack on top of an ordinary deck (and false shuffled the deck before playing the game), but decided that it was better if the trick appeared to be a special game that came in a special box. Now, his presentation is the complete opposite: not a single card is moved from its place after the spectators decide who the dealer is or make their other choices. He also looks at the players, pretends to read their personalities and then moves any five-card group to between any other two five-card groups, so no shuffling, but a deliberate and open displacement, making it seem like he is setting the stack to fit the players. Also, it looks interesting to not bring out a whole deck, and this also makes it obvious that the game is designed for exactly five players. It should have a different back design and box from what you normally use, so it looks like a game box. If you only want to predict your hand, any of the five players can be the dealer. Even before the dealer is chosen, you know that you will always get 37. Interestingly, as soon as you know who the dealer is, you immediately know what the other four hands will total, so you could have three extra predictions covering those cases if you want a totally free selection of dealer. You, of course, play the hand summing up to 37 in the chart below, where hand 5 is the dealer: You play hand 1: 37 35 43 31 39 You play hand 2: 44 37 40 28 36 You play hand 3: 45 34 37 30 38 You play hand 4: 43 31 39 37 35 You play hand 5: 45 33 41 29 37 In the chart, you see that if you play hand 1 (right after the dealer) or hand 4 (right before the dealer), the same exact sums of hands are formed in exactly the same order. That is no accident, but the result of a lot of calculations. Tomas believes that letting the other players choose a dealer next to you is random enough and
Credits Astute readers will notice that this is a force matrix hidden within a packet of cards. Ihis means that you can use the usual algorithms to design specific force values that will suit any specific presentation you need. You can, therefore, also change the number of players and number of cards in each hand using the standard forcematrix mathematics. However, we believe that an important new discovery is used here; that is, not just one number is forced with a single force matrix, but several at the same time. It was Tom Stones idea to have rule cards where you eventually have a special rule to show that you are the winner. Tomas was previously twisting the effect at the end to show that the participants weren’t really playing poker; they were playing blackjack, and Tomas’ hand always added up to twenty-one.
SIMPL= While not a trick, Tomas background in mathematics often leads him to weird and wonderful cons. This one involves a specially made die and an apparent evenmoney bet that you almost always win! Con Tomas introduces a strange die with four cards printed on each side (fig. 1). He explains that both he and the participant will name a suit, and then the die will be rolled. Whoever has the highest value card that matches the suit facing upward wins the game. Even though everything seems random, Tomas wins almost all of the time. Requirements You need to make a cube with four cards printed on each side. Specifically, the cards should be printed as follows (each side with two rows of two cards on them): Side one: Five of Hearts, Ace of Clubs, Seven of Spades, Eight of Diamonds Side two: Two of Clubs, Eight of Spades, Nine of Diamonds, Three of Hearts Side three: Four of Spades, Queen of Hearts, Jack of Clubs, Six of Diamonds Side four: Six of Clubs, Five of Diamonds, Jack of Spades, Ten of Hearts Side five: Ten of Diamonds, Ace of Hearts, Three of Spades, Queen of Clubs Side six: Four of Clubs, King of Spades, Seven of Hearts, Two of Diamonds
Tomas made his die by scanning four cards onto glossy paper and then sticking them onto a casino die. Finally, he lightly sanded down the edges of the die to prevent any corners from ripping when the die is thrown. Handling Bring out the die and explain the simple rules: you each name a different suit, and then one of you rolls the die. Whoever has the highest valued card facing upward is the winner. Aces act as one. Start by going first and naming Spades. This gives you an 11/18 chance of winning. On the second round, make it fairer by letting the mark pick his suit first. The rule to follow to ensure that you win is to simply name the next suit along in CHaSeD sequence (Clubs, Hearts, Spades, Diamonds). To add variation, you may alternatively name Hearts if he chooses Diamonds or Spades if he chooses Clubs. This variation is at least as good as a fair game, and at best you win 2/3 of the time. At some point the mark will probably have lost on an Ace and will be a little annoyed that Aces aren’t high. Therefore, for the next round you can let him choose. Let him choose a suit before you. When you have chosen a suit according to the given rules, offer him the choice of whether Aces should count as 1 or 14 before the die is thrown. Repeat the game until he gets tired of losing! The big secret of the game is to make it fairer and fairer and not to give him all the choices at once. Comments The odds are heavily in your favour. If the mark goes first: Suit chosen by mark Your probability (Aces low) Your probability (Aces high) Clubs 5/6 5/6 Hearts 5/6 2/3 Spades 2/3 2/3 Diamonds 2/3 5/6
The probability does, however, change if the mark wants you to go first: Suit chosen by y o u Your probability (Aces low) Your probability (Aces high) Clubs 7/18* 1/2 Hearts 1/2 11/18 Spades 11/18 1/2 Diamonds 1/2 7/18** * This is the worst choice, as the probability says to never start with Clubs if you go first and Aces are low. ** This is also a bad choice. If you do not know in advance if Aces are low or high, you see from this table that you should avoid both Clubs and Diamonds. In other words, name Hearts or Spades. To summarise: always pick the next suit in the sequence CHaSeD. If you need to vary it a little, to avoid repetition, you can choose Hearts over Diamonds or Spades over Clubs. If you decide first, the best odds are for you to choose Spades or Hearts. And, only let the mark decide if the Ace should be high after you have both chosen suits.
BAR Give a devious mathematician enough time and he will most certainly create several ways to scam you out o f your earnings. Here, I present three o f Tomas’ original bar bets. FOUR READS Con Tomas explains the proposition: he will flip a normal coin four times, and it will show heads every single time. He offers to bet you even money that this is true. Science Before you bring the money out, you can truthfully answer any questions the mark has. Most often the questions are: “Is it an ordinary coin?” “Does it have two heads?” and “Can / flip it?” and you can truthfully answer all these questions before he takes the bet as long as he promises to toss fairly, should he want to do the flipping. So far nobody has been able to see through the scam, even when all their questions have been answered. The solution is based on an old horse racing pundit scam: Tomas removes fifteen coins from his pocket and tosses them all into the air at the same time. He picks up all the coins that show heads and discards the rest. He repeats this three more times; there is more than a 60% chance of at least one coin showing heads all four times. With ten coins, you have a 48% chance of winning, and with eleven coins, you have 51%. Tomas first assumed that if he started with eight coins, about four would show heads; then when those are flipped, about two would show heads. The next flip with those two coins, about one coin would show heads, giving a 50% possibility of getting heads on the last flip. However, after writing a computer simulator and running it millions of times, Tomas found that he needs more than ten coins to put the bet in his favour.
W O-UPPED Con Invite someone to take out two coins and to flip them. If one or more of the coins lands heads up, they are invited to flip it once more. If any of those coins are heads again, you offer to pay them even money. Science This bet sounds very fair, especially after you explain that often both coins will show heads after the first flip, which would give them a really high chance of getting at least one head on the next throw. However, the real odds are that they will end on at least one head only 43.75% of the time, putting the game in your favour. These odds are calculated by the fact that there are four possibilities after the first throw (tails/tails, tails/heads, heads/tails and heads/heads). Therefore, exactly 50% of the time he will get one head, and on the next throw, the possibility of getting a head is also 50%. On the first throw, he has a 25% chance of getting two heads, and on the next throw he has a stunning 3/4 probability of getting at least one head. Sum up these winning stages and you get 1/2 x 1/2 + 1/4 x 3/4 = 7/16. That means that he only wins 43.75% of the time instead of the expected 50%. Comments This scam is based on a game called Two-Up that Tomas’ wife played in Australia. The game has a rod with two slots for coins, which you use for tossing the coins. This scam would fit well within a presentation of that game.
BETWEEN THE CHERTS Con Tomas offers an extremely fair bet: the mark shuffles the deck and is invited to name any value in the deck (say, an Ace). Tomas also names a value (say, a Three). Tomas explains the rules: they will look for where Tomas’ value and the mark’s value lie closest in the deck. For each of the cards between them, Tomas offers to pay one dollar. The cards could actually be as far as forty-four cards apart in the deck, which would mean that the mark would win $44. The only requirements are that the mark has to pay two dollars each time he wants to play the game and that the two named values cannot be the same. The mark is invited to play as often as he would like. He can even go second in selecting a value in case he thinks that it’s an advantage to choose second. Tomas even lets him choose both numbers ... the odds are still against the mark! To keep the game going, Tomas allows the mark to use just six cards instead of using eight key cards (the two sets of four-of-a-kind). Therefore, the participant reverses any six cards and shuffles the deck himself. The game is played again and Tomas still has the edge. Science Tomas’ computer simulations show that there will be an average of 1.12 cards between any two different values, which means that you end up giving the mark back an average of $1.12 in each game. With a cost of two dollars a game, this means that the game is always in your favour. In the second version of the game, there are 1.3 cards between the closest reversed cards on an average.
This is not a magic trick, but a game that Tomas created for the sole purpose o f cheating his friends. It is based on an old con version o f the game NIM called “The Game o f31. ” The object o f that game is to reach 31 before all o f the other players. The con game presented here has few er cards, quicker plays and seven scam phases! Con Tomas makes four face-up piles of cards. The first pile consists of the four Aces, the second the four Twos and then the four Threes and four Fours. He displays a rule card (as shown below) that explains that each player must take turns removing a card from the top of one of the piles. The total of the removed cards is added up, and the first person to bring the total to 22 wins. A player going over 22 automatically loses. Tomas repeats this a number of times and wins every single time. Even when he teaches the participant his winning strategies, Fomas still goes on to win. Requirements Print a rule card as follows: GRME OF 22: BLOCK JOCK ONE-UPPEC 1. Use the Aces, Twos, Threes and Fours from a normal deck for a total of sixteen cards in four piles— four cards in each pile. 2. fake turns, each time taking a card from the top of one of the four piles. Keep a running count, adding the values of all cards picked by both players (Ace counts as one). 3. Ihe first player to reach 22 wins. You cannot skip a turn, and if a player is forced over 22, they lose.
Science Make four face-up piles of cards: the four Aces, four Twos, four Threes and four Fours. These are the only cards used in the game. You will take turns removing a card from any of the packets, adding the value of the card to a running total. The aim of the game is to be the person who adds the combined total up to 22. Remove the rule card and explain this to your mark (the game can only be played with two players: you and an opponent). Phase 1 Ask the mark to take his turn first. Your strategy for winning is surprisingly easy. In order to win, you must only choose cards that make the combined total add up to the number 2, or 2 + any multiple of 5 (i.e., 7, 12, 17 or 22). For example, if the participant started by taking an Ace, you need to take an Ace, too (totalling two). If he took a Three, on the next round the total would be five, meaning that you would need to take a Two so that the total goes up to seven. Here is a full example of how a round of the game could be played: Player Card picked Total count Mark 4 4 You 3 7 Mark 2 9 You 3 12 Mark 1 13 You 4 17 Mark 1 18 You 4 22 (winner!) An aside: after your first move, you can simply mirror the participants previous turn. So, if he picks a 1, you need to pick a 4 (and vice versa). If he picks a 2, you need to pick a 3 (or vice versa). This will automatically make the total add up to your target numbers. At the end of each phase, replace the cards back into their original piles.
This time you must make the first move. In order to win, you must start by picking a Two. You can then reach all of the target numbers (2, 7, 12, 17 or 22). An example round could be played out as follows: Player Card picked Total count You 2 2 Mark 3 5 You 2 7 Mark 1 8 You 4 12 Mark 4 16 You 1 17 Mark 3 20 You 2 22 (winner!) Phase 3 At this point you admit to the secret to winning. “It is easy; there is a simple m athem atical rule that allows me to win every single time. The rule is that every tim e I pick a card, I must ensure that it makes the total o f the packet a 2, or 2 plus any m ultiple o f 5. So I always ensure that after my turn, the total is 2, 7, 12, 17 or 22, and then I win every single timeT Turn over the rule card to show the mark that the target numbers are written on the back for easy reference. Allow the mark to play against you and explain, “ When playing by these rules, i f the person who goes first picks a Two, they w ill always win." This line will throw the mark off the scent in the final phase, where you will pick something other than a Two. Allow the participant to win against you a few times using the numbers on the back of the rule card as a reference. When resetting the packets after the final round, secretly put an Ace on the bottom of the Four pile and a Four on the bottom of the Ace pile. This is to prepare for the fifth phase.
The mark knows that he should start by picking up a Two and thus should be encouraged to do so. In order to win, you must simply pick a Three for each of your turns. He will pick a Two each time to abide by the rules that he learned in the last phase, and therefore you will end with a count of 20. This ploy uses up all the Threes and Twos, leaving just the Aces and Fours. This puts you in a situation where you will always win, as the mark is forced to make one of two losing moves: 1. Pick a Four (putting him over 22) 2. Pick an Ace, allowing you to take an Ace on your next turn so that you get 22 and win. During this phase, be careful that you do not flash the Four that is secretly below the Aces. When you reassemble the four piles, secretly position the Four second from the top of the Ace pile. Assuming the participant took the Ace option at the end of this phase, the easiest way to position the Four is to place the two Aces that were used in play at the bottom of the pile. If the mark decided to bust himself with a Four, move two Aces from the top to the bottom of its pile as you assemble the cards. The end result is that you have a Four secretly below the top Ace. There is also an Ace at the bottom of the Four packet, left from the previous phase. Phase 5 Let the mark try the trick on you from the previous phase. That means you must start by taking a Two, and then he takes a Three, and so on, until you get to the count of 20. Here’s where things get nasty. You must now take an Ace, revealing the Four that was underneath it. This means that the mark’s only option is to take a Four, as both packets have a Four on top! This will make him go bust (with a total of 25), and you will win again. At this point the mark will almost certainly complain, as the game has been played with all packets having matching values. Invite him to turn over the rule card and to re-read the rules. They state that the players must take a card from the top of one of the four piles. The rules do not state that the piles must all contain cards of the same value; this was just implied by you doing that in the beginning of the game, when you formed the piles.
Player Card picked Total count You 2 2 Mark 3 5 You 2 7 Mark 3 10 You 2 12 Mark 3 15 You 2 17 Mark 3 20 You 1 21 Mark 4 25 (lose!) Phase 6 Openly place the Four second from the top of the Ace packet and allow the mark to try the “double scam” from the previous phase on you. He will start by picking a Two and will expect you to pick all the Threes, so that he can scam you the same way that you scammed him in the previous phase. However, that’s why you change your tactics! Instead, pick a Four and follow this simple rule: when you can’t reach a target, pick a Four from the Four pile, and you will always win. Interestingly, this same rule works even if he starts with any other card than a Two. An example play is on the next page.
Player Card picked Total count Mark 2 2 You 4 6 Mark 1 7 You 4 11 Mark 3 14 You 3 17 Mark 4 21 You 1 22 (winner!) Phase 7 This is the fairest phase of them all. This time allow the participant to gather up the piles so that he can ensure that each pile has the correct values (all Aces, all Twos, all Threes and all Fours in their own packets). You will go first, and as you have already taught the participant all the rules, claim that there isn’t really any chance of you winning the game. Remind him that if you were to start with a Two, he could use the trick to exhaust the Twos and Threes (and as there is no Four under the top Ace, you can’t use that sneaky trick either). And, of course, if you pick any of the other numbers, he can use the target number methods from the early phases of the game to beat you every time. With all of that explained, the participant will surely agree that he has to beat you. But he won’t; you will win once again! The trick here is that you start with an Ace, and then use the same rule as in the previous phase: try to reach a target, but if you can’t, take a Four. If he is playing correctly, the mark will always try to go for one of the target numbers, meaning that you will need to pick a Four most of the time. But if at any time he decides not to go for a target number, you can reach a target on your turn and play it to the end of the game (and thus win).
Player Card picked Total count You 1 1 Mark 1 2 You 4 6 Mark 1 7 You 4 11 Mark 1 12 You 4 16 Mark 3 19 You 3 22 (winner!) Comments In the first phase, it isn’t vital that you total the packet to 2 or 7, because the player won’t know the strategy. This allows the game to look a little more random and avoids the risk of running out of Aces and Twos. The mark could actually use the procedure from the seventh phase against you when playing the first phase. This has never happened to Tomas, because the mark would either need to be very lucky or need to know a lot about the mathematics of the game to play this optimal strategy. Credits Tomas’ wife, Rina, created the final phase (which she calls the Snow White Phase, as it is the fairest of them all!). Rina is Australian, and the game is based on an Australian card game; therefore it is only right that she has the final say!
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the brain. ” Rina Blomberg