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Three Easy Ways to Force a Card-- Without Anyone Knowing!

Forcing a card is easy. The first step is locating a card. I always say something like, "Let's make sure that there's no Jokers..." and as I look for the Jokers, I cut the card to the bottom. Or, I shuffle the cards normally, glimpse the bottom card, and then force it-- I know what card they will pick before they pick it!

So, once the card is on the bottom or top, how do I force it? Use one of these methods:

- Criss-Cut Force
- Turn-Over Force
- "Deal Down" Force
- "Overkill" Force

The Criss-Cut Force

With the card on top of the deck, have a spectator cut the cards and leave the cut-off portion to the left of the pack. Take the remaining cards on the right and place them on top of the portion to the left, forming an plus sign with the packets. Slide the first card of the second portion on to the table face down for the spectator to look at. Look at the diagram below. This is what it should look like after the cards are cut and the remaining cards are placed on top of the cut-off portion offset. The "X" indicates the card that you should tell the spectator is the card that they freely selected.

The Turn-Over Force

 Acknowledgements: "Mark Wilson's Encyclopedia of Magic: 'The Riffle-Down Force'"

Have the card you wish to force on the top of the deck. Instruct the spectator to cut a small packet of cards from the top, flip it over and place it back on top of the deck. Tell them to dig deeper, cut the packet from the deck, flip it over and return it to the deck. Tell them that they should cut almost the whole deck, flip it over, and place it back on the remaining cards. Tell them that the deepest possible cut is the whole deck and turn the whole deck over. Hand the deck to the spectator and tell them to find the FIRST face down card. This will be the spectator's card. If the force was done correctly, there should be a lot of face up cards before this face down card. This face down is the original top card!

The "Deal-Down" Force

With the card you wish to force on the top of the deck, hand the cards to a spectator. Tell them to deal down the cards-- ONE BY ONE-- and whenever they want to stop, they may stop dealing. When they are done, pick up the packet they just dealt down and show them the bottom of the pack. Tell them that this is the card they chose. That card will always be the original top card!

The "Overkill" Force

Acknowledgements: From Paul Harris' "Overkill" Routine (can also be found in Michael Ammar's Easy to Master Card Magic, Volume Two)

Have the card you want to force twenty-one cards from the top (that is, there should be twenty cards, the card you want to force, and then the rest of the deck).  Have the spectator randomly cut a SMALL packet from the top of the deck (1-20 cards).  As they count the number of cards, deal twenty cards from the top of the deck from RIGHT to LEFT.  Tell them that you are going to count the cards out loud and when they hear their number, to memorize that card (If they cut eight cards, for example, they are to memorize the eighth card shown).  Count the cards from LEFT to RIGHT (the opposite direction that you dealt them).  The card you set up twenty from the bottom will be the card they memorize. 

Harrison Greenbaum, 2001, "Harrison's Magic Website!" (http://devoted.to/magic and http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/magic)