How it looks to the audience
The magician counts two equal piles of cards on the table. He then takes an odd card and asks the spectator which pile they would like to add it to. With a mysterious wave of his hand, he makes the strange card jump from one pile to another!
how to do the trick
This is a very effective trick and it all depends on the suggestion and the way the cards are counted.
STEP ONE
Ask the spectator to place both hands flat on the table, as if playing a piano.
Take two cards from the deck and hold one in each hand, face down.
Say ‘Two cards, one pair, always pairs’ and place the two cards between the little and ring fingers of the spectator’s left hand. The spectator clips them between those fingers, so the cards are held vertically.
Take two more cards from the deck and hold one in each hand, face down, and again say ‘Two cards, one pair, always pairs’. This time place the two cards between the third and second fingers of the spectator’s left hand.
Continue placing two cards between all of your fingers (including your thumb and index finger) until you reach the fourth and fifth fingers of your right hand. Then take a card and say ‘one card, always odd’. Place the card between the fourth and fifth fingers of your right hand.
SECOND STEP
Remove the first pair of cards and place them side by side on the table, saying ‘Two cards, one pair, always pairs’. Keep doing this until you get to the single card. The position at this stage is that you have two stacks of cards on the table.
Hold up the single card and say ‘one card, always odd’.
Ask the spectator which pile they would like you to put the odd card on, and then do so.
STEP THREE
Tell the spectator that you will make the odd card jump from one pile to another. Move the cards with your hand and take them from the pile to which the odd card was added and recount them in pairs (saying ‘Two cards, one pair, always even’). The stack will come out even with no odd card remaining.
Take the other stack and count them in pairs. After all the cards are dealt, you will be left with an odd card. The strange card has apparently popped out!
AN ADDITIONAL EXPLANATION
There are seven pairs of cards and when dealt into two piles there are seven cards in each pile. So each stack is odd to begin with. However, by saying ‘two cards, one pair, always pair’ all the time, you are suggesting to the viewer that every deck is even.
When you add the unique card to either stack, it will be matched, so the trick works on its own.