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Self-Working Card Tricks

Key Card Card Find

Setup: None

Performance:

Have a spectator shuffle the deck
Have the spectator pick a card. When they have it, extend your hand to them and turn your head (misdirection) and tell them to memorize it, and show the other spectators, if there are any. Peek at the bottom card in your deck, while you turn away
Place the deck on the table, and tell them to place their card on top. Then, perform a few quick cuts of the deck to "mix it in". Your key card is now on top of theirs
Continue to hold the deck face down. Tell them that you are going to start dealing cards from the top, and they should watch for their card. Tell them if they see their card, they should try not to react at all
Deal from the top, turning over cards, until you see the key card. Keep dealing 2 or 3 more cards as if nothing happened
Hold the next card, and ask them, "Would it be amazing if the next card that I turned over was your card?", when they say yes, take their card from the pile - which is the card you dealt after the key card - and turn it over

Nine Card Card Find

Setup: (Optional: Have a sensible 4 or 5 letter word in mind, tied to the situation, i.e., the person's name)

Performance:

Ask a spectator to pick a random card, and place it face-up
Take nine random cards from the deck
Deal them into three piles of three, spaced so that each can be seen face-down
Ask a spectator to pick a card. Pick up the other two piles when they are looking at their card. When they hand you their card, place it on the bottom of the last pile of 2 cards, and place that pile on top of the other cards, so that their chosen card is third from the top
Deal the cards by spelling out the card picked in step 1 as follows - For each word (e.g., "ace" in "ace of spades"), deal a card for each letter. When finished with the word, place the remaining cards on top of the ones dealt. Then, count out 5 more, and the 5th card will always be their card

Flip Deck Card Find

Setup: Take three cards, and turn them around face-down at the bottom of the deck

Performance:

Flip the deck over so that 49 of the cards are face down. Get a spectator to pick a card. While they are looking at it, flip the deck in your hand
Place the card back into the center of the deck
Show first card face up (not their card), second card face up (not their card), then push over a clump of cards to show that they have all turned face up, except for the chosen card

Four Sevens

Setup: Get all four 7s from the deck. Put one on top of the deck (position 1), one at position 7, and then put the other two 7s at positions 7 and 8 from the bottom.

Performance:

Nonchalantly rifle through the deck, and pick out the 7th card, which will be your "prediction card"
Turn the deck over, and start placing down cards face-up. Make sure you are past the two loaded 7s, and then ask someone to tell you when to stop
When they tell you to stop, place the remainder of the deck face down. Then turn over the face-up counted pile, and place it face-down as well
Ask them to pick a deck. If they pick the original deck, turn over the top card as your "index" card. If they pick the other, do the same, but that will be your "counting deck". The top card will be the 7 placed on top of the deck at the start. Count 7 cards, and turn over the 7. Then proceed to reveal that the next card is a 7, and the prediction card is a 7.

Variation 1: Use a 4, 5, and 6 instead of the three other 7's. Place the 6 at the "prediction card" spot. Place the 4 and 5 at the 7th and 8th positions from the bottom, respectively. "If that is a 4, and this is a 5, then this must be a 6 - 4, 5, 6, 7"

Aces and Kings

Setup: Put the four kings on top of the deck. Remove the aces from the deck

Performance:

(Optional: False shuffle the deck, preserving the top four cards)
Deal the top four cards into four piles, and give your spectator 4 aces
Deal cards into each pile, telling the spectator to tell you when to stop for each, and place an ace face-up on top of the pile
When all aces are on top of the piles, combine them into one pile by placing them on top of each other
Cut the deck once, trying to get a face-down card on top
Fan the face-down deck out on the table (bottom to top), and reveal that each of the aces now has a king to its right

Thirteen Card Find

Setup: None

Performance:

Deal the entire deck into piles, aiming for the value 13. The first card you deal will determine where you start the count. If it is a king, deal no extra cards. If it is an ace, deal 12 extra cards. If it is a 5, deal 8 more cards. Etc. When you do not have enough to make another pile, put the remaining cards to the side
Select three piles, preferably none of which just have one or two cards. Gather up the other piles, plus the extras from step 1 into a single deck
Deal 10 cards (you can say 13 minus 3 piles is 10). Have a spectator turn over the top card of two of the piles. Deal the number of cards equal to their values, e.g., a 5 and a 7 would deal another 12 cards
Reveal that the number of cards that you have left is the value of the last face-down pile's top card

Natural Stripper Deck

Setup: Take out all the asymmetrical cards in the deck - cards which have more suit icons facing up in one orientation/weighted to one side of the face - 3 (all except the diamond) of the aces, 3s, 5s, 6s, 8s, 9s, and all four 7s. (Optional: You can also add one face card). Turn all cards so that the majority of their icons are right side up/at the top of the card

Performance:

Shuffle the cards, preserving their orientation
Have your spectator pick a card, and memorize it. Turn the deck in your hands one time naturally in your hands as they look
When they place the card back in, make sure to pinch the deck so that it does not go all the way in. If they have turned the orientation of the card, you will need to turn it when you square the deck (Tip: To keep track, always turn the deck in your hand. When they choose a card, imagine the bottom of the card is glowing blue. You need that glowing blue end to be at the bottom when they replace the card in the deck)
Shuffle and cut the deck, again preserving the cards' orientation
Fan out the cards on the table, and make a show of looking for it. You are looking for the card with a mismatched orientation. (If you chose to add an optional face card, if all the cards are the same orientation, they chose the face card). Reveal their card

Variation 1: Do this trick on the fly by "randomly" grabbing and orienting about 10 cards

Bill Simon's Prophecy Move Sorted Deck

Setup: Have a deck in new deck order

Performance:

Have a spectator pick a card. When they pick one, ask if they are sure, holding the two parts of the deck above and below their selection in each hand. When you bring the deck together, reverse the top and bottom. Now the card above their selection is on the bottom of the deck, and the card below their selection is on the top
Ask them to insert the card into the deck anywhere they want to. They will (most likely) assume that it will need to be put in face-down. Tell them that it needs to be face-up, performing the Bill Simon's prophecy move. If they place it in face-up, you can switch it to be face-down
Reveal that they placed the card exactly where it was to begin

Card Tricks that May Fail (But Usually Don't)

Face Card Card Find

Setup: Get all the face cards, and place them at the top of the deck. Remember the topmost card as a key card. Make sure you tell your spectator what a riffle shuffle is

Performance:

Deal the top 12 cards (without counting them), and give them a shuffle, controlling your key card to remain as the top card. Then, begin dealing them face-down, starting with the top card, and ask your spectator to stop you whenever they want to
When they have picked a stopping card, ask them to memorize it, and place the rest of the deck face-down on the table. Tell them to put their choice on top of the deck face-down when they are done, and then place the face cards face-down on top. Your key card will be over their selection
Ask them to riffle shuffle the deck. Ask them to do it again. This is mixing the face cards throughout the deck so that it looks less suspicious
Turn over the cards, and fan them out bottom-first on the table, and make a show of discarding various segments of the deck until you find their card, which will (most likely) be the first face card to the right of the key card

Failure case: When the second shuffle puts a face card between your key card and their card. You will know this may have happened if you get 3 face cards in a row, one of which is your key card

To avoid failure completely: Only allow them to riffle shuffle one time. If you do this, you may have to use a less conspicuous set of cards than the face cards for your selected cards

Math & Number Tricks

1 to 9

Setup: None

Performance:

Write down 123456789 on a piece of paper
Tell your spectator to tell you a number 1 through 9
When they tell you, "think" for a second, and tell them to multiply the number on the paper by (9 * their number), but just say the number, i.e., 45
The number will be a nearly perfect repeating value of the number they chose

Big Number Digit Guess

Setup: None

Performance:

Tell your spectator to multiply single digit numbers together until they get a number between a few million and a few billion, more or less - e.g., 8 * 4 * 3 ...
Tell them to choose one digit from their number as their secret number, and tell you the other digits
Add the numbers they tell you, and subtract them from the next highest multiple of 9. This will be their digit, assuming their number has 9 as a factor - which it will if they ever multiplied 3 more than once, or 3 and 6, or 9 at least once. If there is no remainder, their number could also be either 0 or 9
Tell them to try to send their number to you. If you had no remainder, you can say, "I feel like you're sending emptiness toward me, are you sending nothing to me, something that seems like nothing?", and depending on their response, guess 9 or 0