Card "Trick"

[Mike Haven]

here is an amazing "trick" that you can play on people during breaks in the game

ask for a volunteer and explain that you are going to shuffle up and deal one card at a time, at a steady pace, face up in a pile

as you deal, your volunteer has to secretly choose one of the first ten cards as his first card and he will start secretly and silently counting from that card until the last card possible is dealt - let's say his first chosen card was the seventh card dealt and it was a four, he would count the next four cards 1,2,3,4 - let's say that fourth card hit was a six, he would count the next six cards 1,2,3,4,5,6 - and so on

if that sixth card hit was a J, Q or K it has to be regarded as a ten for onward counting purposes - an A is to be regarded as a 1

the last card possible obviously has to be in the last ten cards of the deck - say if the 46th card was hit and it was an 8 then that would be the last card possible

your job is to tell the audience what the last card hit was

if you guessed, you would be right only 10% of the time

knowing the "trick" you will be correct 70% of the time!

in case bruce wants to work out the method to use to increase your chances so dramatically (and i have giving the entire scenario) i will post it in the next box

[Mike Haven]

this is what you do:

as you deal out the cards, do exactly what you ask your volunteer to do!

(with one proviso - when you are choosing your first card try to choose a low numbered card in about the first five dealt)

when you reach your last possible card that will be your guess of his last card

the mathematical probability when you do this increases from the random 1 in 10 guess to your being correct 7 times out of 10!

(use two decks shuffled together and you will be correct an amazing 90% of the time)

there has to be a bet there somewhere