by John R. Shackelford

Ok at first I thought I had a brilliant Idea for this. Which was I'd find out the top ten cards people would say if you asked. so there would be these ten card in pocket and some nifty slieght of hand and shazzam you have done a miracle. Well I soon learned that there is no documentation of the top ten cards people name theres more along the lines of top two Ace of Spades and Queen of hearts of course but not ten. Now heres why I choose ten Its safe and if one of those ten cards isnt named oh well move on to a different trick and comeback to the cards on the table. I decided I wanted a foolproof method that didnt Relie on popularity. So Heres my solution.

Effect - I pair of kings is introduced and placed face down on the table the deck is put back in its case. The spectator is asked to think of a card they do The magician asks them to name the card its the four of hearts. The magician spreads the kings to reveal a third mystery card it is infact the named card.

Materials and Prep - You will need two decks of cards that match and a can of Duro all-purpose Spray Adhesive. So all together your costs for this Miracle is Under ten bucks and can all be bought at wal mart the spray adhesive is 4 dollars roughly and is found in the paint and hard ware section at my walmart. Ahh and you will also need a medium sized piece of card board along with a knife.Take one of the decks and remove all four kings pick either the red or black kings and place them aside take one of the non selected kings and lay it face up on a table. cut a rectangle about two inches tall and an inch wide out of the cardboard. Place the rectangle in the middle of the card. now take the spray adhesive and shake thourghly hold 8 inches away from cardboard and spray over the rectangle allow five minutes to dry and your set with your gimmick. If you mess up you have another king to fall back on.

Now place the sticky king on face down on the table the rest of the deck with your two put aside kings lost in the pack goes face down on top of that. Your almost their.

Now if you really wanted to you could use just one deck and already have the kings in play but I like the aspect of having two decks.

Finally take your second deck and make four piles one pile hearts one clubs and so on. place each of these piles in a different pocket. perhaps use CHaSeD to remember the order. You will also have to remember the order of each pack. Oh before sticking them in your pockets remove all the kings and jokers and extra cards. Your set!

Performance - Take out your deck spread them facing you to find the kings in doing so get all three kings the sticky one goes on bottom followed by the pair of kings you choose earlier. So ok two kings and place them face down on the table. The sticky card is sticking to the table right now. put away the rest of the deck.Ask the spectator to think of any card. Name it now in this case the four of hearts hearts would be in my left back pocket with the order going ace to queen with the ace touching my butt.I would put my hand there using spreading the card as misdirection and get the four into palm. Pick up the three cards and place them into your left hand and press. The gimmick card is now sticking to the selection. Now take the top king an put it on bottom flip the packet face up and spread on the table showing the selected card.

Note - Sorry I didnt mention this a second ago but in performance you do request that since you are using kings in the trick not to think of a king.