Lucky Card 🍀🃏

This is a fun alternative presentation for Jim Steinmeyer’s classic self-working card trick, “The Nine Card Problem”.

JUMP AHEAD

On This Page

Effect
Background & Credits
Requirements & Preparation
Method & Presentation
Performance Tips & Additional Ideas
Afterthoughts

Effect

The magician offers to perform a “good luck ritual” for a member of the audience. A participant chooses one of nine cards, which becomes their “lucky card”. The cards are then randomly shuffled using a “magic spell”. 

The magician explains that if the participant can locate their lucky card, they will experience good fortune for the rest of the month. However, if they fail, they will suffer bad luck for seven years!

Fortunately, the participant locates their lucky card using another “magic spell” and thus enjoys a month of good fortune rather than seven years of bad luck!

Background & Credits

This is an alternative presentation for “The Nine Card Problem” by Jim Steinmeyer, first published in MAGIC Magazine (May 1993, page 56). The trick was reprinted in Jim’s book Impuzzibilities in 2002. 

Requirements & Preparation

All you need is a regular deck of playing cards.

Method & Presentation

Give the cards to Elodie and ask her to thoroughly shuffle them. Have her cut the deck and complete the cut.

Take back the pack and then deal one card for each letter in the phrase “LUCKY CARD” into a single pile on the table. This will allow you to deal out nine cards without drawing any attention to the exact number of cards being used (this is an idea from “Pure Magic” by Larry Hass). It may seem like a small detail, but avoiding the use of numbers helps conceal the mathematical nature of “The Nine Card Problem”.

After you’ve dealt out the nine cards by spelling the phrase “LUCKY CARD”, instruct Elodie to shuffle the packet. Then, say, “Seven is considered the luckiest one-digit number. Deal seven cards to the table, look at the top card of the pile, remember it and replace it on top. This is your lucky card. Now drop any cards remaining in your hand on top of the pile.” This nicely justifies why you’re asking your participant to think of a card in a specific location in the packet. However, it also subtly positions the thought-of card third from the top of the packet, exactly where it needs to be when using Jim’s original handling for “The Nine Card Problem”. 

Start by saying, “We will use a magic spell to mix the cards. But not the kind of spell a wizard or witch might cast.” Next, ask your participant to silently spell the value of their chosen card, dealing one card to the table for each letter in the word. The remaining cards are dropped on top of the pile on the table. Then say, “Every playing card has the same middle name, ‘of’! Please spell the word ‘of’ in the same way.”

Once your participant has done this, get them to spell the suit (Clubs, Hearts, Spades or Diamonds) of their card in the same fashion. Remeber, any cards remaining in the participant’s card after the deal are dropped on top of the pile.

Thanks to the subtle mathematical principle behind “The Nine Card Problem”, your helper’s “lucky card” will always end up fifth from the top of the pile.

Explain to Elodie that if she can locate her lucky card, she will enjoy a month of good luck. However, she’ll experience seven years of bad luck if she fails! Tell her the best way to find her lucky card is to use another magic spell. 

Finally, instruct your volunteer to pick up the pile and spell the word “LUCKY”, again dealing one card to the table for each letter of the word. Turn to Elodie and say, “Do you feel lucky today?” Slowly turn the last card dealt face up to reveal Elodie’s lucky card.

Performance Tips & Additional Ideas

The line about seven years of bad luck provides a humorous hook despite being an obvious exaggeration. The notion of seven years of bad luck is a common superstition in the UK. If you break a mirror, it is believed that you will suffer from bad luck for seven years. This idea is believed to have originated with the Romans. You could also incorporate other popular superstitions into your trick’s script to make it more engaging.

To make the selection of the “lucky card” more random, you can ask your participant to roll a die. After they have done this, instruct them to add the spots on the top and bottom of the dice together to arrive at a number. The opposite sides of a regular die always add up to seven, so the resulting number will always be seven. If a participant rolls a three, fan the cards and have them think of the card third from the left, as per Jim's original description of the trick.

You can try a different approach if you don’t want to use the mathematical method to get the number seven. You will need two dice and a dice cup that you cannot see through. Drop the dice into the cup and shake it. Look into the cup and declare that the total of the two dice is seven, even if it is not. If the two dice do actually total seven, you can show them to your participant. Finally, a more convincing force could be achieved with a Sure Shot Dice Box to force the number seven (or the number three).

Afterthoughts

Presenting “The Nine Card Problem” as a “good luck ritual” is an effective way to direct attention away from the mathematical nature of the method. The theme justifies the selection process and the use of the word “LUCKY” to locate the participant’s thought-of playing card.

If you don’t want to discuss luck, you can explore the concept of numerology instead. In the base-ten counting system, the number nine is the final single-digit number and symbolises the end of a cycle. It was called the “finishing post” by ancient mathematical philosophers and “the Horizon” by the ancient Greeks. The number is unsurpassable and represents the utmost limit of what we can discover and express within our human experience.