Jokers, Jacks and Kings

This is my variation of “Weird Inn” by Herb Runge. The routine centres around a poetic puzzle first published in 1883! While the magical effect itself isn’t very strong, the entire experience becomes more puzzling and deeply entertaining when combined with the poem.

Image Credit: Canva Dream Lab/Marty's Bag of Tricks

The main limitation of this routine is that you need a decent amount of table space to perform it because you must form nine separate piles to represent the nine rooms mentioned in the riddle.

JUMP AHEAD

On This Page

Effect
Background & Credits
Requirements & Preparation
Method & Presentation
Cleanup & Reset
Performance Tips & Additional Ideas
Final Thoughts

Effect

You recite an old poem from 1883 about an innkeeper and ten weary travellers. Using two Jokers, four Jacks, and four Kings to represent the travellers, the performer demonstrates how the ten men came be lodged in nine rooms, with one guest in each room, by the clever innkeeper.

Background & Credits

The poem that inspired this routine is titled “Is It Possible?” It was first published in Harper’s Young People (Volume 4, May 15, 1883). The poem is known by several different names, including “The Innkeeper and the Travellers”, “The Weird Inn”, and “The Nine Rooms Paradox”. It was later republished in Current Literature (Volume 2, April 1889) and has appeared in various books about mathematical curiosities over the intervening years.

David Britland published an excellent card trick inspired by the paradox “The Weird Inn Revisited” in the December 2020 issue of Genii Magazine. This trick draws inspiration from “The Weird Inn”, a piece by Herb Runge featured in The Jinx (#128, 1940). However, Herb did not incorporate a magical effect into the puzzle; he merely suggested that it would serve as a good performable puzzle for magicians.

More recently, David again revisted the plot, publishing another version called “The Convention” in Cardopolis Newsletter #34. In this version, David provides a more modern presentation that does not use the poem from 1883, but does still use the nine-room paradox as the basis of the routine.

Requirements & Preparation

A deck of cards including two Jokers, which need not be identical, and sufficient table space to form nine separate piles.

Remove the two Jokers, the four Jacks and four Kings from the deck and arrange them in the following order: J-J-JC-JH-JS-JD-KC-KH-KS-KD. The Jokers should be the top two cards of the deck. While I prefer to arrange the Jacks and Kings in CHaSeD order, the specific suit order of these two four-card groups is irrelevant to the successful outcome of the trick.

Method & Presentation

Take the deck and flip the top two cards face up, displaying the two Jokers. Pull back the face-up Joker slightly with your right thumb, creating an injog. Then, flip both cards face down again on top of the deck, ensuring that the injogged card remains offset. With your palm-down right hand, reach over the deck and contact the injogged Joker with your right thumb. Pull up on the injogged card as you lift both cards off the deck. Drop the two cards to the table.

Next, flip over the four Jacks in exactly the same way, injogging the card at the face of the packet (the Jack of Diamonds in this example). Flip the Jacks face down, pull up on the injogged card, and drop the four-card packet to the table, on top of the two cards already there.

As you drop the cards to the table, say, “Two Jokers plus four Jacks equals how many cards?” Your audience should tell you that there are six cards on the table. Confirm that this is indeed the case by spreading the cards across the table with the aid of your right fingertips. Square up the cards.

Next, flip over the four Kings, revealing their faces to your audience, ensuring again that the face card of the packet is injogged. Then, flip the Kings face down again. However, when to take the cards with your right hand, push down on the injog and only lift three cards off the deck. This secretly leaves one of the Kings (the King of Diamonds, in this instance) on top of the talon.

Place the deck on the table and perform a crisp Elmsley Count to display the three cards as four. (Give each card a downward snap as you take it so your audience cand hear you count the four cards.) As you do this, say, “Here’s some more challenging arithmetic for you! What’s four plus six?” Wait for your audience to respond—ideally, they will answer “Ten!” Once they’ve responded, drop the three-card packet on top of the six cards already on the table as you say, “Yes, that’s right. Two Jokers, plus four Jacks, plus four Kings equals ten cards in total.”

This obvious line of questioning may seem redundant and unnecessary. However, it serves an important purpose; it forces your audience to agree that ten cards are in the tabled pile. The simple fact that you’re using two Jokers, four Jacks and four Kings also psychologically stresses the fact that ten cards are being used in the trick.

Still holding the packet, recite the first verse of the poem:

Ten weary, footsore travellers,
All in a woeful plight,
Sought shelter at a wayside inn
One dark and stormy night.

Turn the ten-card packet (?) face up and place it aside. Pick up the deck and cut it into nine roughly equal piles. I like to form one row of five and another row of four piles below it (the row of four is closest to me). This is how the nine piles should be arrange from the point of view of your audience:

A B C D
E F G H I

As you do this, deliver the second verse of the poem:

“Nine rooms, no more,” the landlord said
“Have I to offer you;
To each of eight a single bed,
But the ninth must serve for two.”

Pick up the ten-card packet (?) and hold it in left-hand dealer’s grip as you continue to recite the poem:

A din arose. The troubled host
Could only scratch his head,
For of those tired men not two
Would occupy one bed.

The puzzled host was soon at ease—
He was a clever man—
And so to please his guests devised
This most ingenious plan.

Thumb off the two Jokers from the face of the packet, taking the pair in your right hand as you recite the next verse:

In a room marked A two men were placed,
The third was lodged in B,
The fourth to C was then assigned,
The fifth retired to D.

Place the two Jokers back onto the packet, flipping them face down. Deal the top two cards from the packet onto the rightmost pile in the row closest to you (Pile A). Do this as you deliver the first line of the verse.

Next, flip the entire packet face down and immediatley deal the top card to the next pile in the row closest to you (Pile B). Synchronise your actions with the second line of the verse. Now deal the next card to the third pile (C) in the same row, as you say “The fourth to C was then assigned...” Finally, deal the next card to the leftmost pile (D) in the row of four, as you deliver the final line of the verse (“The Fifth retired to D.”).

Situation Check: You are left holding four cards. However, your audience believes you have five.

Continue on with the poem:

In E the sixth he tucked away,
In F the seventh man.
The eighth and ninth in G and H,
And then to A he ran.

As you deliver this verse, deal a card on top of piles E, F, G and H in rapid succession to match the timing of the poem. Your audience should be surprised to see that you’re out of cards.

Recite the next verse:

Wherein the host, as I have said,
Had laid two travellers by;
Then taking one—the tenth and last—
He lodged him safe in I.

As you say the final line of the verse, take the top card from Pile A and drop it on top of Pile I.

Finish the routine by compelting the poem:

Nine single rooms—a room for each—
Were made to serve for ten;
And this it is that puzzles me,
And many wiser men.

As you recite the final verse, gather up the piles from right to left. This avoids anyone asking you to turn the top card of each pile face up (this would reveal that a King is missing).

Cleanup & Reset

So long as you gather up the piles at the end of the trick, there’s no evidence left to tip the method.

Performance Tips & Additional Ideas

Once you’ve dealt the two Jokers to Pile A, it’s far more effective to turn the packet face down and hand it to a spectator. Ask them to place a card on each pile while you recite the poem. As you mention each room, tap the top of the corresponding pile to signal your participant to put a card on it. This approach creates the strong impression that one of the cards disappeared from the packet while your participant was holding it.

Final Thoughts

Even though this isn’t the most difficult of brain teasers, it will genuinely bamboozle some people. However, suppose you’re performing for puzzle aficionados. In that case, you can mention Hilbert’s Paradox of the Grand Hotel as a possible solution to the riddle. This paradox has nothing to do with the Nine Rooms Paradox. Still, it tickles me to think that they might Google this to try and solve the mystery of the innkeeper and the ten weary travellers!