Easy Card Tricks That Will Impress Your Friends

Whether you are bored at home or want to impress your friends at a party, learning an easy card trick will resolve both queries. This may also help you rekindle your old passion of becoming a magician and performing tricks in public. It’s not too late; by learning some easy and affordable ways to perform magic, you can live your dream. One of the quickest ways to learn magic tricks is learning the right way to use and manipulate playing cards. Moreover, they are easy to carry at any event too. Here are some card tricks that will definitely impress your friends and make you the star of any gathering.

Trick 1: The Fourth Card

Shuffle a deck of cards and divide it in half. Let’s call them Pile A and Pile B, respectively.
Now, take a look at the fourth card of Pile B and predict the fourth card in Pile A, which will turn out to be the same card you intended.
The trick is really simple. When you hand the cards to the spectator and flip them over to give them a look, spread the cards and remember the fourth card from the top. Let’s say the card is Ace of Spades.
Reshuffle the cards such that the first four cards stay in the same place while your spectator is convinced that the deck is properly shuffled.
When you cut the deck in half and the Ace of Spades is in Pile B, take a look at the fourth card in Pile A and say, “I can tell that the fourth card in Pile B is the Ace of Spades”. You may need some practice and fluidity to quickly see and recall the card on time without being caught.

Trick 2: Find My Card

Shuffle the deck and divide it in half. Give one half to your friend and ask them to select a card without showing it to you. Select a card from your deck and place it upside down on the table. Exchange the selected cards without looking at them.
Gather both halves and shuffle the deck again. Return one half of the deck to your friend and keep the other half. Look at your friend’s chosen card that is placed upside down on the table and place it back at a random position in your deck. Ask your friend to do the same with your chosen card and swap both decks.
Now, ask your friend to pick your chosen card from the deck and you will see that they will pick the exact card that you chose in the beginning. You, too, will randomly pick a card from your deck that will be your friend’s chosen card. Now, how is this possible? You need a set of marked poker cards to do this trick. This will help you tell the hidden face from the back of the card.
Now, the critical part of this trick is when your friend picks a card and places it upside down on the table. Look at the back (printed) side of the marked card that indicates its suit and number to determine the card your friend picked. Let’s say the backside is printed with a Six of Hearts.
When it is time to reveal the card, go through the deck and find the Six of Hearts and place it in front of your friend. When you ask them to pick a card you chose, quickly scan the number on the backside as soon as they place it upside down and declare the exact number and suit. Upon revealing both cards, your friend will be utterly shocked and impressed and you can even give then prizes from the Pokémon Store.

Trick 3: Do the Math

Divide a deck of cards into two parts with 26 cards in each pile. Ask one of your friends to shuffle the other half of the deck and place it on the table. While keeping one pile aside, cut the other half to further divide it into two halves. Let’s say the piles are A and B for better understanding.
Hold the other pile with 26 cards in your hand and ask your friend to choose a card. Once they see and remember the card, place it at the bottom of the pile without seeing it. Place this pile on top of pile A and hold the new deck in your hand.
Now, swipe the first and last cards together from the deck in a sliding motion and place them on the table. Repeat until you have no cards left in your hand. To make it more interesting, make up a story about your new shuffling style.
Pick the other deck and count the number of cards in the pile. Let’s say you have 14 cards in that pile. Go back to the other pile that you just shuffled and find the 14th card from the top. This will be the same card your friend picked in the beginning.
Whenever you do this trick, follow the same process and count the exact number of cards that are left in pile B to pick the intended card.

Trick 4: Stop

Shuffle a deck of cards and ask the spectator to say “Stop” as you keep placing the cards on the table one by one. The trick is to identify the card and declare it before revealing it.
Before you perform the trick, turn half the deck upside down or flip it such that the other half faces towards it. Take a look at the first card on the deck. Let’s say it is the Nine of Clubs.
Flip the deck upside down such that the faces are not visible and keep placing the cards on the table one by one. Ask the spectator to say “Stop”. Meanwhile, engage them in a conversation while sneakily flipping the deck in your hand. When you reveal the first card, it will be the first card on the deck, which was the Nine of Clubs.

Trick 5: The Key Is In The Details

Your spectator will select a card and return it to the deck to begin this effect. Then you do a magical motion and show that a playing card has been flipped over. It’s not their card, though! Instead, it’s a unique indicator card that shows where their chosen card is hidden in the deck.

Before the trick starts, covertly remove any Five (in this example, we’ll use the Clubs) and deal five cards from the bottom of the deck face up. Hence there should be four face-down cards at the bottom of the deck, followed by a face-up Five of Clubs.
Spread the cards out after that, being careful not to reveal the card at the bottom that is face up. Have a spectator choose a card.
Once they have learned their card, divide the deck in half, set the top half on the table, or use a swing cut with your hands.
Tell your spectator to lay their chosen card on top of the portion of the deck that has been cut off, after which you should place the remaining cards on top, losing the spectator’s card in the center of the deck.
Make a magical motion and describe how you “magically turned over” one card before spreading slowly through the remaining cards.
Keep the face-up Five of Clubs out of sight. Typically, they will notice it on their own and inform you that it is not their chosen card. You can now elaborate on how you actually turned over a unique indicator card.
Push the fifth card forward after counting five cards starting to the LEFT of the Five of Clubs. They can then examine it for themselves and determine that the card they chose is questionable.

Pro Tip: If you want to go one step further, you can replace Aces with the other four face-down cards in your secret configuration. This enables you to get a bonus kicker ending in which you manage to find both their card and all four Aces.

Trick 6: Spectator Deals the Aces

This amazing self-working card trick, which professional magician and our senior designer Michal Kociolek loves so much, does all the magic in the hands of your audience member. Your observer will discover all four Aces in a deck of cards that appears to have been shuffled.
Place the four Aces face down on top of the deck before you start. It would be ideal to apply a false shuffle or false cut at this point. If not, just gently turn the deck face up to demonstrate to the audience that the cards were all mixed up while keeping the Aces safely out of sight.
Give the deck to your spectator and tell them to divide it into four roughly equal piles, keeping track of where the top pile of Aces lands.
Pick up the pile that is furthest away from the Aces pile and instruct your spectator to transfer three cards from the top of the pile to the bottom. Finally, before placing the pile back down, have them deal one card to the top of each of the three additional piles.
The Aces pile is used last after repeating this process with each pile.
You can then instruct them to turn over the top card of each pile to discover that they have mysteriously discovered all four Aces after they have moved three cards and dealt three cards to each pile.

Pro tip: To explain why your spectator is dealing with the cards in such a certain way, try coming up with a funny story or reason. The technique will be more interesting if you act foolishly like how you do a “magical good luck ritual” before each poker game. You can also create a brief “magic routine” by advancing to a card trick utilizing the four Aces, such as the well-known Twisting the Aces card trick from Michael Ammar’s Easy to Master Card Miracles Volume 2.

Trick 7: The Amazing Rising Card

The difficulty of “Choose a Card Any Card” tricks is that the chosen card is typically exposed in boring ways. That is not the case with The Incredible Rising Card, a simple and enjoyable card trick in which a spectator’s selected card spontaneously emerges from a deck of cards.

Start by choosing a card from a basic card spread and letting that person remember it.
Then, as described in the previous trick, do either the Swing Cut or standard cut, and tell the spectator to return their card as before.
But this time, you’re going to take a slightly different approach in place of dropping the top package of cards back down flush. Drop the cards gently so that the bottom half is slightly angled in your direction. Then, as though attempting to square the deck, let them fall forward. If done correctly, the bottommost cards should protrude slightly toward you; the audience shouldn’t be able to see this.
You can actually cut to their chosen card by using your thumb to lift up under these cards. Then, in one smooth action, take this top package and lay it on the table and then place the rest of the cards on top of it. Although it appears as though you gave the deck two fair cuts, what you actually did was a perfect false cut that didn’t mess with the playing cards’ order. This makes it an extremely simple card control that you can also employ in a variety of other card tricks because it also covertly raises their chosen card to the top of the deck.
You are now prepared to reveal the card! With the lowest card facing the audience, hold the deck vertically (perpendicular to the ground).
Use your index finger and wipe it over the top of the cards as if you’re squaring the deck and push down roughly one-third of the deck. This shouldn’t be seen by your audience.
With the rest of your fingers curled inward, touch your index finger to the top of the deck and raise it up. Look confused and say, “Oh that’s right, you need to tell me which card you choose first!” when nothing happens.
After they name their card, place your index finger back on top of the deck. Nevertheless, this time extend your pinkie covertly until it makes touch with the spectator’s card on top of the deck.
As you raise your index finger, push your pinkie against the deck. If you apply enough pressure, the chosen card should rise to the surface and emerge with your hand from the deck.
Continue sliding up until the selected card’s bottom portion clears the stack of cards you pushed down at the beginning. Then, covertly move the lower packet back up to line up with the other half of the deck to create the appearance that the selected card had emerged from the pack’s center.

Pro tip: Make sure to perfect the time to readjust the cards by practicing it often. If executed properly, the illusion that the chosen card is emerging from the heart of the pack can be highly convincing and elevate this simple magic trick to a higher level of effectiveness. Several magicians also mention “static electricity” as a possible explanation for why the card is sticking to their finger. If you enjoy the rising card, you might enjoy the Haunted Deck as well.

Trick 8: Gemini Twins

In this traditional mentalism card trick, the spectator deals through a deck of cards at their own choice, but you are able to imperceptibly guess which cards they will randomly stop on. Karl Fulves created this trick and published it in one of his many outstanding books on card tricks for beginners.

An ordinary deck of cards that has been mixed by your audience can be used for the effect’s most basic performance. It’s a little difficult to say that this is the first time I’ve seen it, but I’ve seen it before.
You should spread through the deck facing you once your spectator has dealt the cards and explained that you need to identify two special cards. While you’re doing this, sneak a peek at the top and bottom cards of the deck to see who their “mates” are. A mate is the same value card in the other same-colored suit (hearts/diamonds and clubs/spades). For example, if the Three of Clubs is the top card and the Jack of Diamonds is the bottom card, you’re looking for the Three of Spades and Jack of Hearts throughout the deck. Once you find them, slip them out and hold them in your hands without your observer seeing their faces.
Give your spectator the deck of cards back and tell them to start dealing the cards face down. Inform them that they are free to stop at any time. When they do, “mark the spot where they stopped” by placing the card that corresponds with the bottom card face up on the pile on the table. The remaining deck can then be added on top.
Afterwards, they, or another spectator, can take up the full deck and resume dealing. Again, they are free to stop wherever they like (be careful to underline that they are actually free to do so!). Once they have stopped, have them lay the remaining cards from the deck on top while placing the card that corresponds with the original top card face up on the pile.
After that, briefly review what occurred before spreading the deck face down. Your two special cards will be displayed face up right away; remove each one and the card to its right.
Have your spectator turn over these cards and be amazed that you have correctly forecast which cards they had chosen by locating their mates before the trick ever began!

Pro Tip: This technique can also be used to force two cards that you have already written down on paper or documented elsewhere, such as in a picture on your Instagram page. Just double check that those two cards are on top and bottom of the deck before you start, and you might even give the deck a false cut or shuffle. If you decide to use this presentation, you might also want to consider using jokers or a business card as your marker cards in order to prevent confusion. The forecasts might even be written straight on a deck of cards on the back of your business cards.

Trick 9: The Moving Pen

You only need a pen, a flat, smooth surface, and the skill to be incredibly sneaky for this technique. Inform your audience that you will be moving the pen around the surface using the ‘power of your mind’ or telekinesis.
Then, rub the pen on your sleeve or jeans while explaining that you need to inject some static electricity into the pen in order to create the specific mental force field (remember, magic tricks are part performance and part illusion.)
Place your palm over the pen with your index finger pointing out, and then set it down on the surface. Bend over to “concentrate” your mental energy on the pen, start silently blowing on it, and start moving your index finger forward. (You might need to practice being subtle enough to pull this off.)
You may also lean over and put on a baseball cap to cover your mouth. Yet, most of the time the observers are focused on how your finger and pen are moving and won’t bother looking at your mouth.

Trick 10: Black Magic

In this two-person magic trick, you will telepathically converse with a partner to identify what items your audience members are thinking.
Tell a friend or other person in the room that you have chosen to mentally select any object in the space. The second magician will leave the room before they do this to prevent him from overhearing. The second magician will enter the room again after selecting an object. The second magician will then be asked if one of the objects you are pointing at is the one the audience chose. The second magician will reject every item.
You must first point at a black object before you can go on to the correct one. This will serve as a cue to the second magician that the object you are about to point at is the right one.
Next, you point to the proper thing and the second magician will declare it’s the object the crowd picked leaving the audience confused yet curious.

These simple card tricks will definitely make you the ‘magician’ of your social gathering and impress your friends. To perform every card trick with fluidity and speed, you need consistent practice. Since all of these tricks are easy to perform, you will quickly catch up and become a pro in no time. Lastly, invest in a pair of high-quality cards to make swift movements and smoothly shuffle the deck. This will also help you enhance your hand gestures and make the tricks more effective.

Conclusion

Each of these tricks has its unique technique and presentation, and with practice, you can perform them flawlessly and surprise your friends. Although these tricks are simple to learn, they nevertheless require practice and accuracy to do properly. Take your time, learn the fundamentals, and soon you’ll be amazed by your friends’ card abilities!