Forcing a card is one of the constant requirements in the performance of card tricks. To a great extent, the precise details must vary according to the individual performer and the particular circumstances in each case. It would be quite impossible to cover all these, but the underlying principle is very simple, and, once it has been mastered, there remains only the necessity for such practice as shall make it readily available at all times and easily variable according to changing conditions.
The only preparation required is knowledge as to the location of a certain card. Perhaps the simplest method is to observe secretly the bottom card of the pack, and then to cut the cards while holding them in the two hands, and to keep the little finger between the two parts after the cut is made. The student should note here that in thus cutting the cards he is to follow exactly the procedure already described for making the pass with two hands. By this means, he conceals the fact of the cut from the spectators. Thus, if the cards have been thoroughly shuffled, they cannot suspect that he knows a particular card in the central portion of the deck. Nevertheless, he does possess such knowledge, since the card that was on the bottom is now lying next above his Iittle finger.
You offer the pack so that someone may draw out a card. In doing this, the pack remains lying in the left hand. The right hand seizes the upper part of the deck. the thumb on top, and all the fingers below, their tips resting against the known card, which is indicated by the position of the little finger of the left hand. You spread the cards slightly, as if inviting the person to choose one. As his fingers approach any card, the fingers of your right hand slide forward the known card.
At the very instant when the fingers of the chooser touch the cards, the known card must project a little beyond the others, so that the reaching fingers naturally fall on it, and it is drawn. It is advisable often to make a sIight, almost imperceptible movement of the whole pack thus spread in readiness for the choice, so that by this movement the known card is brought actually within the grasp of the chooser, quite without his knowledge of the fact that it is being substituted for the card he had meant to select.
In performing this trick, the student must be alert to study his failures in order to guard against a repetition of them. It is well to practice with someone in your confidence, in order thoroughly to familiarize yourself with the method before attempting its use for deception. Practice will develop an astonishing amount of skill in the fingers of the right hand, so that, as the pack is held loosely spread out in the two hands, the known card, by the pressure of the finger tips on which it rests, may be moved from the middle of the deck to the bottom and back to the top – indeed, here and there as required.
Often, the chooser will change his mind, and, after seeming about to take a card near the top, reach suddenly for one at the bottom. But, in such case, the known card follows his movement easily and swiftly, first to the top, then to the bottom. Faithful practice offers the only way to success in this matter of forcing a card, and its rewards are sure, bringing to the performer a facility to win the admiration of those whom he entertains.