Overhand False Shuffle

When you have a number of cards, up to say ten or twelve, on the top of the pack and it is necessary to keep them intact in that position and yet simulate a genuine shuffle, the following is the best method yet devised for an overhand shuffle.

Hold the pack in the left hand in the usual position for an overhand shuffle. With the right second finger and thumb lift up the lower two-thirds of the pack, call this packet B, leaving the other third intact in the left hand, call this packet A.

Bring B down on A and release a small packet C from the top, at the same moment gripping A between the tip of the right third finger at the outer end and the right thumb at the inner end. Lift A together with the remaining cards of B, holding a break between the two packets. Fig. 1.

Shuffle off the remaining cards of B in the usual way and, when the break is reached simply throw A on top. The action is very easy and, smoothly done, it is impossible for the onlooker to detect the least departure from a genuine shuffle.

I am indebted to Jules the Magician, of Hotel New Yorker fame, for this invaluable sleight. If the reader gets nothing else from these pages he will be well repaid for his outlay.

From Card Manipulations by Jean Hugard (1934)

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