Ten-Card Wild Stephen Hobbs MAGIC, December 2013 The Ten-Card Poker Deal is a classic of contemporary magic, with

innumerable variations in print. The theme of virtually every Ten-Card Poker routine is the slow release of control over the cards by the performer. The Holy Grail is to allow the spectator to shuffle, cut, and deal out both poker hands. Here is my somewhat off-thewall solution. Create a ten-card poker set consisting of the following cards: three Aces, three Sevens, three Queens (Clubs, Hearts, and Diamonds), and the Jack of Spades. Mark the Jack of Spades the Jonah card on the back so you can secretly locate it during performance. Ill assume that youre familiar with Ten-Card Poker Deal and know at least a basic routine. If you dont, a great starting point is Darwin Ortizs routine in his classic book At the Card Table. You need to perform two phases in which the spectator receives the Jonah card and thus loses the round. I usually use phase one and three of the Ortiz routine. The Ten-Card Wild procedure kicks in during the third phase. At the end of the second phase, demonstrate how the spectator might have won: You know, if you just had another Ace, you would have had four of a kind and you would have beat me. Continue, Im going to give you every advantage this time; you will have complete freedom to determine how the cards will fall. (Thanks to Bob Farmer for the every advantage line.) Give the packet to the spectator and invite him to shuffle it. This is a completely fair and free shuffle; the cards can be mixed in any way the spectator desires. When hes finished, have him place the packet on the table and then ask him, or someone else, to give it a straight cut. Really play up the fairness of this procedure because it is, in fact, fair. Pick up the packet and slowly and fairly deal out two poker hands, one for you and one for the spectator. Secretly note who receives the Jonah card. This is easiest to accomplish if you focus on just one of the packets while dealing. If the spectator receives the Jonah card, then you will win, so play out the hand. You are set to repeat. Point out that the spectator may have shuffled and cut, but that you still got to deal the cards. Tell the spectator that this time he gets to shuffle, cut, and deal out the two poker hands. Give the spectator the option of dealing cards from the top, middle, or bottom of the packet. After the spectator does so, let him switch any of his cards for your cards. The spectator does so, and you again note where the Jonah card falls. If it goes to the spectator, then play out the hand and end the routine. It cant get any fairer. The spectator shuffled, cut, and dealt the cards from anywhere he wanted and yet you still won the round.

Alternatively, if you see that you have received the Jonah card on either the first or second time the spectator shuffles, casually say, I told you I wanted to give you every advantage; and on the last hand, all you needed was one more Ace to win. So this time, lets say that one-eyed Jacks are wild so you might get the cards you need. Obviously, you must say this before either hand has been picked up. Attitude matters; this should seem like just another step in making the procedure even fairer and further out of your control. By turning the Jonah card (the one-eyed Jack) that has been dealt to you into a wild card, youll win the hand no matter how the cards are dealt. Heres a quick example. The spectator has two Aces, two Sevens, and a Queen (two pair). You have two Queens, an Ace, a Seven, and the Jack of spades (one pair). But with the Jack wild, you turn your pair of Queens into three of a kind for the win. The key, of course, is to play up the win as dramatically as possible. In the previous example, after commenting on the strength of the spectators hand, I would place the Ace and the Seven aside without showing them. I would then slowly place one Queen on the table, then the second Queen, and finally the Jack, saying, I only have one Queen. And a second Queen. But my one-eyed Jack is wild and that makes three of a kind, which beats two pair any day of the week! Once the wild card comes into play, you must end the routine with that phase. If you repeat the effect, it will become obvious that the player with the wild card must win. But winning once with the wild card after the spectator has shuffled and cut leaves the spectator with the question: what would have happened if I had dealt myself the wild card? As structured above, the routine is three or four phases long. Its quite possible that the spectator might deal himself the Jonah card twice in a row, in which case the routine ends as usual. Or the Jonah card might be dealt to you after the third or fourth phase, requiring you to go into wild card mode and end the routine after winning that phase. If the variable ending concerns you, heres an idea for creating the impression that the routine is always set to end at the same point. Use three counters to keep track of the wins and losses. These could be casino chips, silver dollars, or bills. (Gag million dollar bills work great, and you can give one away as a souvenir at the end of the effect.) These counters are given to the spectator at the start of the routine; they represent the money with which he can gamble. Each time you win, you take one of the counters back. This is both mildly humorous and a great way to visually communicate what has been going on: youve been winning! If the effect must end after three phases, then the end of the routine is inherent in your taking the last counter from the spectator. If, on the other hand, you go into a fourth phase, place the entire stack of counters in front of the spectator and state that you will play one more time, winner take all. When you win, pick up the stack of counters, give them a kiss, and drop them into your pocket to signify that the routine is over.

Finally, if the idea of a deliberate wild card ending does not appeal to you, you might still want to use the Jack of Spades for your Jonah card and tuck this idea away in the dusty recess of your mind. It may eventually be the out that saves your bacon if you choose a spectator who insists on shuffling, cutting, and dealing the cards. After coming up with the idea of turning the Jonah card into a wild card, I ran it by Bob Farmer, the guru of the Ten-Card Poker deal. He informed me that the ever-creative Robert Neale has an unpublished routine that involves a wild Jonah card. Neales routine will be published in Farmers magnum opus, The Bammo Ten-Card Deal Dossier, which he has been painstakingly compiling since 1994. Copyright 2014 Stephen Hobbs