How to Flip Through a Svengali Deck

In a Svengali deck, also called a short and long deck, half of the cards are shorter than the rest of the deck. The difference in the length of cards is so minute that it cannot be detected by simply looking at the cards and the deck looks like an ordinary deck. The following steps will show you how to flip through a Svengali deck when doing magic tricks.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Svengali deck of cards

1. Hold the deck in your right hand between your thumb and your middle, ring and pinky fingers. Your thumb should be on top of the deck and the other fingers on the bottom.

2. Apply light pressure on the back of the cards with your slightly bent pointer finger.

3. Hold your left hand underneath the cards to catch them as you flip through them.

4. Allow the cards to fall into your left hand as you flip through them with your thumb while lightly pressing your pointer finger onto the cards so that they fall. If you flip through them with the faces of the cards showing in your right hand, you will see all the different cards in the deck. If you flip through them with the backs of the cards showing in your right hand, you will see only the forced card (all the same card) as they fall into your hand.

Tips & Warnings

• One reason for the different card lengths in a Svengali deck is to be able to force a card in magic tricks.
• You can purchase Svengali decks with a certain card as the forced card. For example, if the forced card is a Queen, when you flip through the cards with the backs of the cards showing, all the cards will look like Queens. This makes it easy to force the card you want onto someone in a magic trick.
• You can also use this deck to make it appear that you have changed all the different cards magically into the same card.