The Cards

As you might have guessed, the foundation of the trick is a stacked deck. Before putting the cards in the box the magician thoroughly shuffles the deck, but then adjusts them so that they alternate colors. Red, black, red, black through the whole deck. The magician relies on the fact that since you don't know what the trick is about your examination of the deck will unlikely reveal the stack. This is because when reviewing the cards you will only see a few cards at a time. You will be looking more intently for duplicate cards, marks, crimps etc.

Cutting the Cards

The cutting of the cards does nothing to destroy the alternating colors in the stacked deck. It may give the victim a sense of control and it will familiarize the victim with the mechanics of the trick as the magician should guide the victim to cut the cards so that instructions can be given and followed precisely. The cuts should be performed as follows. The cards are face down on the table in a neat stack. The victim reaches for the deck and picks up any desired portion of it. He then places those cards face down next to the original deck. The original deck is then placed on top of the removed portion.

Guessing a Card Color

When the victim tires of cutting he's asked to guess the color of the next card he will cut to. The cut is performed exactly the same as before except now the victim looks at the bottom card to see if his guess was right. After looking the victim places this selected portion down next to the original deck. The original deck is then placed on to of the selected portion.

Challenge and Riffle Shuffle

It doesn't matter if the victim guesses right or wrong. The magician must be careful here to note and remember the current card color cut to and the last card color each time the victim cuts the deck. At any time the current and last card are different (that is one black and one red) the magician may stop the victim. The victim must be stooped at that point the cards are in two piles with different colors on the bottom, before the original deck is placed on top of the selected portion. Only if the colors alternate in each stack and the colors are different on the bottom cards of each stack will the trick work. It doesn't matter how chunky or fine the riffle shuffle is it will not alter the results of the magician's predictions.

You guess, he guesses

The victim goes first and has a fifty-fifty chance of being right each of his 26 guesses. As long as the victim goes first and the magician knows what color the victim turns over he can predict the color of the next card. He doesn't have to see the deck, all he has to know is what color the victim turns over.

He wins, you lose

What ever color card the victim turns over, the magician will guess the opposite and he will be right. By doubling his bet every time it's his turn his last prediction will result in a win of 2 to the 26th power or $67,108,864.

Can you explain why this is true?

This section is for the brave amongst you. Most people, including myself never get past how to do the trick. To hell with why it works. For those who care follow me. The Explanation.