The Seekers

The Seekers trick was created by Paul Swinford.

In this trick, the dealer starts with an odd deck, usually by adding a joker.

He then performs a modified incomplete faro shuffle. It is called modified because he leaves two cards together on the bottom of the deck, and incomplete because the two halves are not pushed together.

The magician then riffles through the top half of the deck, stopping when an audience member tells him to.

The magician allows the spectators to see the card. During this time, the magician has his little finger in the bottom half of the deck, opposite the chosen card.

The chosen card is now x cards from the top of its half of the deck, while his finger is x cards from the top of the other half of the deck.

The magician then separates the deck, putting the half with the chosen card on top.

The chosen card is now x cards from the top, while his finger is 26-x cards from the bottom.

He then cuts the deck where his finger was separating the cards. This adds the 26-x cards to the top of the deck.

The chosen card is now x + (26 -x) = 26 cards from the top, putting it in position 25.

The positions are numbered from 0 to 52.

The dealer then cuts the deck somewhere below the chosen card.

He then shows both the card he cut to and the bottom card in the top half of the deck to the audience. Neither card is the chosen card.

He puts these two cards on top of the deck face up, moving the chosen card from position 25 to position 27.

The two face up cards are in position 0 and 1.

The magician then allows the audience to cut the cards.

This puts x cards on top, moving the chosen card to position 25+x and the face up cards to x and x+1.

Finally, the dealer performs a perfect shuffle.

If he performs an out-shuffle, the face up cards are moved to positions 2x and 2x+2, while the chosen card moves to position 2x+54, which mod 53 equals 2x+1.

If he performs an in-shuffle, the face up cards move to positions 2x+1 and 2x+3, while the chosen card moves to position 2x+55, which mod 53 equals 2x+2 .

Either way, the chosen card is placed between the two face- up cards.

Fun stuff huh?