The Cool, KNock-Em-Dead, No-Skill, Nine-card Card trick

Don't try this without a deck of cards in your hands. I'll wait while you get one. This trick is so good you are going to fool yourself. 

Ready? Shuffle, just to prove that everything is on the up and up. Now select any nine cards to use in this mystery. Discard the rest of the deck. 

Deal the cards face down into three piles, side by side. Three cards in each pile.

Now choose any of the three piles. Look at the bottom card. That will be your selected card. Fair? Remember that card. I'm doing the trick with you. My selected card is the Seven of Diamonds. Yours will be something else. 

Place the pile you chose, with the selected card on the bottom, on either of the two remaining piles. Up to you. That pile will now have six cards. 

Place the six-card pile on the remaining smaller pile. Careful. Get that right. Gather up all the cards. Now the fun begins. 

You are going to do two easy things at once. While spelling the name of the selected card - remember? - you are going to deal a card off the top of your pile onto the table. One card for each letter. 

In my case, since I chose the Seven of Diamonds, I will spell-deal the word S-E-V-E-N. 

That has left a couple of cards in my hands as it will yours. Throw them on top of the pile you just dealt. Now pick up the entire pile. 

Repeat the procedure, dealing off a card onto a new pile for each letter, spelling OF. 

Throw the balance of your cards on top of the two you just dealt. 

Again, repeat the procedure. Pick up the pile (again, it holds nine cards) and spell the suit, dealing off a card with each letter. In my case, I will spell D-I-A-M-O-N-D-S. 

Throw the cards remaining in your hand on top of the stack, again creating a nine card pile. 

So you have spelled the name of your card (Seven of Diamonds, in my case). 

But you are not yet through. Once more pick up the entire pile and deal-spell the word M-A-G-I-C. 

When you reach the last card dealt, turn it over. It will be your selected card. Yup. I just turned over the Seven of Diamonds. 

How's it done? Search me. It just works, always revealing the selected card. That's magic. 

This whiz of a magic trick was invented by a good friend, JIM STEINMEYER, one of the leading contemporary creators of magic illusions. His bafflements are widely performed by David Copperfield, Siegfried and Roy and other prominent magicians.