Fan out a deck of cards face down on the table and ask for two volunteers. Ask the first volunteer to touch the card he thinks is the ace of hearts. Take the card the volunteer chooses and announce that the volunteer has guessed correctly. Then ask the second volunteer to touch a different card, such as the seven of diamonds. Pick up the card the second volunteer touches and confirm that he has also guessed correctly. Announce that you will try to find a third card, such as the three of spades. Select a card. Turn your hand to reveal that you and the volunteers have all guessed correctly, and that you are indeed holding the ace of hearts, the seven of diamonds, and the three of spades.
Place the ace of hearts at the top of the deck prior to beginning the trick. Spread the cards out and gesture for volunteer A to pick the card he thinks is the ace of hearts. Volunteer A will inevitably pick a different card. Imagine that he has picked the seven of diamonds. Congratulate him on picking the ace of hearts, even though he has not. Ask volunteer B to pick up the seven of diamonds.
Volunteer B will inevitably pick a different card, as the seven of diamonds is in already in your hand. Imagine that he has picked the three of spades. Collect the three of spades and then congratulate him for picking the seven of diamonds. Then announce that you will find the three of clubs. Of course, you already have the three of clubs, along with the seven of diamonds, in your hand. Pick up the ace of hearts from the top of the deck. Turn all three cards around so the volunteers can see them. The volunteers, not knowing the actual order in which their cards have been picked up, will assume that they did actually guess correctly.
The haunted card effect involves one card rising from the deck as though controlled by a ghost. It is a perennial classic of card magic, and very easy to perform. Simply fan the cards on the table and ask your volunteer to select any card. Ask the volunteer to return the card to the deck and then perform a "Pass" to bring the card to the top of the deck. Hold the deck upright between your thumb and ring finger, so the audience can see the face of the bottom card. This will leave your index and middle fingers free to slowly push the top card upwards. The effect will be as though a ghost is pulling the card out from the middle of the deck.
To perform a pass, ask your spectator to select any card. Hold the deck in your left hand. Cut the cards at approximately the middle point. Ask the spectator to replace his card there. Drop the remaining cards on top, but create a break in the deck by placing the tip of your left pinkie finger on the back corner of the spectator's card.
Drop the cards below the break into the palm of your hand and then cut them to the top of the deck. The spectator's card will now be the top card in the deck.
It is important that this move is performed as smoothly as possible. Practice the move at home until you can perform it quickly and fluidly without looking at the deck. Spectators will not notice a quick and confident pass if you hold their attention with patter.
The perfect poker hand is a simple trick in which the magician deals himself a perfect royal flush. The odds of such a hand emerging spontaneously from a shuffled deck are extremely slim. Prior to the trick, take the 10, jack, queen, king, and ace of one suit out of the deck. Place the ace on top of the deck, the king fourth from the top, the queen eighth from the top, the jack twelfth from the top and the 10 sixteenth from the top.
Gather three volunteers and ask them to take it in turns cutting the deck. Tell them that they can do it as often as they like. The reason why you ask them to cut the deck is that it gives the appearance of having mixed up the cards without actually changing the order too much.
Once they've cut the deck four or five times, fan the cards out in front of them. Explain that you are doing this so that they can see the cards are mixed. While they are examining the cards, locate the ace and check every subsequent fourth card to see if they follow the sequence. If they do not, that means that the remaining cards will be at the top of the deck, separated by three other cards. Cut all the cards from the ace to the top of the deck and then commence dealing. Deal your card first and stop once all players have five cards each. Turn over each hand, remarking on whether or not you think it has a chance of winning, and then turn over your own to reveal the royal flush.