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 PURE2
ACAAN EDITION

At its most basic, Pure2 is a completely hands-off ‘Card at Predicted Number’ effect. That is to say,
the spectator names any card, you show a prediction of a number that has been in full view
throughout, they remove the cards from the case, deal to the number, and the card they named is
there. You’ve touched nothing.

But it’s so much more than that. The method employed allows you to do a fully-fledged, completely
hands-off ACAAN, that will be successful the vast majority of the time (the predicted number fixes
the misses):

They name a card and a number to go with it.

They remove the cards from the case and deal to their number.

Their named card is staring them in the face!

Promises

 Self-working
 Any card can be named
 You never touch the cards in any way at any time
 Spectator always removes and deals the cards and they’re always dealt face up
 No maths of any kind
 No Nail Writing
 No pre-show or confederates
 Minimal arts and crafts

Compromises

Obviously(?), sometimes the number named by the spectator will not match the card’s location, so
from this point you’ll switch to a ‘Card At Predicted Number’ style of effect as described above,
however this happens much less frequently than you might think (with average luck, they’ll name
the correct number around 60% of the time) and even if they miss, they’ll usually be very close. An
advanced handling is included that takes this into the 90% success range for the number they
choose.

When thinking as to what must happen for an ACAAN to work successfully, it’s apparent that a
handful of cards in some locations can be tricky to deal with. With that in mind, whilst any card can
be named, 12 are handled differently though these can be easily avoided through patter.

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 Contents
Method Overview ............................................................................................................................... 4
Requirements...................................................................................................................................... 4
Preparation ......................................................................................................................................... 5
How to read the crib ........................................................................................................................... 7
Performance (Basic Handling)............................................................................................................. 8
Revealing the Number ........................................................................................................................ 9
Counting ............................................................................................................................................ 10
Reset ................................................................................................................................................. 11
Performance (Advanced Handling) ................................................................................................... 12
Appendix ........................................................................................................................................... 13

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 Method Overview

There are four principles in play to achieve the effect:

A stack, which positions every card (apart from the 12 mentioned in the effect description) so that
they can be counted to by one of only three numbers – 4, 7 and 17.

A psychological force of number

If the number is missed, this is handled by a multiple out as seen in the demo (the prediction on the
card case). Many options exist for this stage if you don’t like dry erase – any three-way out will
work, in which case you can use any of your favourite decks to perform the effect. I recommend
Blue Bikes only because the red Spade pip on the case shows up black ink well.

Finally, this is tied together by some creative counting – they can count from top or face, cut the
deck or not and include or exclude the Jokers when counting as required.

Requirements

A deck of cards (ideally blue Bicycle because of the red spade on the case), including the Jokers

Four additional Jokers

Different colour back duplicates of JC, JD, QD and KS

Adhesive of some sort

A black Sharpie

A black dry-erase marker (you can also use wet-erase which is less prone to smudging but harder
to erase)

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 Preparation

Open a new deck of cards and carefully remove the lower section of the cellophane – you’ll need
to put it back on the case later.

Print out the enclosed crib. Cut it out and affix it to the base of the card case (i.e., it covers the
barcode etc.) so that it’s readable when the case is half-moon uppermost.

Using a Sharpie, draw a large number 7 in the Spade pip directly on the front of the case with the
case horizontal, its opening to the right. Do not draw the European style cross bar. Now replace
the cellophane on the case.

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Using the dry-erase marker, draw a number 1 to the left of the 7, so that the number 17 can be
read. Rotate the case 180 degrees and draw a vertical stroke to make the 7 read like a 4.

The dry-erase marker I use is the Edding 661, but Penguin sell a dry-erase Sharpie, should you
wish to use that – Xpert by Neil Tobin: https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/6239

Stack the deck as follows (top to face, ‘J’ = Joker):

JS, KD, J, 3D, 7D, 2C, AC, 5H, 4C, 5D, 5C, 9H, 2D, KS, J, QD, 3S, AD, 2S, 10H, 10S, 8C,
6D, 6C, 3C, 10C, J, QC, KH, QH, KC, J, 8S, 5S, 9S, 8D, 4D, 7S, 9C, 6H, AS, 8H, JC, J, JD,
7C, 9D, 4S, 6S, 2H, 4H, AH, 10D, 7H, 3H, J, QS, JH

Apply a breather crimp (see appendix for details of how to make a breather crimp) to the KH so
that it cuts to the face. Apply a breather crimp to the QH so that it will cut to the top. You may wish
to mark the back of the QH, so that you know the spectator has cut correctly during the routine.
Place the duplicates of the 4 picture cards in separate pockets or separate sections of your wallet.
You’re going to kill the chance of a picture card being chosen in patter, so these will probably not
be needed.

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 How to read the crib

The value of any given card runs along the top row. Suits run vertically in CHSD order. Cross
reference to find the correct instruction for any given card.

1. Numbers in black = Count from top

2. Numbers in red = Count from face
3. Underlined numbers = named card will be the next card after counting
4. C = Cut at the breather crimps before the count
5. J = Ignore Jokers during the count

As mentioned, you’re going to be killing the picture cards during patter, but if they are named,
here’s how to use the crib:

1. PP = card in Pocket or Wallet

2. FACE/TOP = self-explanatory
3. TC = Top card after cut
4. FC = Face card after cut
5. TB = Top card after burning top and bottom cards
6. FB = Face card after burning top and bottom cards
7. TCB = Top card after cutting then burning top and bottom cards
8. FCB = Face card after cutting then burning top and bottom cards

What should be noted is that the arrangement of the deck is not arbitrary. Cards that are more
popular, and therefore likely to be chosen more often have friendlier counts. More unpopular
cards, like the 6S, have more inelegant counts. This stack order is based upon the research of Jay
Olson (et al) at McGill University and the University of British Columbia.

You can find their research at https://www.psychologyofmagic.com

A few examples follow:

Card Named Code Procedure

4S 17CJ Deck is cut, Jokers ignored, Dealt from Top, Exact card

10D 4J No cut, Jokers ignored, Dealt from Face, Next card

AC 7 No cut, Jokers included, Dealt from Top, Exact card

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 Performance (Basic Handling)

Introduce the cased deck and carefully place it face down on the table with the half-moon cut-out
uppermost. You do not want your prediction to erase prematurely.

Have the spectator name any card. Ideally, you want to kill the picture cards; this is the patter I use:

“In a moment I’d like you to clear your mind and then say out loud the first playing
card that comes to your lips. You can name any card you like, maybe not something
obvious like a picture card, but it’s entirely up to you. Name a card now.”

They name a card. If it’s a spot card, continue with the paragraph below. If they name a picture
card then you have three options: you can abandon the ACAAN for now and reveal the picture
card they named, tell them to choose a ‘completely different’ card (credit Isolation by Michael
Murray for this particular turn of phrase), or if you like you can have them have them pick a second
card and proceed to reveal/find both (I do not recommend this). If you’re not going to just reveal
the picture card, you can say either:

“Interesting! Now completely change your mind and choose another card.”

Or, if you’re going to have a second card chosen, say:

“That’s great! Let’s have a spot card as well, we’ll find both.”

(How to handle picture cards and their revelation with an additional spot card is detailed later in
this document’s appendix)

For now, we will assume that we’re working with only one card, a spot card. Look at the crib once
you know the card to determine what actions need to be taken. You must remember the information
for the steps that follow as it dictates the patter that you will use.

Use the following patter depending on the number required (some of the phrasing used here is
based upon that used by David Berglas in his eponymous effect and provides a good chance of a
direct hit):

4: “Out of interest, if YOU had picked a number to go with your card, say a SMALL
number, what would it have been?”.

Here, you put slight emphasis on the capitalised/italicised words. The framing of the question
doesn’t imply that you’re going to use their number, just if they had picked one, what would it have
been. The question also leads them to realistically name only 3, 4 or 5. You haven’t given them a
frame of reference, nor an upper or lower limit of number.

7: “Out of interest, if you had picked a number to go with your card, a number that’s
LUCKY to YOU, what would it have been?”.

Again, the emphasis is on the capitalised/italicised words. Similarly with no frame of reference the
number most likely to be chosen by the laity is 7.

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 17: “Out of interest, if you had picked a number to go with your card that’s not too
high, say under 25 or 20, what would it have been?”.

The phrasing of 25 or 20 (as opposed to just ‘under 20’) is important and guides the spectator to
choose the mid to high teens, of which 17 is the most popular in my experience.

If they hit, you have a miracle and can rephrase your patter during the recap to imply that they
could have chosen any card and any number. Optionally, you can show them that you also
predicted the same number, erasing the necessary parts of the prediction as required, and then
have them count to their number in accordance with the crib instructions.

If they miss (even if they do, they’re likely to be very close), continue with the following, as you
show the number on the card case:

“Interesting. Before we started this, I made a note of a number on the back of the card
case. I went for ‘X’, but you weren’t that far away!”

Revealing the Number

If they hit, you don’t have to show the number on the case, but for the times that they miss you will
need to show that you made a prediction beforehand to force the target number. This is achieved
by simply erasing the part of the prediction that you don’t need in the act of turning the case face
up. With the case face down in front of you as per the beginning of the effect, place your index
finger along the right side of the case and your pinkie down the left.

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Begin to turn the case over, and in the same rotation face it so it orients towards you.

It is a simple matter to use your thumb to erase the 1 to leave a 4 remaining or erase the part of the
4 to leave 17 remaining or erase both parts to leave 7 remaining (you can also slide the case
along the close-up mat in this instance to remove all the dry-erase sections of the prediction).

Counting

Once you’ve shown the number, hand them the case number side down and have them remove
the cards. If the deck needs to be cut by the spectator, have them do so now.

“Before we begin, please can you give the deck a cut for me, about halfway, and
complete the cut.”

Please see the appendix for how to handle a missed cut.

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If the card will be at the exact number, then tell them to ‘count to your number one card at a time’
and slow them down before reaching the target to build suspense.

If the card will be the next card after the count, then tell them to ‘remove x cards one at a time’ from
the deck, again slowing them as you near the target.

If they need to ignore the Jokers during the count, you can instruct them to do this before they start
counting or pretend to notice that they’re still in the deck during the count. I prefer the latter. You
could say something like this when a Joker appears:

“I’m sorry, we should have removed the Jokers. Please don’t count that one, and if you
see the other, ignore that too”

After the counting is done, the spectator will automatically arrive at the card they named, and you
have a miracle!

Reset

If the spectator has dealt from the top of the face down deck, turning cards up in the process, then
simply turn all the dealt cards face down and replace on top of the talon. Refill the prediction as
necessary.

If the spectator has dealt from the face of the deck, into a face up pile, then these cards will need
their order reversing, before adding to the face of the deck.

In either case, if the spectator cut the cards prior to dealing, you’ll need to cut the deck to bring the
original top and bottom cards back to their respective positions.

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 Performance (Advanced Handling)

There are a couple of ways that we can increase a chance of a direct hit when asking the spectator to name
their number. Using the following information brings the effect much closer to The Berglas Effect and requires
more thinking on your part during performance. The information you must remember is not that difficult, but
you do have to have your wits about you.

Using this information means that almost all the time, the spectator will say a number you’re looking for
meaning that you won’t need to use the multiple out as often.

It should be obvious, but let’s say that they have named the AC as their card, and you’re about to try and
force the number 7 as outlined in the Basic Handling. When the spectator deals through the deck they are
going to be including the Joker in the count in the case of the AC, but if they exclude it, then the AC can be
made to appear at a different number. Here are the locations the AC can appear at when counting from the
top of the face down deck:

5 – Ignore the Joker, it will be the next card in the count

6 – Count as normal, it will be the next card in the count

7 – Count as normal, it will be the exact card in the count

This means that any card that by default has you include the Jokers in the count to arrive at the exact card
can appear at the number indicated by the crib and in the two numbers BENEATH that.

Therefore, the following rules apply for all target numbers (4, 7, or 17) with one variation:

Straight numbers (e.g., ‘7’) = number and the two below (LOWEST NUMBER EXCLUDE JOKERS)

*2, 3, 4; 5, 6, 7; 15, 16, 17

Next card numbers (e.g., ‘ 4C’) = number and one each side (LOWEST NUMBER EXCLUDE JOKERS)

*3, 4, 5; 6, 7, 8; 16, 17, 18

Joker numbers (e.g., ‘4J’) = number and next two (LOWEST NUMBER EXCLUDE JOKERS)

Next card Joker 17s (e.g., ‘17J’) = number and next two (LOWEST 2 NUMBERS EXCLUDE JOKERS)

*4, 5, 6; 7, 8, 9; 17, 18, 19

Note that the exception occurs only with the last example = numbers valuing 17, where the next card will
be the target and Jokers are in play. The easiest way to get the hang of these is to try it with cards in hand.

Now, when you try to force the number, you have a much bigger window. Your patter has already restricted
them to hopefully name a number in the ballpark of what you want, and you’ve increased your chances of
a direct hit by 300% by applying these simple rules.

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 Appendix

If they miss the cut

The most important thing is to watch closely the actions of the spectator, because if they miss, there
can be no hesitation in the actions you are going to take. They must look as though they are the
actions you intended to take all along. You’ll find, however, that if you choose your spectator
carefully, they will be on side. Here are the scenarios and the actions to take:

A: They cut too few cards (most likely)

Don’t let them complete the cut
Immediately reach over and cut the larger of the piles at the correct point.
Have them place the ORIGINAL lower portion onto THEIR cut off portion
Have them place the combined pile they just made on the remainder

B: They cut too many cards (least likely)

Have them complete the cut
Cut the deck at the correct point, don’t complete the cut
Have them complete the cut

The back-to-back crimps really do eliminate a lot of the issues with effects of this type, and if your
spectator is relaxed and not trying to catch you out, 99% of the time they will not miss the cut. Since
the effect is so simple to do from your perspective, you can waste time watching and coaxing your
helper to do what they need to do without worrying about anything else.

Breather Crimps

To make a Breather Crimp that cuts to the FACE, hold the card FACE-DOWN whilst applying the
crimp. To make a Breather Crimp card that cuts to the TOP, hold the card FACE-UP whilst applying
the crimp.

To apply the crimp to the card, hold it face-up or face-down as required and then, using your index
and middle fingers of each hand below the card with your thumbs above them on top, apply
pressure from the centre of the card to diagonally-opposite corners, forming an imperceptible
crease in the card – do this for the opposite corners too. You’re basically making an impressed X
in the surface of the card.

If They Name a Picture Card

At the start of the effect if they ignore your nudging and choose a picture card you can simply
abandon the ACAAN phase for now and reveal the named card, or you can have them choose a
completely different card. Finally, you can have them choose a spot card to go along with the
picture card they named and find both cards.

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The easiest option is to scrap the performance of the ACAAN for the time being and reveal the
picture card that they named in accordance with the crib as dramatically as you can. In this case,
when doing the reveal, if the deck has been cut, do NOT let the spectator complete the cut.
Assemble the deck into its original order and you can try again for the ACAAN should you wish to
do so.

If you prefer to get them to choose a completely different card, do so and then proceed as normal.

The third option (which I do not really recommend) involves having them name a second card, and
you then proceed to reveal both. Most of the time you’ll get away with this because like the rest of
the cards in the stack, the court cards are positioned so that those more likely to be named are in
the most convenient locations. However, when doing a two-card revelation, the picture cards that
occupy the locations second from top and bottom (including when the deck has been cut) become
more difficult to deal with depending on the identity of the card you’re counting to.

Unfortunately there’s a little bit of memory work here although it can be worked out on the fly if you
compare both named cards on the crib.

If the picture card named is in your pocket/wallet, produce this as a separate effect before you
have them name a spot card.

If the picture card is top or face, and the cards do not need to be cut, reveal the picture card, have
it replaced in the same position and then they can count as normal.

If the picture card is top or face, and the cards need to be cut, reveal the picture card, replace it in
its correct position and then cut/count as normal.

If the picture card needs to be cut to, no cards need to be burnt, and the deck does NOT need to
be cut for the count, have them count first, reassemble the deck and then have them cut for the
second revelation.

If the picture card needs to be cut to, no cards need to be burnt and the deck needs cutting as well
for the counting revelation, have them cut to reveal the appropriate picture card, replace it in the
same location, and then count.

That covers the 8 easiest cards to deal with. The four cards that are second from the top/face
before or after cutting are more problematic as mentioned previously:

If the spectator will be able to count to the number WITHOUT revealing the named picture card
during the count, then they should count first. After the count, you can reassemble the deck, have
them cut/burn cards as necessary and reveal the picture card.

If the spectator’s count WOULD reveal the named picture card during the count, then we must
reveal the picture card first. This presents a problem, because when the necessary cards are burnt
during the reveal, it screws up the counting procedure. In these scenarios, the burnt cards must be
replaced in such a way as to maintain the required number of cards for the count.

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The easiest way to do this is to simply add the burnt cards back to the deck on the top and bottom
respectively after the revelation and then proceed with the counting, but this means you must handle
the cards. Also you must not forget to put them back in their correct locations once the effect has
been completed.

Fin

Copyright © 2020 by Adrian Fowell

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