How to do the reversed card trick

In the reversed card trick, a chosen card is pushed back into the deck and, when you spread the cards, it is the only one facing the wrong way. The beginner method needs no sleight of hand: one card reversed in advance lets you turn the whole deck over without anyone noticing. You can learn it in an evening.

What does the audience see?

You spread the deck face down and someone takes a card. They show it around and push it back into the pack, face down, wherever they like. You put the deck behind your back for a moment, bring it out and spread it across the table. Every card is face down except one, and that face-up card is theirs.

It’s a simple plot, and that is its strength. Nobody needs to remember anything except their card, and the reveal is something everyone can see at once.

What do you need?

• Any ordinary deck in good condition. Fresh cards spread more evenly, so a deck from our playing cards range helps.
• A table or mat for the final spread.
• About two minutes of set-up before anyone is watching.

How do you set it up?

Before you start, turn the bottom card of the deck face up and square the pack. From above, the deck looks completely normal: the top card is face down and nobody can see the bottom.

Magicians call this a cover card, because one card hides the fact that the rest of the deck can be the other way up.

How do you do the reversed card trick?

1. Have a card chosen. Spread the cards face down between your hands and let someone take one. Only spread the top two-thirds or so, so the reversed card at the bottom never comes into view.
2. Turn the deck over while they look. Ask them to show their card to everyone. While all eyes are on their card, square the deck and turn the whole thing over in your hand. Because of the reversed card, the deck still looks face down. In fact, every card but the top one is now face up.
3. Have the card returned. Hold the deck squared and ask them to push their card, face down, into the middle. Keep the deck squared so nobody glimpses the face-up cards inside.
4. Fix things behind your back. Put the deck behind your back “to do the magic”. There, turn the top card (your reversed card) face down again, then turn the whole deck over.
5. Reveal. Bring the deck out and spread it face down across the table. Their card is the only card face up.

Why does it work? When you turned the deck over in step 2, their face-down card went into a pack that was secretly face up. Turning the pack back the right way round makes their card the odd one out.

Where did the reversed card come from?

Card tricks in which a chosen card turns over in the deck have a long history, and we can’t name an originator. Based on our research, the earliest mention we’ve found of a deck secretly reversed under a cover card is Francis King’s “Die gehorsamen Karten” (“The obedient cards”) in the German magazine Die Zauberwelt in 1901, as indexed by the Conjuring Archive. The same index lists an 1896 trick by Friedrich W. Conradi-Horster in which a card turns over in the middle of the pack.

In our free library, T. Nelson Downs’s The Art of Magic (1909) includes “the reversed card” among its card tricks with unprepared cards that need no sleight of hand. We don’t claim its method matches the one taught here.

How do you make it look better?

• Give the turnover a reason to happen. The best moment is when everyone is looking at the chosen card. If you turn the deck while they stare at your hands, they’ll see it.
• Keep it small. Turn the deck over close to your body with a relaxed hand, not with a big flip.
• Take your time behind your back. A few seconds of talk covers the two quick turns you make there.
• Spread slowly. Let the face-up card appear in the middle of the spread rather than flipping straight to it.

What are the common mistakes?

• Spreading too far. If you spread the whole deck in step 1, they see the reversed bottom card and the trick is over before it starts.
• Letting the deck open. When they push their card in, a loose grip lets the face-up cards show. Keep the pack squared.
• Forgetting the cover card. If you only turn the deck over behind your back and skip turning the top card, you’ll finish with two face-up cards.
• Doing it twice for the same people. Once they know the card will turn over, they watch the deck instead of the card. Follow it with a different trick, such as the four burglars card trick.

When you’re ready for a more skilful way to control a card, our guide to card control techniques is the next step. You can find more decks and tricks in our card magic collection.

What helps you take it further?

• Invisible Triumph by Jim Krenz. Cards are mixed face up and face down, yet the deck rights itself to all face down except one selected card. It can be done right out of the box without sleight of hand, and Krenz teaches handlings with a selected card and a thought-of card.
• The Real Invisible Deck by Chris Dugdale. A download teaching the Invisible Deck with a regular deck and no force, where the spectator can spread the deck and find the reversed card themselves. It is not for beginners.
• The Art of Magic by T. Nelson Downs, free from our public-domain library.

Frequently asked questions