59. The One-Handed Cut
class: flourish | impressiveness: 3/5| factors: dexterity, practice | requires: cards, patience | watch full episode
Sometimes you just want to look like a badass. This one will take some practice, but once you’ve got it down, it’s a neat flourish. More importantly, the skills you build up while practicing this trick will directly improve you card skills for other tricks as well.
The setup is simple: Hold the deck as a block in your left hand, palm-up and pinched between your thumb and four fingers. Start by allowing half the cards to drop as a block from your thumb. When the cards drop, they’ll catch at an angle as they rest in the crook of your thumb. This should make it easy to use your index finger to push the dropped block of cards from the other side. Just push and slide it all the way back up against the pad of your thumb, creating a “teepee” or “letter A” shape with the two halves of the deck.
Finally, push your index finger just a little farther upward so that the bottom half of the deck overtakes the top. Once it does, you’ll notice one half of the deck resting on the back of your index finger. At this point, just let gravity do the rest: allow both blocks to drop and the bottom half will now be on top.
Watch Demonstration (External link)
Bonus Flourish: If you want to display the bottom card of the deck with a little flourish, follow these steps. Perform the one-handed cut exactly as you’ve learned it, but at the very end, prevent the two halves from falling all the way on to each other by inserting your middle finger between them. The top half will balance on your middle finger, and while it rests there, if you extend your middle finger it will drag out the bottom card of the pack.
Once that card is out, keep rolling your middle finger around the side of the deck, pulling the card with it until it ends up displayed face-up over the face-down deck of cards.