John Scarne's Drunken Deal

This is an effect in which you play a hand of poker with a spectator. Although he is dead sure that he will beat you, you surprise him. It is one of the best sucker tricks ever devised for a poker routine.

Stack the following cards on the top of the deck: 4D - JD - 2D - JC - AD - 9C - 3D - 7C - 5D - JH - 10C - 8C. Deal two hands after a false shuffle and cut leaving the top stock undisturbed. The spectator gets the A, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of Diamonds. You get three Jacks and the 7 and 9 of Clubs. In tipping your hand, you give the sucker a flash of all five of your cards rather than the Jacks only. Discard two cards, but instead of discarding the 7 and 9 of Clubs as the sucker imagines you will, you discard the Jack of Diamonds and the Jack of hearts. Deal yourself the 8 and 10 of Clubs off the top of the deck, which gives you 7, 8, 9, 10, and Jack of Clubs the best hand.

An easy way to arrange the set-up is to take the Diamond flush, the Club flush, and the three Jacks and set them up like this: AD - JC - 2D - JH - 3D - JD - 4D - 7C - 5D - 8C - 9C - l0C. The underscored cards are the ones the sucker gets. After putting the cards together in this way, transpose the underscored cards so that the sucker's flush is not dealt out in numerical order, which would look a little odd. The pat hand is strange enough.