The Count

Among easy close-up card magic tricks for beginners, this one is among the finest. You can use any deck of cards, just as long as it has all of its cards, and this one is baffling as well as easy to learn and perform. What makes this effect stand apart from other easy card magic tricks is that the handling on the part of the magician is minimal (you won't need any sleight of hand or complicated moves) and the spectator practically finds the card himself.You can watch me perform the trick for some college students here.
Effect: In this easy magic trick, a spectator freely selects a card and loses it in the deck. The spectator cuts the deck to further mix the cards. At some point, you tell the spectator to stop cutting the deck and count down a certain number of cards from the top. When the spectator does so, the card at the number you specified is the spectator’s chosen card.
Materials: A deck of playing cards.

Preparation: You’ll need to do this ahead of time without spectators knowing or seeing you. Remove all of the spades and set them in order from ace to king.

Preparation - Part 2: Turn the entire deck face up and place the spades, in order, at the front of the deck. Again, you’ll need to do this ahead of time without spectators knowing or seeing you. You’re ready to perform the trick. Simple turn the deck face down.

Hold out the face down deck and ask the spectator to select a card. It’s important that the spectator choose a card from near the top of the deck. If he chooses one of the spades near the bottom of the deck, the trick will not work. In this example, we have assumed that the spectator has chosen the queen of hearts. At this point in the trick you would not know the value of the spectator’s selected card.

Ask the spectator to memorize the card and hold it face down. Tell the spectator to cut the deck and place the selected card on top of the cut. Important distinction here, the spectator’s card goes on top of the pile that was formerly the top pile. When you complete the cut, the spades that were formerly on the bottom of the deck will go on top of the selected card. The next step will make this more clear.

This picture shows the correct position of the deck. The spades that were formerly on the bottom of the deck are now on top of the selected card. Note that when you perform this trick, the deck is normally squared and there is no “break” to distinguish the two halves. The state of the deck in this picture is strictly for demonstration purposes.

Have the spectator turn the deck face up and to cut the deck and complete the cut. Have the spectator continue to cut the deck until a spade is seen at the top (face of the deck).

Once the spectator cuts to a spade, you now know the location of the spectator’s card. Whatever the numerical value of the spade, that's the location of the spectator's card from the top of the deck. In this example, the seven of spades indicates that the spectator’s card is the seventh card from the top of the deck. As another example, if the spade were a nine, the spectator’s card would be the ninth from the top of the deck. A jack equals 11, queen equals 12 and king equals 13.

Once you know the value of the spade, have the spectator turn the deck over and then tell him to count down to the designated number. In our example, the spectator counts down seven cards and the seventh card is the spectator’s card, the queen of hearts. In this easy card magic trick, you have mysteriously caused a spectator to find his own card. Or if you like, you can present this easy card magic trick as a demonstration of your complete deck mastery and control or intuition.