How To Palm A Card

This is a method for stealing the top card of the deck into your right hand, also known as "palming". The palm is one of the most useful sleights for any card magician and can be incorporated into many routines to produce some stunning card illusions.

Cover the deck of cards with your right hand, all four fingers covering the outer end, and the thumb near the inner left corner. With the left thumb, push the top card to the right, but straighten the right third and little fingers just enough to let the card pivot around the right second finger. The outer right corner of the card will project over the front of the deck, and the inner right corner of the card will project to the right at the right inner corner of the deck. In the second picture, the right hand has been lifted to expose the position of the card. In practice, the right thumb stays at the inner left corner of the deck.

	The left thumb pushing the card to the right.
	An exposed view, with the right hand raised to show how the card pivots around the right second finger.

The actual palm happens as you lift the deck to the left fingertips. The right little finger presses down on the outer right corner, levering the card into the palm, as the right thumb and second finger lift the deck. As the deck is lifted, the left thumb naturally gets out of the way, allowing the card to go into the right palm.

	The left little finger presses down on the outer right hand corner of the card. As the right hand lifts the pack to the tips of the left thumb and fingers, the left thumb gets out of the way, allowing the card to lever up into the right palm.
	View of the action from the right.
	In the end, the card is in the right palm, and the deck is at the left fingertips.

www.practicenotincluded.com By kind permission of Andru Levusi