Thin Phoenix acaan double decker 104 cards super simple non court cards

Note that this 104 card trick can only be done with the Phoenix double decker thin cards.

The magician asks the spectator to name any card in the deck.

Below is the first 52 thin cards which cannot be spread face up and is the super simple number cards only (Ace through 10) stack. Counting must be done with the whole deck spread face down in the magicians' hands and spectator just point/counts to each card starting at the top going across.

If the position number of the named card is higher than about 40 the magician will need to cut the top 40 cards to the bottom (after counting 40 cards) so the spectator will not realize that there is whole bunch of cards remaining when they arrive at the high number.

Or another way to eliminate this problem is If they pick a diamond (diamonds are in the high position numbers above 40) is tell them not to name a diamond because diamonds are unlucky or the magician can equivoque the spectator away from diamonds at the very beginning of the trick). But of course you can use the diamonds by cutting a bunch of cards off of the top after counting them but be sure to put them back after revealing the target card so you can later show the random looking bottom 52 cards again.

Next the magician asks his shill to name any number from 1 to 52 (of course they will mentally quickly calculate the position and then name the proper position number). Note that the shill will use the calculations for the top 52 cards if a non-face card is named, however the shill will use the calculations for the face cards for the second 52 cards and the magician directs counting from the bottom of the handheld spread.

The top 52 card stack:
12 face cards in any order (the face cards are not seen, just place holders to count through):
X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X,
10S, AS, 2S, 3S, 4S, 5S, 6S, 7S, 8S, 9S,
10H, AH, 2H, 3H, 4H, 5H, 6H, 7H, 8H, 9H,
10C, AC, 2C 3C, 4C, 5C, 6C, 7C, 8C, 9C,
10D, AD, 2D, 3D, 4D, 5D, 6D, 7D, 8D, 9D

This deck uses SHCD suit value ie:
Spades = 1 (Spade pip has 1 point)
Hearts = 2 (Heart pip has 2 lobes)
Clubs = 3 (Club pip has 3 lobes)
Diamonds = 4 (Diamond pip has 4 points)

Card named to position calculation (to determine the 2 digit number position of the Ace thru 10 cards):
Use the suit value for the first digit.
Use the card number (10 is 0) for the 2nd digit.
Add 3 to that two digit number.

Example: The Four of Hearts's is named therefore hearts is 2 followed by card number of 4 gives us 24 and then add three is 27 therefore the four of hearts is at position 27.

During presentation the magician should first turn the deck face up and spread about the first 40 cards to show that the deck has been shuffled.

Then the magician should say something like this to the spectator: "name any card in the deck but to make it extra hard name a more common card, everybody takes aces and face cards so it would be more impressive if you named one of the number cards, but you can name whatever you want".

After the spectator names a card the Magician turns to his shill and says: "name any number from one to 52".

The shill who has been trained on how to calculate using this deck well of course say the proper number.

If an ace through 10 was named by the spectator then the magician spreads the cards face down in his hands and directs the counting from the top of the deck.

If a court card was named then the magician spreads the cards in his hands and directs the counting from the bottom of the deck.
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The second 52 cards must look shuffled.
Below is the second 52 card thin Phoenix deck and looks pretty random and can be spread face up and this second 52 card arrangement can be used to do the acaan calculation for the court cards only but it's primary purpose is so the magician can spread the bottom 52 cards face up to show that the deck is shuffled.

The second 52 cards calculation for the court cards:
Jack's equal 1,
Queen's equal 2,
King's equal 3.
Next multiply the above value by the suit value giving the first digit. Use the card value as the next digit. If the two digits are greater than 52 then flip the two digits.

JS=11
QS=22
KS=33
JH=21
QH=42 (16 sweet 16 for quick count)
KH=63 (36)
JC=31
QC=62 (26)
KC=93 (39)
JD=41
QD=82 (28)
KD=3x4=12+3= 123 (12) Note that the KD is a rule breaker so just use 12 as the position.

Note that the counting is done from the bottom for this second group of thin 52 cards when a court card is named.
x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, JD,
KC, x, x, KH x, x, KS, x, JC, x, x, QD, x,
QC, x, x, x, QS, JH, x, x, x, x, QH, x, x,
x, KD, JS, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x
Note that the counting is done from the bottom.

Below is the complete 104 card deck including neutral cards:

JD, QD, KD, JS, QS, KS, JH, QH, KH, JC, QC, KC,
10S, AS, 2S, 3S, 4S, 5S, 6S, 7S, 8S, 9S,
10H, AH, 2H, 3H, 4H, 5H, 6H, 7H, 8H, 9H,
10C, AC, 2C 3C, 4C, 5C, 6C, 7C, 8C, 9C,
10D, AD, 2D, 3D, 4D, 5D, 6D, 7D, 8D, 9D

4H, 5S, 7C, 3S, 9D, 4C, 2S, 8H, 10D, 9S, AD, 10H, JD, KC, 8S, 3H, KH, 9H, 7S, KS, 6C, JC, AC, 2D, QD, 5H, QC, 6S, 4D, 8D, QS, JH, AH, 3C, 9C, 5D, QH, AS, 7D, 5C, KD, JS, 2H, 10S, 7H, 8C, 6D, 4S, 10C, 3D, 2C, 6H

Note if you want to calculate court cards in the top 52 then just associate the suit with the following offsets (constant 3 x Suit):

Diamonds is 0 x 3= 0
Spades is 1 x 3 = 3
Hearts is 2 x 3 = 6
Clubs is 3 x 3 = 9

For the court cards in the top 52 cards: determine the offset for the suit and then add the court card value (1 for Jack's, 2 for Queens, 3 for Kings). Example: the QC has clubs offset 9 plus queen value 2 = 11.

However I recommend using the second 52 card deck (the bottom 52 cards) to calculate the court cards because you can eventually spread those cards face up.

About the QH calculation in the second 52 cards: the natural calculation would be positioned 42 but that's a long way to count and note that the QH is one of the most frequently named cards. Therefore I placed it at position 16 from the bottom to make it a quicker count. Also the term sweet 16 can easily be associated and remembered with the Queen of Hearts.

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Quick recap of the calculations for this 104 card face down deck:

If a number card (Ace thru 10) is named (use the top 52 cards face down) the position is:
1. First digit is temporarily the suit value.
2. Second digit is temporarily the card value (treat a Ten card as value 0).
3. Then add 3 to the two digit number.

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If a court card is named (use the bottom 52 cards either face up or face down and note that the card value will be 1 for Jacks, 2 for queens, 3 for kings) the position from the bottom is:
1. Multiply the card value by the suit value giving the first digit.
2. Use the card value as the 2nd digit.
3. If the resulting number is greater than 52 then flip the two digits.
4. Also remember that QH is 16 and KD is 12.

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I have a slight enhancement to the presentation (no change to the physical deck).

You can do "number to card" by saying to the spectator "name any two digit number up to 52".

The number cards are easily calculated by subtracting 3 from whatever number is stated and the resulting value is giving you the card. Example: they say 32 then subtracting 3 gives 29. The 2 means hearts, the nine means nine thus the nine of hearts is at position 32. Of course the cards are spread face down and counted while in the spread (same as always).

The exception to this is positions 10, 11, 12 (those three numbers are two digit numbers that do not follow the rules) because they have correspondingly the JC, QC, KC which the shill simply has memorized. Example: if the spectator says the number 12 the shill does not subtract 3 instead simply knows that 12 is the KC. Knows that 11 is QC and knows that 10 is JC.

By having the shill memorize the position of the above three face cards, this allows the magician to do "number to card" by saying to the spectator:

"name any two digit number up to 52 but note that the higher the number the longer we'll have to count".

Reminder for the shill:
that the tens are treated as value zero thus If the spectator says 13 then subtract 3 giving 10 which translates as the 1 means spades and the zero means Ten. The 10S is at position 13 from the top of the deck.

If the spectator said 33 then subtract 3 giving 30 which translates as the 3 means clubs and the zero means Ten. The 10C is at position 33 from the top of the deck.

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I'm not sure I understand the need for a double decker or the calculations, if this a normal ACAAN with a stooge. Why not just use a regular deck in stacked order (either Mnemonica/Aronson, or any system that the stooge can use)? What's the benefits of the double decker in this case? I only see the disadvantage that dealing 30+ cards and still having more than half of the deck in your hands is pretty noticeable, nevermind the fact that the cards cannot be handled or touched all by any soectator.

To FlorianHeller:
Thanks for your input, I do appreciate it.
This deck is meant for those magicians and shills that do not want to memorize a stack.

The calculation in the top half of this double decker is super simple. This stack and calculation can be done with a normal deck, but a normal deck could not be initially face up spread because there are four groups of 10 cards that are all the same suit and mostly ascending order which would be easily noticed by the spectators.

The main reason for using the double-decker deck is to have a simple calculation scheme for the top 52 cards and have a shuffled looking deck for the second 52 so that deck of 104 cards can be turned face up and the bottom face up spread of about 40 cards can be done in the magician's hands to show a "shuffled" deck.

About the deck having too many cards remaining after doing 30+ cards: yeah, that's an issue that I don't like, but I did address some of that in my original post by trying to steer or equivoque them away from the Diamonds. Also note that this problem is not quite as bad as it seems for example if the count is at 30 the spectator would expect 22 cards to remain. With the DD deck (104 cards minus 30 is 74 cards remaining, but because the cards are super thin it looks like 37 cards remaining).

That's not good but not a huge looking difference between 22 and 37, but it gets worse as the count goes higher, so I agree that something should be done if the count gets to 20 or so before getting to the 30s.

But perhaps a better way is (after turning all 104 cards face up and showing a 40 card face-up spread of the bottom cards) for the magician to next turn the entire 104 cards face down and spread the top portion of the DD deck face down in the magician's hands and have them just use their index finger to count cards from the beginning and when they get to about 20 the magician cuts those top 20 cards to the bottom and then re-spreads and has them continue the count. If they get to about 40 then the magician cuts those cards to the bottom and re-spreads and has them continue the count. That way the number of remaining cards will be meaningless.

There are many mathematical stacks that do not require to memorize the stack, still allow for "fast enough" card to number and number to card (will never be as instant as a memorized deck though), and look "shuffled enough". I recommend you do some research in that direction, which would then allow the use of a normal deck, and normal not flimsy cards that can be touched or dealt to by a spectator.

You say that the calculation is "super simple", but there exceptions here and there, pitfalls, and overall it's not simpler than a mathematical stack, or actually learning a stack, which is a one time effort that doesn't take that long. Also, you can't deal the cards face up either, nor even show the one before or the one after. In those conditions, if the aim is to make an ACAAN with stooge very very easy, just use a double decker with 52 force cards, spectator names the number, stooge names the card... Or, again to get rid of the flimsy cards, a Svengali or pop eyed popper...

To FlorianHeller: I agree with everything you posted.
I should have kept it simple by saying to the spectator "everybody names a face card so I want you to name any of the other cards".

The calculation for the shill is very simple:
1. First digit is temporarily the suit value.
2. Second digit is temporarily the card value (treat a Ten card as value 0).
3. Then add 3 to the two digit number.

For the magician when counting the cards in the spread if they get up to about 20 then just cut those 20 cards to the bottom and continue counting from the top.