The One Handed Drop Cut is a simple way to cut a deck of cards with one hand. This card trick might often be called by the simpler name of the “one handed cut.” The trick only has four steps and is very easy to learn.

Tutorial

The deck of cars is held along the long edges with your thumb on one edge and the fingers on the other side. Release half of the cards with your thumb and they will drop down into your palm.

Remove your index finger from the deck, move it below the dropped cards, and push up on those cards until they come in contact with you thumb. Once you reach this point, keep pushing and your thumb will release from the original cards.

These cards will drop down onto the fingernail and knuckle of your index finger. Lower the index finger so that the cards are resting on the fingers.

Move the thumb towards your finger tips, placing the cards held by your thumb on top of the other cards.

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The One Handed Lift Split Cut is very similar to the One Handed Drop Cut with some variations to spice it up a bit.

Tutorial

Hold a deck of cards in your fingers so that the finger tips wrap just over the edge of the deck.

Use your thumb to lift up half of the deck. The other side of these cards is held by the middle, ring, and pinky fingers.

Slide your index finger underneath the half of the desk which was left in place. Push up on the cards with your finger until they come in contact with your thumb. This should happen just below the spot where your thumb is holding the other half of the deck.

Use your thumb to put a bit of pressure on about half of cards you just pushed up with your index finger. This holds those cards in place. Drop your index finger slowly so that the cards you didn’t put pressure on with your thumb fall down to their original location.

Move your thumb back towards the wrist, letting go of the cards which were lifted in the first stop of the card trick. These cards will fall back on top of the other cards laying flat. Now move your thumb towards your finger tips, causing the remaining cards to lower on top of the rest of the deck.

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The One Handed Twirl Cut is a neat looking card trick. It is performed by twirling or twisting half of the deck of cards around and to the back of the other half.

Tutorial

To start the card trick, hold a deck of cards in your right hand. The thumb and middle finger are placed on the short edges of the cards. The index finger is held on a long edge of the cards and is about 1/3 of the length of the card away from the edge held by the middle finger. The ring finger is held in the middle of the other long edge of the cards.

Move the thumb to the lower corner of the edge it is holding. Separate half of cards from the deck with your thumb by lifting those cards up towards the top corner of this short edge.

Continue to raise the half deck up, using the index finger as an axis. As you do this, your pinky finger comes up to brace the corner of the edge being held by your ring finger.

Rotate your index finger as you lift the cards with your thumb, until you have the two halves of the deck side by side with the index finger in between the two halves.

Slide the top knuckle of your index finger along the edge of the left half of cards. You are really attempting to move the index finger behind these cards, but you need to slide it along so that the cards do not fall over. Once the knuckle passes to the back of the cards you can bring the other half of the cards (being held by the index finger and thumb) down and behind the original location of the whole deck. The middle finger releases from the left half of cards, which are now balancing on top of the index finger and being held in place by the ring and pinky fingers.

Move the index finger out of the way and use your thumb to move the cards all the way behind the original deck.

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The Front to Back Cut is a card trick that will be easier to perform for people with larger hands. This is due to the fact that during the trick you are almost holding two lengths of cards in your hand. If the distance between the tip of your pinky and the tip of your thumb in a stretched out hand is not more than 7.5 inches you most likely will not be able to perform the trick as described here.

Tutorial

Hold a deck of in your right hand with the thumb on the right long side of the cards, the index finger on the top side of the deck, middle and ring fingers on the left side of the cards, and the pinky on the bottom of the deck.

Move your thumb down to the lower right corner of the cards. Separate the deck of cards into two halves. Raise the top half of the deck, using your index finger as the pivot point.

Keep moving the half deck up until the pinky, index, and thumb are just about in a straight line. During this time you also need to lower the bottom half of cards a little bit.

Move your index finger in towards the palm a fraction of an inch so that the cards being held by the thumb and index finger can pass by the other cards. Move the cards back towards the pinky finger with your thumb, making sure to pass them behind the cards that were not moved by your thumb. At the same time, bring up those cards just a bit to meet your thumb. The cards will move back into place behind the half of the deck which was previously the bottom half.

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If you’ve ever watched the movie Rounders you’ve seen this card trick. The character of Lester “Worm” Murphy, played by Edward Norton, is showing doing this trick in a scene during the movie. It’s not a hard trick to learn and it isn’t anything flashy, but when someone catches you do it out of the corner of their eye they’ll think it looks pretty neat. I don’t know if the trick actually has a name so I decided to call it From the Top.

Tutorial

Hold the deck of cards in the palm of your hand. You thumb should be placed over the top of the cards and the rest of your fingers come up around the side of the cards.

Push the top card away from your palm and towards your fingers. Bring your index finger underneath the top corner of this card and keep the rest of your fingers along the edge of the card.

Life your index finger up and push on the card. At the same time, pull your thumb back towards your wrist. This should allow the card to start flipping up into the air. The middle, ring, and pinky fingers on the edge of the card or even slightly on top of the card. Keep pushing up with your index finger until the card clears your thumb. Then move the thumb back down onto the top of the deck. Make sure to put enough pressure on the deck with your thumb because it will soon be holding the deck in place.

The single card is now held mainly by the tips of the index and middle fingers. Move these fingers as well as your ring and pinky fingers away from the deck so that they are pointing straight out with an open hand. When you do this, the card flips over so that the underside of the card is exposed.

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