Haunted Deck

Haunted Deck (also known as "Self-cutting Cards") is a classic plot in card magic developed by Al Baker where a selected card placed back into the deck and usually held in the palm of the hand, eerily moves by itself back out of the deck.

In 1933 Louis Tannen was marketing it as the Haunted Pack.

Some Rising Cards effects were also marketed under the name "Haunted Pack".

Variations

• The Pack that Cuts Itself in Al Baker's Book One (1933), reprint in The Secret Ways of Al Baker (2003)
• Yehudi Deck by Walter Price (See Genii 1946 February, Vol. 10, no. 6, pg 194) - When two halves of the deck are placed together, the upper half bounds in the air and slides off to one side.
• Super Stunt by Paul Curry in The Phoenix no. 134, September 12, 1947, page 540; reprinted in Bruce Elliott's Professional Magic Made Easy (1959) - a version that leaves the deck clean and examinable.
• Chop Chop Deck (Al Wheatley) circa 1948 (also known as the Magnetic Deck) - The pack VISIBLY twists itself round into a cross-cut to reveale the chosen card.
• Swiv-ello, also marketed by Max Holden as Swivello in 1947 - The spectator places his finger on the deck while you stand any distance away. Upon announcing his card, the deck breaks and slowly and mysteriously revolves at the location of the selected card.
• Esoteric by Finn Jon - one or more cards "move" out of the deck. Marketed in 1965.
• Harry Lorayne's Double Saltless in Apocalypse, Vol. 3, No. 5, may 1980, page 340.
• Danny Korem's Impromptu Haunted Deck in Korem Without Limit - the deck cuts itself and turns the selected card face up. It is also repeatable (1985).
• The Haunted Pack by Eugene Burger in The Performance of Close-Up Magic (1987)
• Karl Fulves' Haunted in Riffle Shuffle Methods (1987)
• The Poltergeist Pack by Tommy Wonder in The Books of Wonder, Vol. 1 written by Stephen Minch (1996).
• Euan Bingham's The Ghost Cut in Free From Filler (2003)
• Kikuchi or Dr Martin Schwartz ? Cobra Deck 2006 or ????
• Esoteric by Finn Jon (2009)

• The Mechanical Deck, No. 11 in the Ron Bauer Private Studies Series (1999, revised 2001).
• Really Haunted by Doug Edwards, as part of the New Stars of Magic Series.
• Ghostly Deck

• Oh! Wee Gee by Warren Stephens
• Polter Deck by Bob Solari.

Videos

• The Haunted Pack. Eugene Burger's handling in the video Eugene Goes Bizarre (1990).