The Extraordinary Card Magic of Jason Ladanye: Best for Last from Confident Deceptions

I'd like to do one more trick if that's okay. And I wanna use a brand new deck of cards. And we'll consider this the last trick of the evening. So I'd like to thank you all for helping me out. And I don't know when's the last time you opened up a brand new deck of cards, but brand new decks always come with some junk cards and the jokers and such. So we'll get rid of those. And I also have to give the cards a couple shuffles because brand new decks always run with the ace through king, ace through king, and all the suits are organized. And I wanna give the cards a couple shuffles to break that up. And John, you know that after you shuffle the cards, what are you supposed to do? You always cut the cards because that keeps things honest. So John, can you cut about half the cards over, just like it's done in a game? Good, and complete the cut. Excellent. And that should be enough to break up that new deck sequence, that's what we call it. Now, John, are you familiar with the ranks of hands at all? Yes. As a matter of fact, they're all written right here. Like two pair, three of a kind, right? I'd like to show you something I do to make sure every time I sit down to play poker, I end up a winner. I certainly don't deal myself four aces every hand. That'll be too sensational. I don't want it to be obvious that I'm cheating. So all I have to do is deal myself hands that are slightly better than my opponents. So to stay sharp, I practice cutting to all of the hands, from lowest to highest. And, John, I might ask you to read some of those hands off for me, because they're all listed there, from lowest to highest, and they list all the hands, but they also list the odds. But the odds apply to straight poker, it's called, and that means that deuces aren't wild, so I'm not gonna waste your time cutting to deuces. So, John, what is the lowest ranking hand that you can have in poker? No pair or high card. And if I'm gonna play a high card, I'm gonna play an ace. Now, let's assume for a second that you're playing high card. What is the next highest ranking hand? A pair. A pair. I think there's a pair of fives right about here. So let's assume that we're playing poker and you're playing a pair of fives. If you're playing one pair, I'm gonna play... Two pair. Two pair. And if I'm not mistaken, there should be a pair of fours right about here, and there should be a pair of sixes right about here. You're starting to see the pattern, right? Now, the next highest ranking hand is three of a kind, but John, what are the odds of getting three of a kind? Three of a kind is one in 50. One in 50. I mean, honestly, who has time for odds like one in 50? Now, the secret to this is knowing where all this stuff is before I cut to it, and do you remember when I spread the cards across the table to make sure that the deck was mixed? You know what I was really doing? I was finding hands like three of a kind and two pair and a pair, because hands like those will occur naturally even in a shuffled deck, but the next highest ranking hand is a straight. A straight is, say for example, two, three, four, five, six in order. A straight is a little bit more difficult to find in a shuffled deck because really it's unlikely that you're gonna find two through six in order in a shuffled deck. It's more likely you're gonna find a straight in fragments. In other words, you might find a two and a five right about here. You might find a three and a six right about here, which means now I have to cut exactly 28 cards from the top of the deck to find that four, so you can see a straight is a lot more difficult to find. Now, getting that straight to the top of the deck is really only half the work. If I want that straight in my hand, I have to stack the deck, and that means that I'm gonna cut that straight into the deck, but I'm still keeping track of it. I'm gonna give the cards a couple shuffles, and I'm gonna stack the deck for a three-handed game of draw poker. That way, when I deal, I should receive the straight. And, you know, the player at the first position didn't get much of anything of any value. I think he got a pair of eights and a jack high, if I'm not mistaken. The player at the second position didn't get much of anything. I don't even think he got a pair, but you can see that I ended up getting this. That's the straight. You know, if you're one card off with this, you can end up giving your opponent a really strong hand. I can't believe I gave him the straight. John, what is the next highest ranking hand that beats a straight? A flush. And that's the one where all the cards are the same suit, right? I even gave myself the ace high flush, just in case anyone else was playing flush. And do you know what the odds are of getting a flush? One in 500? One in 500, you're right. And, you know, some people make those odds more favorable by playing deuces wild, but really, I'm not gonna waste your time cutting the deuce. I mean, really, playing deuces wild is for amateurs. Now, on that last hand, I dealt my opponent a strong hand on purpose. Why would I deal my opponent a strong hand? I did that on purpose because as long as I deal myself a hand that's slightly stronger, not only guarantees that I'm gonna win the hand, it guarantees I'm gonna win the most money. So for this next hand, that's exactly what I did. I just stacked the deck so that the player at the first position will receive the next highest ranking hand, which is after- A full house? A full house, good, yes, exactly. Now, the first thing this player's gonna do when he sees his king's full of queens, he's gonna reach for his wallet. But so will this player, because he's playing the next highest ranking hand, four of a kind, four sevens with an ace high kicker. This player will certainly have all his money on the table because he's playing a straight flush eight through queen of hearts. But don't worry, I'll have all my money on the table too because I saved the best for last. A royal flush in spades.