ENCOUNTER
By Richard Robinson

The magician places three stacks of poker chips on the table as he talks about chance and how the chips represent success or failure in that regard.

Upsetting the stacks and spreading the chips around on the table, he asks a spectator to take a handful of chips and, without opening his hand, hold them for a moment. Once the spectator has done this, the magician also takes a handful of chips.

The magician turns away from the spectator and tells the spectator to count the number of chips he's holding. When the spectator announces he's done this, the magician turns back to face the spectator.

Smiling, the magician informs the spectator that he has as many chips as the spectator does, plus enough chips to make 16 and exactly one left over.

The spectator is asked to tell everyone how many chips he has and then count them on to the table. The spectator says "Nine" and counts out the nine chips.

As the spectator begins counting so does the magician. They each count nine chips. The magician counts out seven more from his hand to make 16, then opens his hand to show it contains one more.

Encounter is a self-working trick so long as the magician takes more chips than the spectator does.

Handling

Presentation

Take out the stacked chips and put them on the table. Knock over the stacks and spread the chips around, mixing the different colors.

Ask the spectator to take a handful of chips. Tell the spectator to keep his hand closed so no one can see how many chips he's taken. If you are working for several people, choose a person with smaller hands than your own just to make things easier.

Now take a large quantity of chips. You must take more chips than the spectator did.

Turn away from the spectator, telling him to count up how many chips he has. As he does this, count the number of chips you're holding and decide on the numbers you plan to announce, since you can vary them at each performance.

To ensure that you meet your first claim, that you have as many chips as he has, subtract only a few chips from your total. If you have 20 chips, plan on exposing 17 or 18 to justify your second claim with two or three left over for your final claim.

Performance Notes

This effect has a curious history. It is probable that it has been around for centuries, although it doesn't seem to have been documented until the early 1900s when a very brief description of the principle using match sticks was published in The Sphinx.

It was again brought to the attention of a generation of magicians in 1938 when it was explained in two books published that year, first Gerald Lynton Kaufman 'How's Tricks,' an easy magic book for the general public, then the classic 'Greater Magic' by John Northern Hilliard and Jean Hugard. In both explanations a deck of cards were used as the objects taken and counted. This allowed the performer to estimate how many cards he had to take to exceed the spectator's. However in the florid introduction in 'Greater Magic' the writer (probably not Hugard) notes that marbles, coins, nuts, crumpled paper balls or any other handful of objects can be used. Perhaps inspired by the Greater Magic title for the trick, 'A Matter Of Debit And Credit,' it reappeared in the Supreme Magic catalogue in the 1980s as Al Koran's Jackpot Coins using the principle with a supplied money bag and any coins.

On considering doing the trick, the magician might think it would be wise to hedge his bet that it will work by having a supply of additional objects available to be secretly added to those he takes or to use a change bag and thus set the maximum number of objects the spectator can take. However none of this is necessary, the impromptu handling described working just fine, creating a strong effect with minimal effort.