Bottom dealing or "base dealing" is a sleight of hand technique in which the bottom card from a deck of playing cards is dealt instead of the top card. It is used in card illusions, and as a method of card sharp.
The deck is typically held in a modified mechanic's grip in the dealer's non-dominant hand. The dealer slides the top card partially off the deck as if to deal it, while the dominant hand instead takes hold of the bottom card. The card is snapped away from the deck while the top card is reset.
Unless the dealer is particularly skilled at bottom dealing, the technique produces a slightly different sound from standard dealing, and the second-to-bottom card may be drawn slightly out of place. This is called a "hanger."
Bottom dealing and second dealing both have application in performance magic.
Bottom dealing experts include Persi Diaconis, Darwin Ortiz, Steve Forte, Jason England and Richard Turner.
Famous quotes containing the words bottom and/or dealing:
“I stand for the heart. To the dogs with the head! I had rather be a fool with a heart, than Jupiter Olympus with his head. The reason the mass of men fear God, and at bottom dislike Him, is because they rather distrust His heart, and fancy Him all brain like a watch.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“A second-class mind dealing with third-class material is hardly a necessity of life.”
—Harold Laski (1893–1950)