On Palming

Palming, is one of the oldest techniques in card magic. Magicians often use palming techniques to vanish or produce objects, in this case, cards. The technique is not exactly an easy thing to learn, because even though most people with big enough hands could palm; to look natural while palming could takes months to even years. Depending on the desired effect you want.

I, myself, cannot palm (as you can see above). I have struggled greatly when I started to learn card tricks due to my small pug hands; as most card tricks require larger hands for basic palming techniques. Throughout the years, I discovered new ways to get around these problems. And I'm here to give you some advice on what you can do if you can't palm.

"Tenkai Palm"

One of the most popular ways, is the Tenkai palm. It is as simple as the picture shows; hold the card with your thumb. But, the Tenkai palm is easy to flash, so you need to pay attention to the angle. Tenkai is more popular in card manipulation. The Tenkai palm is one of the easiest ways to conceal a card; preferably 1-on-1 magic tricks or card table tricks (or cheating in poker).

 

"Houdini Palm"

This palm technique is inspired by the Houdini Color Change. Unlike normal palming, Houdini Change uses the lower part of the palm to palm the card. This technique is very simple, but takes some time to learn how to fully conceal the card from the audience. Because of my small hands, I could easily flash it in the back of my palm; however the wrist and arm will be there to help.

"buckle the deck"

Palming is also a good way to "steal" a card from the deck. Throughout the years of learning cards and magic, I found the "bottom steal" works really well for me. Bottom steal (as the name says) is simply stealing the bottom card away from the deck. To do so, you first need to "buckle the deck", giving the bottom card a clean opening in order to steal (like the picture above). Then, you should be able to separate the bottom card from the deck (like the picture below). 

This half palming technique works great and hard to flash because the deck is basically covering for you. Now, to "steal" the card, simply take the deck with your other hand and move it forward to the audience as a distraction. This is essential because this move is very easy to flash and you want your movement to be fully natural. The stolen card could be hidden in your pocket, or even in a wallet; so that its a "deck-to-wallet" magic trick.

If you want to learn more about palming techniques on table, I strongly recommend Jason England for you. He is the master of cheating with cards, and his tutorial will be a great help for you to develop your style of magic in the future.

Happy palming!