Originally released by Nick Trost in the 1970's, THE UNKNOWN CARD is a great example of how Trost could simplify a handling using subtlety, boldness and some custom printed gaffs.
The original versions of this trick have been extremely hard to find, since about the 1980's, but in the early 2000's, Nick Trost struck a deal with L&L Publishing to re-issue many of his classic packets. And THE UNKNOWN CARD was one of those chosen for the re-issue collection.
The effect is this: The magi shows a six card poker hand (from the little known game of "Arkansas Fold 'em"). Three cards in the fan are faceup -- three Fours -- and the other three cards are facedown. The packet is squared and turned over, then re-fanned to show those "hole" cards -- three Tens! Per the game's rules, you get to draw one extra card ("the unknown card"), so you take a card from your pocket and add it facedown to the fan. And per the rules, you discard three cards, so you deal the three facedown Fours onto the table. When the facedown Unknown card is taken off the three Tens and put back in your pocket, the Tens are now seen to be Blanks! To make your hand even worse, the tabled Fours are turned faceup and they also have become blanks! The unknown card is removed from your pocket again, and now its face is shown: it is a mishmash of pips and card values from your poker hand!
One of my favorite Trost effects -- I prefer to use a Z-fold (or Himber) wallet to hold the Unknown card, rather than going in and out of my pocket. But either way, this effect has a lot of very magical moments, and the charismatic mish-mash card finale is very memorable for lay audiences.
New-old dealer inventory, so in new and unused condition, complete with all props and original instruction sheet.