First: ask the person on the other line to take any deck of cards, and give it a shuffle. Once they're done, ask them to look at the bottom card. That’s their card. That’s the card you’re trying to find.

Now, work your magic. Say something like, in your own words: “I want you to take the value of that card, say it’s a 5. So take the value of the secret card and that’s how many cards you take off the deck.

Now take your five cards and put it to the bottom.

Work them a little now. Say, “Your card is somewhere near the bottom, but not at the bottom.” Create a little mystique, anticipation.

One at a time, from the bottom, have them name out cards. Remember: It’s OK if they go past the card that is their card. Let them count about thirteen cards up.

The reason why is you’re counting the cards. What gets you thrown out of casinos works well in magic. And this is how it works: whatever their card is, it’s going to be the number of cards on the bottom—plus one. So for our example, it’s five cards on the bottom, plus one—that’s their card.

It’s really simple. Every time they match the number you're counting to, write down that card, because you could get multiple matches. Start counting on the second card. And always ignore the first card they tell you. They keep telling you cards and you count on your hands.

Then, lo and behold—a match! Five and five. So let them keep naming cards and write the matches down on a piece of paper. Then give them a little presentation, what we call, “fishing.”

“It wasn’t the black card, right?” You can fish to find their card. The idea is simple: no matter the card they choose, they have to put that many cards in front of it on the deck.

So take away that number and count the cards. It will match up to their selection, and that is a Chris Ramsay trick you can do over Zoom for friends.

Enjoy.