MagicDan says: My apologies to the members of the Magic Cafe who were having trouble with the original description of this stacked deck. It was incorrect. I wasn't aware of it until someone kindly emailed me and questioned it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! Although this might not be the easiest way to set the deck...it does work correctly now.
The following is a deck "stack" that must be set up ahead of time and maintained as you handle the deck. Among other things, by peeking at the bottom card, you can tell what the top card is. This allows you to perform many miracles!!
Start by dividing your deck into suits and into numerical order... Ace (top) to King (bottom).
Clubs: Leaving the Ace, Two and Three in the same order, move them to the bottom of the Clubs pile.
Hearts: Repeat with Ace - 6 and move to bottom of Hearts piles.
Spades: Repeat with Ace - 9 and move to bottom of Spades pile.
Diamonds: Repeat with Ace - Queen and move to bottom of Diamonds pile.
Turn each pile face down.
Beginning with the pile on the left, take one card from each pile and stack them on top of each other. Continue until you have all the cards stacked.
Now.... reverse count the entire deck.
What you now have is a deck that is in the CHSD order and each card's value is off by three. (Jacks are 11, Queens are 12, Kings are 13)
An example: 2C, 5H, 8S, JD
If you look at the bottom card (ex. 6S), the top card will be the next suit (Diamonds) and a value of three more than the 6. (9D)
With this system you always know the card selected by the spectator. Be careful not to shuffle this deck as it destroys the arrangement. You can however, cut the deck as many times as you want, as long as you complete the cut each time.