# Zen of Marking Playing Cards

2026-03-29 - [55] 1:9

For folks who have known me for a while, you might know that I like doing card tricks. As such, I tend to bring a deck of cards with me pretty much everywhere I go in case the opportunity calls for a few tricks.

There is something you should generally know about me... if I bring out a Bicycle deck with the classic "Rider" back (likely the most common United States Playing Card Company deck design), there's an excellent chance that the deck is marked. I don't tend to use the markings, but there are some moments where a trick could be enhanced by not having to look at the face of some cards.

The process of marking a deck is a decently slow one, and you have to pay attention the entire time or you'll make a stupid mistake, essentially ruining the entire deck of cards. It is because I just finished up marking 2 decks of cards today that I am writing this (along with the fact that I haven't written anything in a few months).

## Marking the Deck

The marking system I use is a slight modification of the "BLOOD" marking system by magician and card cheat Daniel Madison.

This is an example of what a marked card will look like when it is fully marked. This card is the 7 of clubs and is upside-down.

I use a Sharpie permanent marker matching the color of the card backs and dab away excess Sharpie ink for each card I mark. You don't need a lot of Sharpie ink to mark the cards. In fact, I recommend using about as little as you can get away with, otherwise the markings can appear darker than the normal ink of the card. This darkening seems to be more visible to me on red backed decks than blue backed decks, but I haven't had people call me out on dark spots while using the red decks, so I don't think it's too big of a deal with the right lighting situations.

## Corner Markings

The main markings I utilize are on the top-left and bottom-right of the card. This is due to that portion of each card being mostly visible while spreading out a deck of cards (in a "pick a card, any card" sort of fashion).

### Corner Suit

The suit is marked at the curved line near the mermaid tail of the angel at the top-left corner of the card.

Depending on what parts of the curved line are colored in, a different suit is denoted.

- Spades:

- Hearts:

- Clubs:

- Diamonds:

### Corner Value

The value is marked at the 5 triangular dots about halfway up the angel at the top-left corner of the card.

Depending on which triangular dots are colored in, a different value is denoted.

- Joker:

- Ace:

- 2:

- 3:

- 4:

- 5:

- 6:

- 7:

- 8:

- 9:

- 10:

- Jack:

- Queen:

- King:

## Center Markings

I also mark the center of the deck as well, as sometimes I can see the markings better at a slightly farther distance. The markings here are on the birds next to the angels riding their bicycles.

### Center Suit

To the left of the bicycle riding angel and below the hilly horizon are 2 birds. Just like the curved suit line at the top-left corner of the card, we will mark the birds here to denote the suit of the card.

- Spades:

- Hearts:

- Clubs:

- Diamonds:

### Center Value

Above the 2 suit birds are 4 value birds. The coloring of these birds are nearly identical to the triangular dots, with the exception that there isn't a bird to correspond to the first triangular dot.

The Joker's value coloring is different in the center than it is in the corner as a result of not having a bird to correspond to the first triangular dot.

- Joker:

- Ace:

- 2:

- 3:

- 4:

- 5:

- 6:

- 7:

- 8:

- 9:

- 10:

- Jack:

- Queen:

- King:

## Card Orientation

A card can either be upside-down or rightside-up. When you spread a bicycle deck of playing cards face-down, you will likely notice that the cards are not cut perfectly center. For the left and right sides of each card, there will likely be a thick side and a thin side. The same will probably apply to the top and bottom of each card as well. If you orient all of the cards so the thick side is always on the same side, you will notice that the orientation of the cards will all be the same.

Many cards are "top heavy", where the top of the card has the majority of pips along with the majority of pips pointing upwards. Orienting all of the cards will turn the deck into a "one-way" deck, where you can tell if a card is out of place because it is upside-down in relation to the rest of the cards.

I will mark one part of 1 side of each card to denote whether a card is upside-down.

Unlike the other markings, which match if I rotate the card 180 degrees, I only make a single mark to denote the side orientation. Specifically, I only mark the orientation mark on the left side of the card when the card is upside-down. To mark this spot, I make sure all of the cards are upside-down and mark it as such.

- Upside-Down:

- Rightside-Up:

## Jokers

There are 2 jokers in a deck of cards. One is usually black and white while the other is in color. I consider the black and white joker to be the "Joker of Spades" and the joker in color to be the "Joker of Hearts". As such, I mark them both accordingly. Most card games and tricks don't use the jokers, but it's nice to have them marked for the few cases where they could come in handy.

## Conclusion

With all of these rules shown, it should now be possible to see that the example of the full card is the 7 of clubs and it is rightside-up. If you have a want/need to cheat at cards, feel free to mark a deck of cards. You certainly don't need to do all of the markings I do, but I figure it's useful to give myself a second chance at identifying a card by having both the corner and center marked. I also figure it's nice to know if a card is turned over in the rare cases where I orient the entire deck to be in a single direction.

## Contact/Reply

If you would like to reply to this post, feel free to send me an email.

Email: vi@vigrey.com [Email]
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