The Art of Pocket Management: Hidden Techniques with Playing Cards

By MagicianOAS 

Magicians love practicing sleights, right? Hours and hours spent on the double lift, the pass, controls, palms, and every subtlety in between. We’ll drill them in front of a mirror, film ourselves, refine the timing, the misdirection, the offbeat… all in the pursuit of making the impossible look effortless. 

But here’s a dirty secret: none of that matters if your pockets are chaos. If your props are crammed together, if you’re digging around mid-performance, or if you can’t find what you need at the exact moment you need it—your magic will look just as messy as you feel. 

Pocket management is sleight-of-hand for the body. It’s choreography, invisible stage direction. The goal is the same as with any move: smoothness, naturalness, inevitability. When your hands go to your pockets, the action should feel motivated, casual, and above suspicion. If instead you’re fumbling, searching, or telegraphing where the “secret” lives, you might as well flash the method—because the audience already knows you’re hiding something. 

Good pocket management means every object has a home. It means you know, without thinking, which pocket holds what and how it’s oriented. It means rehearsing not just the trick, but the journey of the props before, during, and after the trick. Done right, your pockets become an extension of your sleights: invisible, reliable, and completely under your control. 

After all, the audience doesn’t just watch your hands. They watch you. And when your movements are uncluttered and confident, the magic feels cleaner, stronger, and more impossible than ever. 

The Core Rules of Pocket Management

Here’s the first principle: every pocket has a job. If a pocket has two jobs, you’ll eventually get confused.  

However, the use of pocket management inserts can help with this, Pocket management inserts (sometimes called pocket organizers) are modular fabric or leather sleeves that slip inside your jacket, pants, or case pockets. They create structured compartments, so your props are always in the same place, easy to access, and oriented the right way. 

Instead of a chaotic pile of coins, cards, sponge balls, and gimmicks rattling around in your pockets, an insert gives you “slots” or “holsters” for each item. Think of it as a magician’s equivalent of a carpenter’s tool belt; everything is in reach, exactly where it should be. This will aid you to just find what you need without thinking. 

Why Use Them? 

Consistency: Every time you reach in, you know what you’ll find and how it’s positioned. 

Speed: No fumbling, no digging. You get what you need instantly.

Naturalness: Your actions look smooth and motivated, rather than suspicious or clumsy.

Protection: Props don’t bang into each other, get bent, or damaged in your pocket.

Rehearsal-friendly: Since each item has a “home,” you can rehearse pocket choreography the same way every time. 

Now, a pocket is a single entity, but you can subdivide the pocket and that's where inserts can help, but a word of warning, try not to overload with too many items. 

Types of Inserts 

Jacket Pocket Inserts – These slip into the inside breast pockets or side pockets of a jacket. They’re common for parlour or stage workers who need to carry multiple decks, packet tricks, or larger gimmicks.

Trousers Pocket Inserts – More subtle, designed for close-up workers who perform in walk-around settings. Often used to separate coins, sponge balls, or small packet tricks. 

Case Inserts – Some magicians extend the same philosophy to their close-up cases or briefcases, with removable organizers that keep props sorted before and after performance. 

Examples in the Magic World 

Joshua Jay’s “Pro Carrier” – More of a belt case than a pocket insert but designed for walk-around with multiple compartments. There are other versions out there as well.

LePaul Wallet Inserts – Organizers for packet tricks inside a wallet, but these can also be used in pockets.

Custom Leather Makers – Many magicians commission bespoke inserts from leatherworkers so they fit their exact set of tricks. This can be expensive but by using a DIY version first, you can create a blueprint and then get a custom one built.

DIY Solutions – Some magicians adapt things like makeup brush holders, tool rolls, or EDC pocket organisers as budget-friendly alternatives. This is my preferred method. This way you can customise and shape these for your style of clothes. Also, with cardboard, black gaffer tape and elastic webbing, they are fairly easy to make. 

Best Practices 

Assign every prop a permanent “home” and never change it (muscle memory is everything).

Orient items consistently (e.g., decks always face up, coins nested together).

Rehearse your pocket choreography—the sequence of loading, ditching, and retrieving props as carefully as your sleights.

Keep backups or “outs” in accessible places, but don’t overload. (Too many props = clutter again.) 

Let me give you my basic card layout:

Right front pocket for my active deck, the one I’m currently using. Left front pocket for my Advocate Pocket Index or your favourite stacked deck to switch out.

Right rear pocket for a ditch pocket. If I need to get rid of a deck, it goes here. I also keep a spare mini-Sharpie. These often make good excuses to go to your pocket as well.

Left rear pocket, I keep my outs here. Maybe an envelope, a duplicate card, or my mentalist peek wallet for peeks or a load for card-to-impossible-location.