MATRIX GLASS By Patricio Teran Trick Secret Explained

The underlying principle of MATRIX GLASS by Patricio Teran is similar to his 2023 SHOT GLASS MATRIX and 2021 MATRIX DADOS PLUS tricks.

It is a modernized take on Al Schneider’s classic 1960 Matrix plot, replacing the traditional coins with four shot glasses.

As the jumbo cards and shot glasses are repeatedly lifted and moved, the four glasses mysteriously and impossibly transpose to a single corner.

For those who would like to learn more about the classic Matrix coin trick, I’ve included a big list of recommended books below.

Welcome to another post from the Info Ruckus Magic Trick Secrets Revealed series.

Patricio Teran’s MATRIX GLASS Trick Secrets

The two key secrets behind this updated version of the Matrix effect are:

• A gimmicked card with a built-in tab, allowing the card to stand upright on its own.
• A prepared mug of beer concealed in a holder, suspended from the edge of the table in front of the performer, ready for the finale.

The Hidden Corner Tab

At the 0:20 mark, you’ll notice that the edge of the last jumbo card (King of Hearts) is slightly thicker.

This is because it is a gimmicked card with a concealed tab that can be lowered to support the card.

At 0:19, when he spreads the King of Hearts card, you can catch a glimpse of the cutting line along the border of the design, as indicated in the visual below.

I think this is the corner section of the card where the tab is concealed.

The tab is what supports the card, making it appear as though the card is leaning against the glass (Position 1) throughout the effect.

A similar gimmick is also used in Patricio Terán’s MATRIX DADOS PLUS.

The supporting tab allows the card to stand upright is at the center, as highlighted in the visual below.

Watch the MATRIX GLASS demo video below:

For a clearer explanation, I will refer to the four shot glasses as Position 1, Position 2, Position 3, and Position 4, as labelled in the visual below.

Four gimmicked shot glasses are pre-loaded into a holder and concealed behind the fan of jumbo cards in his hand.

At precisely 0:17, as he places the last glass on the table in Position 4, his left hand carrying the cards moves off the tabletop, secretly dropping the holder.

This type of secret dropping move in magic is known as lapping.

Lapping is a sleight-of-hand technique in which the performer secretly drops an object, such as a coin, card, or die into their lap, making it appear to vanish.

MATRIX GLASS Magic Trick Secret Moves

At 0:20, he uses his left thumb to fold down the supporting tab before bringing the cards to the first glass at Position 1.

Just before he sets the jumbo King of Hearts card upright at Position 1, at 0:22, his left thumb secretly steals the glass that has been concealed behind the cards.

The glass is now gone, yet the jumbo King of Hearts remains standing on its own.

This is possible because of the secret supporting tab on the card, which acts as a hidden stand.

From that moment onward, there is no glass behind the card at Position 1.

Then, at 0:28, he places the hidden glass from Position 1 next to the glass in Position 2, as he sets the card leaning against them.

He then continues by placing the other two cards in front of the glasses in Position 3 and Position 4.

Four Shot Glasses Positioning

At this moment, the four glasses are actually positioned as follows:

Then, at 0:36, he lifts up the glass from Position 2 together with the card.

The shot glass now sitting at Position 2 is actually the glass that was secretly taken from Position 1 earlier in the routine.

Next at 0:39 he replaces the stolen glass back next to the glass at Position2.

At 0:42, as he lifts the card at Position 2 to reveal the two glasses, his right thumb secretly steals the glass from Position 3.

Then, with the stolen glass in his right hand, he places it together with the two glasses already at Position 2.

There are now three shot glasses at Position 2.

At 0:48, his left hand secretly steals the glass from Position 4 and places it at Position 2.

In other words, there are now four shot glasses at Position 2.

To finish the MATRIX GLASS by Patricio Teran, at 1:00, he gathers the four jumbo cards toward the edge of the table.

At the same time, he secretly uses his right thumb to lift the big mug of beer that has been hanging from the table edge since the beginning of the performance.

Regarding the finale of the MATRIX DADOS PLUS trick, the big die has actually been hidden behind his ring finger and pinkie from the very beginning of the performance.

You can tell by the awkward way he holds the card throughout the act.

The Psychology Of MATRIX GLASS by Patricio Teran

The mystery of MATRIX GLASS by Patricio Teran comes not only from its secret method but also from psychology.

What spectators notice, expect, and assume can create a powerful gap between what actually happens and what they believe happened.

Selective Attention

Spectators cannot consciously process every detail at once. Their attention naturally follows what appears most important. In MATRIX GLASS or SHOT GLASS MATRIX, the cards and glasses create a strong visual focus, allowing secret actions to occur without becoming consciously significant.

Inattentional Blindness

Related to selective attention is inattentional blindness—the tendency to miss something visible when attention is occupied elsewhere. The spectator may be looking directly at the card and glass without registering every small movement. The secret does not always need to be invisible; it only needs to remain psychologically unimportant.

Change Blindness

Change blindness is our difficulty noticing changes when attention is elsewhere or when the change occurs during a distracting movement. The repeated lifting and repositioning of cards and glasses creates natural opportunities for important changes to blend into the surrounding actions.

Expectation

Expectation is a powerful tool in magic. Once spectators believe a glass is supporting a card, they naturally assume that relationship continues unless they see otherwise. When the card appears to stand on its own, that established assumption does much of the work for the magician.

Assumption and Inference

Spectators constantly make inferences rather than consciously verifying every event. If a card appears to stand where a glass was placed, they may automatically conclude that the glass is still supporting it.

This highlights an important principle of magic: seeing something and understanding what happened are not always the same thing.

Gestalt and Object Permanence

The cards and glasses form a simple, structured visual pattern. Through Gestalt principles, the brain tends to perceive these objects as a unified scene rather than examining each one independently.

Similarly, object permanence leads spectators to maintain a mental picture of where an object should be, even when its physical position has secretly changed.

Cognitive Load

Tracking four glasses, multiple cards, and their changing positions creates cognitive load. The more information spectators try to follow, the less capacity they have to analyze every individual movement.

The goal is not simply to move quickly, but to provide enough information to follow the effect without enough information to reconstruct the method.

Misdirection

Modern misdirection is often less about making spectators look away and more about controlling what they consider important. Every action appears to have a logical purpose, so the audience watches the story the hands appear to be telling rather than analyzing every secret movement.

The Psychology Behind the Mystery

What makes MATRIX GLASS so deceptive is the combination of method and psychology. Attention, expectation, assumption, and memory help transform a series of secret actions into an apparently impossible event.

The magician is not simply manipulating cards and glasses. He is also manipulating the audience’s perception of what is important, what is possible, and what they believe they have witnessed.

Books Featuring Matrix Routine

If you are looking to study the foundational mechanics, bare-handed variants (“Chink-a-Chink” style), or heavy card-and-coin routine variations, here are the essential books in magic books with the Matrix routine:

1. The Core Al Schneider Texts

To study the direct source code of the effect, you start with the creator himself.

Al Schneider On Coins (Al Schneider) 

• The Focus: The foundational text detailing Schneider’s exact handling of the classic 4-coin, 4-card Matrix, along with variations like Crossed Cards.
• Why it matters: It breaks down the critical timing, pickup moves, and natural hand positions required so the sleights look completely invisible.

Al Schneider Magic (Al Schneider / L&L Publishing)

• The Focus: A broader compilation of Schneider’s life’s work, including deep theoretical analysis on deception and multiple handlings of Matrix and bare-handed coin assemblies.

Fast Track Coin Magic (Al Schneider)

• The Focus: A streamlined entry point designed to take close-up workers through key coin routines, explicitly detailing the mechanics of the original 1960 layout.

2. Definitive Coin Magic Anthologies

These books collect multiple variations of the plot from different master performers.

Kaufman’s Coin Magic (Richard Kaufman)

• The Focus: Widely considered a landmark modern coin text.
• Matrix Content: Contains notable variations including Barehanded Matrix and contributions from David Roth, Derek Dingle, and Geoff Latta.
• Why it matters: It captures how the plot evolved in the late 70s and 80s when magicians moved away from cards to perform visual, un-covered coin assembly.

Modern Coin Magic (J.B. Bobo / Expanded Edition)

• The Focus: While the original 1952 edition predates Schneider’s Matrix, later expanded editions detail classic precursor plots (such as Chink-a-Chink and Sympathetic Coins) that established the underlying assembly mechanics.

3. Notable Creator-Specific Books

The Complete Works of Derek Dingle (Richard Kaufman)

• Matrix Content: Features Dingle’s Deluxe Matrix, which adds kicker finishes (such as giant coin climaxes or instant reversals) that became standards in commercial routines.

The Books of Wonder, Vol. 1 & 2 (Tommy Wonder & Stephen Minch)

• Matrix Content: Tommy Wonder’s take on close-up assemblies focuses heavily on audience psychology, lap work, and eliminating awkward rest periods during coin/card pick-ups.

Acaan & Beyond / Latta Magic Literature (Geoff Latta routines)

Matrix Content: Covers Geoff Latta’s legendary work on Shadow Coins—one of the cleanest, most visual bare-handed assembly routines ever devised.

Key Variations Covered Across These Texts

• Classic Matrix: 4 Coins, 4 Cards, 1 Extra Coin (Schneider Method).
• Reverse Matrix: Coins gather, then instantly teleport back to all four corners.
• Bare-Handed Matrix / Shadow Coins: No cards used; hands simply wave over coins to cause transpositions.
• Chink-a-Chink: The classic antecedent using bare hands and non-card props (corks, dice, or bare coins).

More Books With Matrix and Other Coin Assembly

Several other notable magic books feature exceptional Matrix and coin assembly variations, from gimmick-based methods and visual underground sleights to full-act routines.

1. Comprehensive Modern Coin Manuals

Rubinstein Coin Magic (Dr. Michael Rubinstein)

• The Focus: One of the most exhaustive coin books published in recent decades.
• Matrix Content: Contains a full dedicated section on coin assemblies. Features Rubinstein’s “Stealth Matrix” variations, visual Reverse Matrix routines, and gimbled/gimmicked setups that allow for impossible-looking bare-handed conditions.

Geoff Latta: The Long Goodbye (Stephen Minch & Stephen Hobbs)

• The Focus: Documents the underground magic of Geoff Latta, one of the greatest close-up coin technicians.
• Matrix Content: Home to Latta’s legendary “Shadow Coins” (the quintessential bare-handed Matrix) and “A.S.A.P. Matrix“, which focus on subtle, natural hand mechanics without heavy, contrived movements.

Expert Coin Magic (David Roth & Richard Kaufman)

• The Focus: The definitive bible for modern coin sleight-of-hand.
• Matrix Content: Features David Roth’s classic handlings of the assembly plot, including his “Chink-a-Chink” (performed with brass weights or coins) and un-carded assemblies that utilize precise friction-patter and lap techniques.

2. Books With Standout Individual Variations

The Magic of Akani / John Mendoza Books (e.g., The John Mendoza Book) (Stephen Minch)

• Matrix Content: Features “Mendoza’s Simple Matrix” and his “Reverse Matrix“, widely praised by commercial performers for being direct, highly practical, and quick to reset.

The Commercial Magic of J.C. Wagner (Mike Maxwell)

• Matrix Content: Home to Wagner’s “Poor Man’s Matrix” and “Super Matrix“, which incorporate card-play kickers where the coins assemble and then transform or vanish cleanly.

Stars of Magic (George Starke / Louis Tannen)

• Matrix Content: Features Ross Bertram’s “Rubbing the Coins” and classic precursor assemblies. While predating the 1970s “Matrix” moniker, it details the foundational pickup and slide mechanics that inspired Schneider’s work.

The Secrets of Brother John Hamman (Richard Kaufman)

• Matrix Content: Brother John Hamman approached close-up magic with unique structural twists. His “Digital Matrix” utilizes playing cards in a way that creates a completely different sequence of reveals compared to standard sleights.

3. Specialized & Gimmicked Matrix Literature

Deceptions with Karate Coins / Shell Work Texts

If you work with expanded shells, books like “Coinology” or specialized booklets by Dean Dill (such as his work on Explosion or Tonight’s Matrix) feature coin assemblies where the coins vanish and gather instantly with zero hand cover.

4. Miscellanous Resources

Sleight of Hand By Edwin Sachs
The Art of Magic By T. Nelson Downs
Knack Magic Tricks: A Step-by-Step Guide to Illusions, Sleight of Hand
By Richard Kaufman
Expert Card Technique By Jean Hugard, Frederick Braue
Classic Secrets of Magic by Bruce Elliott