Take a good look at the way the pips are laid out on a 10 playing card. Pips are the markings on a card; be they diamonds, clubs, spades or hearts. They way the 10 card is laid out plays a very important part of this “magic” trick.

You will also need an assistant and a quick set up before the trick begins. Your choice of an assistant needs to be someone trustworthy as they will have to keep your secret. Setting up the deck is easy. You simply take any 10 card and place it at the bottom of the deck before you begin your spiel.

If you are playing to an audience, let people know you will need a volunteer out of the audience. For patter, let them know you consider them a “guest” to your special brand of magic. Of course, if you do not have an audience, anyone in the room besides you and your assistant can be your guest.

Tell the guest that you would like them to pick a card out of the deck and then to show it to your assistant and you will then guess their chosen card. Go ahead and let the guest pick their card after they know what to do.

When they are ready to show it to your assistant, instruct them that they need to turn their backs to you and you will turn your back to them. Make sure your back is turned to any audience as well.

When all backs are turned, count to “5” very loudly, giving you time to bring the 10 card up to the top from the bottom of the deck. Since your backs are turned, the guest and the audience should not see you move the 10 card to the top of the deck.

After you have counted to “5”, turn around and have your assistant put the card on top of the deck. Hand the deck to the assistant and have him or her place the top 10 cards on the table in random order. You could get dramatic here and turn your back to everyone again.

The assistant, who knows your trick, will then lay out the cards in the shape of the pips on the 10 card. It looks random.

Now ask the assistant to give you a small break and point to 5 cards, one of which is the card chosen by the guest. After the assistant has picked out the 5 cards, you will tell the guest which of the five cards is the one they chose.

In a very sneaky move, the assistant will point to 5 cards. Three cards the assistant points to will be at random. One card, of course, will be the chosen card. One card must be the 10 card.

When the assistant points to the 10 card, he will point to the pip on the 10 card that shows the placement of the chosen card as laid out on the table. You will then pretend to look very hard at the 5 cards and then pick up the guests chosen card.