Two approaches to forcing a card in a row of four cards, using a roll of a die as the selection method, was described in Magic, Vol. 13 No. 1, Oct. 1912, p. 4. Both approaches forced the position using the ambiguity of starting the count from either end of the row.

The ploy of asking for a number between one and four to choose one of four packets or cards, then counting from either the left or right end to arrive at the desired packet, is described by Stanley Collins in his “Omega Ace Experiment” in Original Magical Creations, c. 1915, p. 28, and may be original with him.

Rupert H. Slater contributed “The Educated Die” to The Magician Monthly, Vol. 6 No. 2, Jan. 1920, p. 24. This consists of the force of a card from a row of six. Three of the cards are duplicates, which alternate with indifferent cards. A die is rolled and the number arrived at is used to count to a card in the row. The parity of the rolled number dictates from which direction the counting begins.