The idea of having someone think of the highest (or lowest) card in an apparently random group of cards removed from the deck seems first to have been described by Orville Meyer in The Jinx Summer Extra 1935, p. 43, “The 'One of a Bunch' Force”.

J. K. Hartman suggested using this ploy in the context of dealing hands for a card game and having someone think of the highest card in their chosen hand. See Means and Ends, 1973, p. 81, within the trick titled “Hope for the Best”.

• Category in Denis Behr's "Conjuring Archive"