I’ve been going on a card magic binge this break, going through Card College and various videos such as the Born to Perform DVD. By far the simplest, but still incredibly effective, trick was the Biddle trick as seen above. The sleights are very simple, and easy to execute. As a result, it’s great for building up the confidence to perform (I guess there’s a reason for the DVD’s title).
Still, I didn’t like how he handled the beginning. I found that using a peek control and riffling past the selected card to hold the break seems more natural for me. As justification, I say something like “are you sure you wanted that card? could’ve picked any of these fine cards!”