While any ordinary pack of playing cards sold in the usual stores can
be used, it is best to secure, if possible, a pack whose face cards
have only a single head, inasmuch as when, in dealing, cards come out
reversed they bear a different signification in some cases, than when
upright. When, however, the usual double-headed cards are used it is
only necessary to make a distinctive mark on the top end of the faces
of certain ones to secure the same result as though the special
fortune-telling pack were employed. This mark may be a simple dot or
cross with pencil or pen, and should be made at one end of the card
only, which will then become the top of the card in all cases, and
cards coming out in the deal with this mark at their tops will be
considered as upright, and with the marked end down, as reversed. The
only cards that need to be thus distinguished are: The face cards of
each suit; the ace, eight, nine and ten of diamonds. (The spot cards
below the seven in any suit are, in most cases, not used. Where they
are employed, their reversal has no significance.) The top of the
seven of diamonds, and the other suits, is considered to be the end
that has the extra central pip. Spot cards of the three suits other
than diamonds usually require no mark to determine their top or
bottom. The "handles" of all spades and clubs, and the sharp points of
all hearts, point downward when those cards are upright; hence when
they point upward the cards are considered as reversed. If, however,
any other cards than those here mentioned are so printed as to make it
difficult to distinguish the top from the base, you should mark them
at the top.