P
PALMING. Concealing cards in the palm of the hands.
PARLIEU. Is to allow one's money to lie on the table and double. For instance, the player puts $5 on the table, and it wins; instead of lifting it, he lets the original sum lie—that is called a parlieu.
PICKER-UP. We frequently read of country-men being "roped" into gambling-houses, but this occurs from the ignorance of the reporters, who know nothing of the language used by gamblers and sportsmen. Gamblers of the higher grade in New-York, never use the word "roper-in." It is usually confidence-men, ball-players, pocket book droppers, and others attached to that fraternity. The roper-in takes a man over to Brooklyn or New-Jersey, and is an actor in the swindle; the picker-up takes his man to a gambling-saloon, and there leaves him to be enchanted, enchained, and allured by what he sees. Sometimes he only gives the man he has picked up his card, which will admit him to a gaming-house, where he can play a card of another description. The roper-in and the picker-up therefore should not be confounded.
The picker-up is always a gentleman, in manners, taste, dress, and appearance, and sometimes has the superficial knowledge of a scholar. He is thoroughly informed on all the topics of the day. He has seen New-Orleans, knows all about it, and can talk of the gallant defense made there from behind the cotton-bales. He knows all about the evil results arising out of the agitation of the slavery question. He loves Boston and New-England, for it was there he was born and spent his earliest and his happiest days; it was the cradle and the birth-place of liberty, and the world looked with unreserved delight upon the efforts which the men of the East put forth in the cause of freedom; he has spent many happy years in the far West, its vast prairies, its wide-spread, majestic forests, and mighty rivers, and he can not help warming up when he reverts to these themes, which moved the hearts of philosophers, poets, and statesmen.
This is the picker-up. He first sees the man's name on the hotel-register, and where he is from. He then sees him out, studies his character, and ascertains his means and the object of his visit to the city; and the picker-up, if smart, reads his victim phrenologically without touching his head. Every man has some weak point which can be played upon, and the duty of the picker-up is to discover it. It does not take him long generally to get a stranger to visit a gambling-hell. Very many of the servants of hotels are in the pay of pickers-up—the duty of the servant being to get information concerning guests, which his employer can use.
PIKER. Is a man who plays very small amounts. Plays a quarter, wins, pockets the winnings, and keeps at quarters; and never, if he can help it, bets on his winnings.
PLAYING ON VELVET. Playing on the money that has been won from the bank.
PRESS. When a man wins a bet, and instead of lifting and pocketing the winnings, he adds to the original stake and winnings, it becomes a press.
PRIVATE GAME. So called because the flat is led to suppose that no professional gamblers are admitted, and thus he is the more easily duped.
PUBLIC GAME. A game where any body can be admitted.