“Second.—
Whenever the cards are cut, be sure and have the two separated parts of the pack put together before dealing. An old gentleman once said to a young man, ironically, who was dealing from a part of the pack, ‘Young man, you ought never to play cards until your hands have grown sufficiently large to hold the whole pack at one and the same time.’ The reason is this: The party shuffling has a chance to know what cards are on the top of the pack, and by holding only the cut portion in his hand while dealing, knows into whose hand these cards fall, or if they should fall to himself, he would know [19] ]how to discard, so as to have his hand helped by drawing. You see this gives the dealer an advantage over the other players.
“Third.—
The pack, or any undealt portions of it, should at all times remain in sight of the players, and upon the table, and held by the dealer only while actually engaged in dealing or in helping hands. This is to prevent the dealer from obtaining knowledge while holding the cards on or below the surface of the table.
“Fourth.—
In gathering up the discarded cards for the purpose of shuffling, be sure that the faces of the cards are turned from the shuffler; for otherwise the party shuffling gains an advantage, by knowing the position of some of the higher cards, and besides, it gives him an opportunity of ‘putting up the cards’ while shuffling. In no instance, however, should the discarded cards be gathered up while some are still engaged in playing their hands.
“Fifth.—
In helping the players after discarding, always give the number called for, together, [20] ]as they come from the pack, and not singly, one by one; for this reason: There are persons who can with their finger-nails, or ring, or by a slight bend, so mark the cards, as to know them whenever these marks are seen; and in dealing they can only see the marks by dealing the cards off one at a time, and not together. And besides, if the dealer deals them off singly, and knows the bottom card, he can, as I have said, help himself to that card, which he could not so well do by dealing them off together. Again, some dealers are so expert, that they can deal continually the second card from the top of the pack; they can give you any number called for, one at a time, without disturbing the top card, which top card the dealer, of course, wants himself, to help his hand. This could not be done, if the number called for were dealt off together, and not one at a time. This is called, ‘Dealing Seconds.’
