Means either putting your own pegs forward, or those of your adversary back, as they may best suit your purpose; and it is always executed while you are laying out your cards for crib.
The method generally adopted for this business is to take the two cards which you intend to put out for the crib, and fix them with your third finger on the back of the cards, and your others on the front; then holding them fast in your hand, you cover the pegs in the board from the sight of your adversary, while with your first finger and thumb on the same hand, you take out unperceived any peg you like, and place the same wherever you think proper.
THE BRIDGE; or, “THE OLD GENTLEMAN”
Is a card slightly curved. By introducing it carelessly into the pack, and shuffling them, it can be cut at pleasure. The trick of the “Old Gentleman” consists in merely introducing into the pack a card of thicker substance than the rest, which can likewise be cut at pleasure, by being properly placed by the shuffler.
SKINNING.
It is by this operation that unfair cards are introduced, and too often without creating suspicion, by the ingenuity with which it is performed. Certain fair cards are taken out of the original stamped cover, without injury to it, and in their stead either concave, convex, or pricked ones, or reflectors, are placed. The stamp being stuck on the cover by means of gum, which the application of warm water dissolves, or deprives of its tenacity: a kettle of hot water and a sponge are the only things requisite. The exchange being completed, the unfair pack finds its way into societies of a certain description, where it is contrived to be placed on the card-tables unobserved. Plunder is the inevitable result.
SHUFFLING OR WEAVING.
Much fraud is practised by the help of dextrously shuffling, by which the power to place cards in certain parts of the pack is under the control of the sharper, when become an adept in the art. The preparatory step is a strict observance of the tricks taken up on both sides, and their contents, when those rich in trumps or court cards are selected to be operated upon by the shuffler, when it is his turn to deal.
THE GRADUS, OR STEP.
Consists in one particular card being so placed by the shuffler, on handing them to his adversary to be cut, as to project a little beyond the rest, and thus to insure its being the turn-up card, either at whist or ecarté.