No man is secure from the artifice of the gambler; so long as he will play at all, he may rest assured that he will, in the end, come out loser, for the methods of cheating are almost innumerable. A majority of gamblers have arrived at such perfection in the art of dealing that they will deal the second card from the top instead of the top card, and will go all through the pack in that manner: and you may look directly at them, and will not be able to detect the cheat. They will, at other times, have a hand which they have stolen out, and will smuggle it under the bottom; then, in the course of dealing, they will deal this hand just where they please, and defy you to discover their dealing from the bottom. A gambler will often deal himself six or seven cards, when he should have but five, and if he can make a good hand, by laying out the two poorest in his lap, he will do so; or if he cannot make a good hand, he will take the two best to help him in his next hand. This cheat is very often practised.
DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND.
1 will here relate a case which occurred not long since, as going to show how well-experienced men will play more than their number. A gambler got to playing, coming up from Goodwood, with a man whom he mistook for a “greeney” that knew nothing of playing scientifically. But he was sadly deceived. The gambler from the beginning played somewhat carelessly, supposing that it needed no science to beat the stranger; but the gambler lost, and commenced playing as scientifically as he could. He still lost, and finally lost nearly all he had before he left off; and after quitting, they went to the buffet to drink. The gambler said to his antagonist, “You beat any man for luck I ever played with. I’ve lost my money with you, but it makes no difference: I will be honest with you; you did not know it, but I played six cards all the time, and your luck beat it.” “Well,” said the innocent chap, “since you have been so frank, I will also be frank; I have played seven cards all the way through, besides stocking and palming and occasionally stealing, for the sake of variety.” The gambler was greatly surprised, and swore that he would not have supposed that he knew much more than one card from another; but he was deceived in the man, and it would not have done for him to have shown any anger, as he first confessed having cheated the other, who was in reality a most expert gambler, and had purposely assumed that disguise.
GAMBLERS’ MEANS OF SECRET COMMUNICATION.
Again, gamblers, for mutual advantage, generally travel in small companies, and in secret partnership. I have again adverted to this, in order to mention one of the ways in which they often turn their partnership to good account. They almost invariably feign to be total strangers to each other, the better to carry out their base designs; and when one or two of them are seated at a table at play with some whom they wish to fleece, one of the company will seem to be a total stranger to everybody, seats himself in sight of a man’s hand, who is at play, and is not one of the confederates; and if he shows, by word or act, that he would rather he would not, he will readily protest that his only motive is the gratification of an idle curiosity; that he scarcely knows one card from another. And very probably, after such protestations from one who appears a stranger, and withal an honest gentleman, he is suffered to continue to look into the player’s hand. If he should be asked to play, he will say, “I cannot, as I have never learned; indeed, I scarcely know the cards.” He will take this course in order that his looking into the hands of the players may not be objected to. And his motive in looking into the hands is to give his secret partners signs. This he will do in various ways. I have known men who would give signs, that were perfectly intelligible, by the different manner in which they would blow their cigar smoke. In even such simple and imperative acts as holding the cards a gambler can give intelligence to his partner. As for his fingers, their slightest movement, however natural, conveys information. And in order to evade suspicion, I have also known signs to be conveyed through two and three different persons, who were secret partners of the players, and were sitting in different parts of the same room; and the signs would always reach the player in time to benefit him. This is often done when there is danger of being detected, if he should look at the man who is looking in the other’s hands for his signs. Nor is it a matter of importance whether there is a room full or not; for they will practise these artifices before a room full as well as if there was a very small number of persons present.
At other times, when a man loses heavily, one of the company will go to him and form an acquaintance, if it does not already exist, and will say to him, “You are much the loser with A or B, and I am acquainted with him, and if you will in confidence accept the offer, I will do you a favour, by which you will stand a chance of getting your money back again. Do you engage with him in play, and I will sit back of him, and give you correct signs from his hand, so that you can know how to govern your bets.” Nothing appears more generous than this; and a weak man is apt to be eager to avail himself of any means that promises to restore him his lost money, and will feel highly elated that he has met with an unexpected friend, and will flatter himself with the idea of winning all the man has; feeling that if his pretended friend should succeed in giving him correct signs one hand out of four, it will be sufficient to enable him to win much from him. This is all the basest deception. The man proposing this mode of playing is a secret partner of the winner, and their design is to swindle the man still further. Both are fully apprised of the plan, and when they succeed in getting the loser to play again (they generally have cards which they know as well by the backs as by the faces), if the winner should have a large hand, and the loser a larger one, he (the winner) will bunch his cards so closely that the one behind cannot see to give signs, and he then suffers himself to be run off. And if you should have one or two pairs (which he will know by the backs), and he should get the same, though a little larger, he will then permit the man to give signs that he has only one or two pairs, as the case may be, and all that he can entice the loser to bet, he will win from him.
The gambler will only bet on small worthless cards when his hand is better than his opponent’s; and, frequently, by such contrivances as we explain, will deal the latter three aces and a pair of kings to his own four tens or knaves.
Anybody would bet largely on such a hand, and thus, a gambler will ruin a man in a few games.
TRICKS AND ROULETTE.
Roulette is played upon a long table, of which we give a representation. This table is covered with green cloth. In its centre is a movable cylinder, on the circumference of which are thirty-seven divisions, separated from each other by wires, and numbered from 6 to 36.