Deceptions used in Various Games. - Poker. it. Mr. Consequence was surprised beyond measure, and stared at Mr. Winall in great amazement. The result was so utterly contrary to what he had expected, and the amount was of so much importance to him, that the loss came upon him like an electric shock, and from that moment he seemed another man. He had been busy for three days, and with what he had brought on board, and what he had won, he had, when he sat down at play, over five hundred dollars, and had lost the whole of it on one hand at poker. This was, indeed, no trifling damper to his dignity, and he was most effectually silenced for the remainder of the passage. Mr. Winall's success in this, as in other cases, depended on his superior knowledge of intrigue, and his adroitness in putting it in practice. Mr. Consequence frequently talked as though no man could cheat him; but he was greatly deceived by this very young man, who had been playing only a short time, but had acquired such adroitness as enabled him to cope with the best of players. His anxiety for Mr. C. to go a quarter blind, was to compel him to bet largely, if at all; for he could not be considered as having any interest in that game, until he had put up the fifteen dollars and seventy-five cents. And the way in which he gave Mr. Consequence a good betting hand, and himself a better one, was this : he had eight cards in his lap, that is, four fours and four fives; these cards, when it became his deal, he dexterously placed under the bottom of the pack, and so skilfully dealt them from there, that it could not be perceived; he getting the fives, and C. the fours, of course. He knew perfectly well what C. had, and was sure of beating him ; the other players were supplied from the top of the pack, as usual. Deceptions used in Various Games. - Poker. CHEATING IN VARIOUS WAYS. The methods of cheating at poker are so very numerous, that I do not think it requisite that I should give an account of the whole of them; but will give only a few examples in this place, which I hope will abundantly suffice. Frequently, while playing four-handed, many very large betting hands are dealt out, and the players will bet freely on them; but in such cases, the dealer, or some one else at the table, who is a secret partner of his, will have a better hand, and win. These hands are put out by stocking, in various ways, some few of which I will explain. One, when it comes to be his deal, will purposely disarrange the cards, so that he may have a pretence for turning the cards face up. He will then place four aces at the bottom, and four kings at the top. He will then turn the backs up, and shuffle them by drawing the top and bottom cards together from the pack, and throwing them in a heap on the table. He will go through the pack in this way twice; then, if the righthand man is his secret partner, he will most probably not cut them; and if he should cut them, he will cut four, eight, twelve, or sixteen; they are then dealt, and will come out in fours. The man opposite the dealer will get a great betting hand, that is, four kings, while the dealer will get four aces, and win all that is bet on that game. Sometimes they are stocked in the following manner : the tens, jacks, queens, and kings, are assorted, and all of a kind put together, and the four aces on the top. The dealer will then hold them in his left hand, slip them off Deceptions used in Various Games. Poker. into his right hand, running them over and under, first on the top, and then under the bottom, until he has run off sixteen. He will then put the sixteen on the top of the remaining four in his left hand, and repeat this again; and the third time he will run off eighteen, and then place the odd two under the eighteen. His secret partner will then not cut at all, or cut four, eight, twelve, or sixteen: they are then dealt, and each player gets a splendid betting hand; that is, one has four jacks, another four queens, and one four kings; but the dealer has four aces, and will beat them all. These examples are in four-handed poker. The following is in what is called three-handed poker. The dealer will have the cards assorted as in the last example, and will place four kings or queens on the top of the four aces, and these eight will be on the top of all the rest. He will then couple them top and bottom, as in the last example, until he has run off twelve. This he will do three times, and one will cut them. He will then slip the cut on top again, and deal them. One of the players will get four queens, another four kings, and the dealer four aces. Of course, there will be high betting when such hands are out, but the dealer wins, cheating in the manner just described. Or the dealer, if his right-hand man is his secret partner against the other, may, the third time he is coupling the cards, preparatory to dealing them, couple off eighteen, and then the one on his right will cut but two cards, which will bring them the same as before. The same cheat is practised in playing two-handed, as follows:- the dealer will take any four of a kind, and place them on the top of the pack; having placed a smaller four immediately under the four on top, he will then couple them top and bottom, as before, until he has run off eight this he will do three times, and let them be cut, and the cut he will slip on the top, and proceed to deal them, giving his adversary the smaller four, while he gets the larger four, and is prepared to beat him. From what has been already said, it must be very evident that 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 large octavo volume would not contain a full description of them all, and of course, in this work, I can only give a few of them, that may serve as a specimen. 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. I will here relate a case which occurred on a steamboat not long since, as going to show how well men will play more than their number. A gambler got to playing with a man whom he mistook for a green Hoosier, that Deceptions used in Various Games.- Poker. A Tartar. 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 Hoosier, but the gambler lost, and commenced playing as scientifically as he could. He still lost, and finally lost nearly all he had, before he quit; and after quitting, they went to the bar to drink. The gambler said to the Hoosier, "You beat any man for luck I ever played with. I've lost my money with you, and 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 Hoosier, "since you have been so frank, I will also be frank; I have played seven cards all the way through, from the word go; besides stocking and palming occasionally, for the sake of variety." The gambler was greatly surprised, and swore that he would not have supposed that he much more than knew 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 Hoosier, who was in reality a most expert gambler, who had purposely assumed that disguise. 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 calculate to fleece, some one of the company, who will seem to be a total stranger to every body, will seat himself in sight of a |