Those highly skilled
lowlifes and how to spot 'em
1 September 2006
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
Regarding cheating, what is a mechanic?
Anonymous
Dear Anonymous;
Regarding the postcard you sent incognito with
personal and confidential penned on the bottom,
I'm kinda hoping that this isn't a career move
on your part.
And yet, since inquiring minds besides yourself
probably want to know, cheating at cards can be
done a whole host of ways, such as collusion,
sleight-of-hand movements like bottom stacking
the deck, the use of physical objects such as
marked cards, cold decks or holdout devices. A
card mechanic, or card sharp -- not to be
confused with card shark -- is a card cheat who
specializes in sleight-of-hand card
manipulation. You'll find this handiwork
employed by most magicians who, like a card
sharp, try to keep track of, sometimes, just one
specific card, and other times, the order of a
complete deck.
No need or space here for wholesale writings on
different forms of sleight-of-hand cheating
techniques like false shuffles, false cuts, hand
mucking, etc., but I will mention one that
anyone with just a little practice might be
using against you at a not-so-friendly kitchen
table poker game, and that one is "dealing
seconds".
Dealing seconds is manipulating either the
second card from the top, or the bottom card,
instead of the customary top one. This stunt is
also called "second deal" or "bottom deal"
respectively. Any deuce dealer with a little
practice can deal the second card, the bottom
card, the second-from-bottom card, even the
middle card without an untrained eye spotting
what's going on. Someone of masterful hand
dexterity could even "cull", meaning finding the
cards he needs, placing them at the bottom, top,
or any other place the cheat fancies, then
falsely dealing them to himself or to a
confederate player on the game.
You can identify a seconds-dealing pagan in your
home-game village by looking at how the deck is
gripped. A card manipulator will use what is
known as the "mechanic's grip," a handclasp of
the cards that makes it easier to deal not only
seconds, but from the bottom, or even from the
middle of the deck. A right-handed dealer holds
the deck in his left hand, three fingers on the
edge of the long side of the deck, and the index
finger on the outer right corner.
Certainly a mechanic's grip alone is not enough
proof to accuse anyone of being a double-dealing
sharper, and you never want to get involved in a
cockeyed game where cheating is going on,
unless, of course, you are of the mind-set of
legendary gambler Canada Bill. Bill was losing
his entire bankroll at Faro when a friend
approached and said, "Bill, don't you know this
game is crooked?" "Yes," answered Canada Bill,
"but it's the only game in town."
Dear Mark,
Is it possible to draw the same card that is
discarded on a standard video poker machine? I
have had it happen to me before. Jack H.
Although I am not familiar with any gaming
companies using continuous shuffle technology on
their garden variety video poker machines while
a hand is in progress, if the video poker
machine is dealing a fair game, the answer to
your question would be, no, it is not possible
to get the same card back. Once you discard a
card it shouldn't be returning to the same hand.
Video poker, Jack, can be played at chop chop
speed, and after a while you can start seeing
all kinds of streaks and patterns, so some
same-card placement sorta seems possible. In
actuality though, once the hand is completed,
cards are reshuffled and that seven of diamonds
you discarded the last hand can easily appear as
the first card dealt on the next.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: "It's hard work.
Gambling. Playing poker. Don't let anyone tell
you different. Think about what it's like
sitting at a poker table with people whose only
goal is to cut your throat, take your money, and
leave you out back talking to yourself about
what went wrong inside." --Stu Unger, Three-time WSOP Champion
|
