The cheat of stealing cards is practised as often, perhaps, as any other
fraud in card playing. It is of great advantage to the gambler, and
gives him an opportunity of forming very good winning hands. In whist,
the most desirable cards to steal out are the “honours,” and sometimes
all four will be stolen out by one man, that is, the honours of one
suit; and then he will make that suit trump by keeping one of them at
the bottom. This can be done by the backs as well as by the faces, for
the cards in general use now by the gamblers can all be known by the
backs, and a player will know by the backs where any particular card is
dealt; and if he should not steal the honours, he can deal them to
himself or his partner, by dealing off the second card instead of the
top card, whenever the top card is one that he may want for himself; and
if he should steal two of the honours out, he will hide the theft by
dealing each player two cards twice; then all will have their proper
number, and his theft remains hid; or he will miss giving himself a card
twice during the deal, and hide the theft by that means; or he will give
himself two twice during the deal, and have sixteen, while the others
have but twelve each; he will then hide his theft by concealing four
cards that are poor in the palm of his hand, and in gathering a trick
will place all upon his bunch of tricks. And as his tricks are all
bunched, the players will depend on counting the tricks of the other
party to determine who has won the odd trick; and hence he succeeds in
hiding his theft.
CUTTING, SHUFFLING, DEALING, STEALING, &c.
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.