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Secrets of GamblingHugh MillerThis is a great book on the secrets of how to cheat with cards and dice at many popular games - a guide to dishonest gambling. It offers a good overview of the various methods from mechanical cheating methods to sleight of hand. 1st edition 1970, original 128 pages; PDF 82 pages. Table of Contents
| ★★★★★ $12 to wish list | |
Sharps and Flats: A Complete Revelation of The Secrets of Cheating at Games of Chance and SkillJohn Nevil MaskelyneSharps and Flats is probably the most important early book on cheating devices and methods. Sharps being the cheaters and flats being the cheated, the mark. Maskelyne details among others, marked cards, holdouts (Kepplinger holdout), reflectors and manipulation. He describes not just cheating at the card table but also cheating with dice, cheating at Sporting houses, and at Roulette. The book is very thorough with many wonderful illustrations. 1st edition, 1894, Longmans, Green and Co., New York and London; reprinted, Gamblers Book Club, Las Vegas; 335 pages.
| ★★★★★ $7 to wish list | |
Short-ChangingPenny Ante JimThe classic 1941 treatise on the grifter's short-change con, now available again. Don't let it happen to you! Short-changing is is used by unscrupulous ticket takers, food vendors, carnival workers, clerks, cashiers - anywhere that money changes hands. This ebook contains the "inside dope" on how it works and how to protect yourself from becoming a victim. Described are various short-changing techniques, including the Bar Room Clip, Carnival and Circus Take and the Bill Slip-Over. Original copies of this privately printed book are extremely hard to find. A recent copy sold at auction... | ★★★★★ $15 to wish list | |
Spot the SpotBrick TilleyAny red showing loses! The spot game is the black widow of the midway because an untrained player has little chance to cover the red spot using the five zinc plates supplied. Rules: the player must drop the plates one at a time from a distance of at least an inch attempting to cover the entire red area. He is later allowed to drop fewer plates bettering his chances of winning. The spot game is seldom seen these days because law enforcement consider it to be beyond the possibility of chance. It is an excellent aid to the magician, especially when combined with a demonstration of a short... | ★★★★★ $10 to wish list | |
Spotlight on the Card SharpLawrence ScaifeAn instructive warning to those who must play for stakes. Interesting amusement for those who do not. Excerpt from the Foreword: This book is an explanation of the fundamental principles upon which all card sharping is based. Once the main ideas are thoroughly understood, it becomes a comparatively easy matter to detect any subterfuge no matter how intricate. This book is nicely illustrated by Charles Remmers from photographs by the author. It contains a description of cheating at the popular Australian game of Two-Up which makes it unique.
| $10 to wish list | |
Stand PatDavid A. CurtisPoker stories from the Mississippi. The stories play in Brownsville and Arkansas City both located on the West bank of the Mississippi river during the second half of the 19th century. Excerpt from the preface: The things that I saw, that seemed worthy of note, I have set down without prejudice to the little town of Brownsville, which has grown since I was there. Let no citizen of the place pursue me vindictively because I found him less interesting than Stumpy. And let no one’s civic pride suffer because I noted in the town only what seemed to me picturesque. I have no quarrel with... | $9 to wish list | |
Sucker's ProgressHerbert AsburyAn informal history of gambling in America from the colonies to Canfield. Inside flap: Sucker's Progress is the first attempt to write a connected history of the most prevalent of venial sins, and traces the history and development of gambling in America from the card and dice games in the back rooms of colonial taverns to the days of Richard Canfield the last of the great American gamblers. The book is concerned with the picturesque and spectacular features of gambling, and only incidentally with its morals. The author commences with a survey of the origin and development of the principal... | $19.50 to wish list | |
The Amazing World of John ScarneJohn ScarneThe Amazing World of John Scarne holds revelations and experiences in gambling, magic, carnival and show business; together with startling disclosures about hypnotism, extra-sensory perception and other mental effects. The once world's number one expert on gambling tells in this no-punches-pulled, startlingly frank book the whole inside story of gambling, and reveals all the dodges, gimmicks and tricks used by cheaters at dice, cards, roulette and other games of chance. His sensational revelations extend also to magic and escape tricks, to the chicaneries of carnivals and even to the blasting... | $19 to wish list | |
The Australian Gambling Game of 31Ken de CourcyThe Ace to Six of each suit are placed on the table, and the two players turn cards face down alternately and a running total of the pips is maintained. The winner is the one who takes the total to no more than 31. Even after the spectator is told the secret to winning, the magician still wins. Ends with an extra kicker. PDF 10 pages | ★★★★★ $10 to wish list | |
The Autobiography of an Old Sport: Fifty years at the Card TableHarry P. DodgeThe record of a career famous for adventure and vicissitude, and in which the jester won more tricks than the gamester.
| $5 to wish list | |
The Best Short Change Scam EverDevin KnightThis is probably the best short-change swindle every created. In his younger years, Devin Knight worked at a carnival doing Robert Nelson's Horoscope Pitch. During his stint with the carnival, he met a professional short-change artist, who showed him the most ingenious short-change scam Devin had ever seen. It made the scammer $10.00 every time he walked into a store and bought an inexpensive item. Devin was familiar with the sometimes crude short-change methods used by carnies, but he had never seen a swindle as sophisticated as this one. The scammer would very slowly and deliberately count... | ★★★★★ $7 to wish list | |
The Book of Thirty-OneTotoFrom the preface and introduction: This book could be titled "The Game of Thirty-One Revisited" because of the various articles that have made an attempt to describe the game. Why then did I set out to write this? First, because I consider the game of thirty-one such a delightful diversion from the "norm" that I want to bring it to the attention of the magic fraternity, and second, because I have many ideas I would like to add. At the Magic Castle, in Hollywood, the game was first shown to me by Dai Vernon in August of 1980. The "Professor" frequently showed me card puzzles that he had learned over... | ★★★★★ $10 to wish list | |
The Bunco BookWalter GibsonGaffed games, clever cons, sensational swindles - how to spot the bunco artist before he cheats you. This may well be the greatest exposé of gambling methods, swindles, confidence games and carnival midway hustles ever published. No matter if you're a magician, gambler, carnival midway patron (or operator), law enforcement professional, or simply want to protect yourself, you're going to enjoy this book. Especially valuable to those with an interest in carnival and gaming paraphernalia are the methods used to gaff the devices as sold back in the day by H. C. Evans, K. C. Card Co., and... | ★★★★★ $12 to wish list | |
The Change RaisersWilton Moore TuckerReveals the inside story on how the con artist forces you, or a store, or even a bank teller to hand him too much change. This bit of larceny gains the criminal five, ten, or more dollars each time -- and that from a $2 purchase. Also shows how to keep from being shortchanged. Almost defies detection, and practically works itself. This is no pie-in-the-sky con. Newspaper and TV stories report that victims of every age and ethnicity are taken in by this technique. Audiences are hungry for this information, to avoid being "taken." Makes an excellent lecture to provide to banks, stores, senior... | ★★★★★ $15 to wish list | |
The Confessions of a Con ManWilliam Henry IrwinA wonderfully interesting confession of a con man who was a contemporary of Erdnase, and just like him operated for a time while traveling with small circuses in Illinois and surrounding states. Of particular interest is a full dialog of how an unsuspecting person on the train was lured into gambling 3 card monte. The dialog demonstrates how skillfully these operatives were and how well they understood human nature. Other cons are also described in detail. Excerpt from the preface: When these confessions appeared serially, friends and distant enquirers took it for granted that they were fiction;... | $15 to wish list | |
The Destruction of Mephisto's Greatest WebJames Henry KeateAll grafts laid bare being a complete exposure of all gambling, graft and confidence games with stories illustrating the methods employed by the different operators. This is a wonderful book on all things cheating at gambling (sleight-of-hand and machinery), various confidence games and other scams and crooked methods with several revealing illustrations.
| $8 to wish list | |
The Expert at the Card TableS. W. ErdnaseOriginally entitled Artifice Ruse and Subterfuge at the Card Table, is probably the most cited and referenced book about card gambling moves - a classic in the history of magic literature. A must read for any card magician or aspiring gambling expert and an indespensable reference book. While the authorship of this book is hotly debated we are convinced it was Edward Gallaway. (For a detailed work on the search for Erdnase see Hurt McDermott's Artifice, Ruse & Erdnase.) [A copy of this book is also included in Michael McDougall's Card Mastery. This ebook is also available in a German translation. Paul Fleming wrote: The information contained in this book is the very basis of modern card conjuring. When first... | ★★★★★ $5 to wish list | |
The Game of Draw PokerJohn W. KellerA fairly detailed work on the rules and variations of draw poker. Also includes some advice on how to play the game successfully. This work includes Robert C. Schenck's rules for draw poker.
| $8 to wish list | |
The Gaming Table Volume 1Andrew SteinmetzThe full title of this work is The Gaming Table: Its votaries and victims in all times and countries, especially in England and in France. It is essentially a history of gambling detailing people and places. It does include some exposure of cheating, but most of that is told in volume 2.
| $8 to wish list | |
The Gaming Table Volume 2Andrew SteinmetzThis second volume of The Gaming Table is from a magician's point of view much more interesting. It includes a history of dice and playing cards including a fairly detailed description of how playing cards were made. It has a chapter on fortune telling with cards. And it also features a surprisingly good chapter on card tricks with explanations for four sleights (false shuffle, false cut, glide, card change) and 18 very nice card tricks. Among them we find a version of the prearranged deck and two person codes. For people interested in Erdnase it is interesting to note that at the beginning of the... | $8 to wish list | |
The Gyp ArtistWilliam W. LarsenHere's an entertaining, 25- to 60-minute lecture that you, the magician or mentalist, can present on the topic of scams and cons. And it's a money-maker.
Become an Expert on Cons and Swindles...
Fabled Bunco Games of History... | ★★★★★ $12 to wish list | |
The Handbook of PokerWilliam James FlorenceAlso titled The Gentlemen's Hand-book of Poker, it is an excellent introduction to the game of poker. It not only covers the rules and some advice on how to play, but it also has a short chapter on cheating, a decent chapter on probabilities, and ends with a number of fun poker stories. The chapter on probabilities corrects some of what Steinmetz wrote in The Gaming Table Volume 2. The book ends with an anecdote about the compiler himself.
| $10 to wish list | |
The Highway to HellJohn Philip QuinnThis is essentially a small excerpt from Quinn's primary work Fools of Fortune. A couple of chapters have been taken, some incomplete, together with endorsements and other promotional material, to produce this volume. 1st edition 1895; PDF 68 pages. | $5 to wish list | |
The Life of Mason Long the Converted GamblerMason LongBeing a record of his experience as a white slave; a soldier in the Union Army; a professional gambler; a patron of the turf; a variety theater and minstrel manager; and, finally, a convert to the Murphy Cause, and to the Gospel of Christ. This book is an illustration of this paragraph by S.W. Erdnase: Hazard at play carries sensations that once enjoyed are rarely forgotten. The winnings are known as "pretty money," and it is generally spent as freely as water. The average professional who is successful at his own game will, with the sublimest unconcern, stake his money on that of another's, though... | $10 to wish list |