Gambling

Being a complete systematic educational exposition designed to instruct the youth of the world to avoid all forms of gambling.

This is a classic of gambling literature. It describes the implements and devices used by crooked gamblers and gambling establishments to fleece the unwary.

Excerpt from the Preface:

Poker 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:

A dictionary for the language of horse racing, dice and cards, bookmakers and runners, touts and tote boards, a colorful but expensive language to learn first-hand from the natives.

Excerpt from the preface:

At one point it was believed that only one copy of this book existed. This and other myths are addressed in the introduction by Frank Lehmann, who has studied this book in detail.

The book exposes various ways in which the game of Faro was crooked. It was a very popular betting game in the United States and usually was rigged in one way or another. It was published by Richard K. Fox, the proprietor of the Police Gazette.

• Introduction
• Part I
  1. The Game Of Faro
  2. The Cards In Faro
  3. Dealing The Cards
  4. Keeping The Game
  5. Technical Terms Used In Faro
  6. Laws Of The Game
  7. The Chances Of The...

This article describes in particular one marking system of cards. It includes illustrations depicting how the cards were marked. It also touches on a few other ways to cheat.

The article appeared in the Chicago Herald during Mayor Roche's time.

1st edition ~1887, PDF 5 pages.

An account of faro gambling and cheating in New York City.

The newspaper that ran this article is not known. The time frame of the article is somewhere in the vicinity of 1890.

PDF 3 pages.

A play-by-play exposé of the tricks of the card sharp's trade.

Moss gives general advice on how to avoid becoming a sucker or losing more money than luck alone would explain. The most interesting part is where he describes several sleights and strategies cardsharps use to cheat at the card table. Many of the sleights are illustrated with photos.

• Introduction 5
• Meet the Enemy 7
  • Who Are the Victims?
  • Suckers
  • Addicts
  • Defeating the Enemy
  • Luck
  • Greed
  • Amateurs
  • Advice
• Modern Cheating
  • False Cut Number One
  • False Cut Number Two
  • False Cut Number Three
  • False Cut Number Four
  • A Reverse...

Being 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:

For anybody interested in Erdnase, this poker story compilation should be of interest because many poker stories are from Chicago. It was published in 1887 which means it likely overlaps somewhat with the active time of Erdnase. We are not saying you will find a story featuring Erdnase. But such poker stories, even if they are often exaggerated or purely fictional, do provide one with some sense of the times of Erdnase.

In particular, it is educational to compare the stories with the ones from Eugene Edwards' Jack Pots. There isn't any significant overlap, however one aspect is noticeably different. Eugene...

A 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.

• PREFACE
• CHAPTER I
  • Introduction
  • The Element of Chance
  • The Question of Stakes
• CHAPTER II
  • Technical Terms
• CHAPTER III
  • The Order of Hands
  • The Straight
  • The Blaze
• CHAPTER IV
  • Rules of Draw Poker
  • The Limit
  • The Ante
  • The Straddle
  • The Deal
  • Betting Before the Draw
  • Discard and Draw
  • Betting After the Draw
• CHAPTER V
  • Jack Pots
  • Incidental Jack Pots
  • The "Buck"
  • Progressive Jack Pots
• CHAPTER VI
  • Freeze Out
• CHAPTER...

While Robert Schenck served as ambassador in the UK, he was persuaded to write down his rules for poker by a duchess. This was the first publication to deal solely with draw poker.

1st edition 1880, PDF 6 pages.

Full exposition of all the various arts, mysteries, and miseries of gambling.

It is a complete exposure, of the different and various ways of deception and cheating in all the numerous games played, such as Faro, Two, Three, and Four-Handed Poker, Shuffling Cards, Roulette and Rolling Faro, Vingt-Un, Brag, Euchre, Game of Boston, All Fours, Cribbage, Whist, Dice, Stealing out Cards, Palming, Playing by Signs, Marking Cards, Backgammon, Solitaire, Playing Three against One, Spring Tables, Spring Boxes, Pulleys, Ingenuity of Gamblers, Card Manufactories, Lotteries, then modes of drawing and...

You will find here card tricks, cheating exposes, card games, and gambling stories.

A later expanded version of this book was published under the title Gamblers' Tricks With Cards Exposed and Explained.

• Chapter I
  • Invention Of Cards
  • Mysterious Trick Of Thirty Six Cards; Telling The Card You Look At Without Seeing The Pack.
  • To Tell A Card Thought Of
  • Three Jacks As Thieves, Caught By A King As A Policeman
  • To Burn A Card And Fin'd It In A Watch
  • How To Shift Cards
  • The Four Associates
  • To Make A Card Jump Out Of The Pack
  • How To Change Cards To Pictures
• Chapter II
  • All Fours
  • Deceptions Used In The Game Of All Fours
  • How To...

Mr. T is an underground gambler, the man who wrote the Pro Guide to the Lucky Log, and the exclusive manual for "Bingo Bango". Now he brings you A Sweet and Simple Swindle. Two of them actually, because the PDF includes an additional bonus swindle with playing cards.

Both dead easy to do, no sleight of hand, no complicated tactics, just a sweet advantage to you, where the mark will believe they have the better of you all along. No marked cards or anything of the sort, both of these use a regular deck of playing cards that can be borrowed, so easy a kid could take advantage of this ... if...

This ebook presents an analytical review of works on card cheating that are written in English and published before 1900. Given this scope, The Reference Guide to Early Works on Card Cheating takes 151 publications, and documents the card cheating techniques that they describe. Only card techniques discussed in the context of cheating at card games are considered. The 146 defined techniques are used to evaluate the publications based on their breadth and their contribution to the literature. The breadth is indicated by the absolute number of techniques each work describes, and the contribution...

The intentionally unassuming grey cover, designed to match the dull-sounding title, suggests a dry emotionless record of events is likely held within. However, this humble exterior belies the valuable secrets hidden within its pages. Annals of Gaming was an article series published over four years, between 1772 and 1775; its sole intention was to expose the sharpers, hustlers, and cheats, by detailing their methods of defrauding the unwary. Now, for the first time, every article in the original series has been retyped in full and published in a single volume of over 200 pages. This work covers over...

This is a collection of poker stores covering the time frame from 1845 - 1895. As the title page clearly states Lillard merely collected and edited them, he did not author them.

• DEDICATION
• PREFACE
• CHAPTER I. TOLD OF STATESMEN
  • Webster And Clay
  • How An Illinois Congressman Was Backed By Uncle Sam
  • A Kentucky Colonel Who Drew On His Salary To Stay In The Game
  • Two Stories About Gen. Schenck
  • A Jersey Congressman's Leather Bluff
  • The Drummer Wilted
  • Hannibal Hamlin
  • The Six-Spot Of Diamonds
• CHAPTER II. MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES
  • Six Aces In The Pack
  • His Chips Were The Wrong Color....

Also 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.

• Preface
• Draw Poker
  • Introduction
  • Origin Of The Game
  • The Game
  • The Stakes
  • The Ante
  • The Hands
  • Playing A Hand Pat
  • The Hands Illustrated
  • The Draw
  • The Draw To Two Pairs
  • The Draw...

Poker Stories from the New York Sun

• Why he Quit the Game
• Freeze-out for a Life
• A Gambler's Pistol Play
• Queer Runs of Luck
• Storms's Straight Flush
• For a Senate Seat
• The Bill Went Through
• Poker for High Stakes
• "Overland Jack"
• His Last Sunday Game
• Foss Stopped the Game
• He Played for His Wife
• The Club's Last Game

A famous reformed gambler reveals a multitude of gambling house and street corner scams, swindles, and cons used to fleece the unwary public in this fascinating text.

Written by H. W. "Kid" Royal, this was originally put up as a pitch book for sale at his various lecture appearances, after he decided to "go straight." In fact, he had a funny way of selling them. He advertised the lecture as free, but he wouldn't let anyone leave until he had collected the price of the book.

While original copies of this book do occasionally turn up, they sell for big bucks ($275 from one recent magic auction)....

This is an improvement in the handling of the Curry Turnover that makes this move easier to accomplish and more deceptive. A simple get-ready makes the exchange faster and infinitely more rewarding. It was perfected during hundreds of hours behind a Black Jack table without ever once being detected.

It can be used for magical purposes as well. Add this subtle weapon to your card arsenal.

1st edition 2021, PDF 4 pages, video 30 s.

A proposition bet is one which appears to give the taker an even chance and at times the best of it, but does just the opposite. Like con men, proposition gamblers pretend to be pleasant, friendly, easy-going, good fellows who would never think of double-crossing anyone. They also usually pretend that their prepared proposition bets are something they just happened to think up on the spot. They take great pleasure in beating seasoned gamblers; money is not the main objective. It's the prestige and self-satisfaction they derive from having outsmarted a top gambler, be he friend or foe.

While...

This work covers a lot of ground, from various parlor tricks, chemical tricks, card tricks, to a section on two person codes, and a section on artifices of cardsharks.

• description Of The Magician's Table
• How To Make A Person Jump
• The Invisible Chicken, Or Enchanted Egg Bag, As Performed By The Celebrated Wyman
• Scrap, Or Blowing Book, As Performed By Potter
• Gun Cotton - How Prepared
• Sympathetic Inks
• Apparatus For Writing In The Dark
• Dancing Turkeys
• The Self-Balanced Pail
• Sympathetic Lamp
• The Gas Candle
• Ice Made In A Red Hot Vessel
• Magical Colours
• The Magic Nosegay Blowing At The...

Reveals 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...

From the back cover:

This ebook exposes the scams and swindles used by carnival midway cheats, street gangs, road hustlers, and crooked mail-order businesses to cheat the public. Written by a Chicago police detective.

Many of these scams are still in use today. But please don't read this ebook to cheat -- instead, use it for your own protection, so you don't become the next victim.

Colorfully written, this handy guidebook ebook reveals the true-life scams, cons, swindles, ruses, devices and methods of the cheats and how they were taken down and brought to justice. Also includes descriptions of rigged carnival...

From the preface and introduction:

The 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

This short ebook focuses on one of the most popular tactile card marking systems, in the context of Texas Hold'em Poker. Punch Work for Texas Hold'em begins by commenting on the history of the technique and detailing the numerous methods in which the marks can be created. Following this, how the marks can be utilised is explored from the perspective of each stage in standard Hold'em game procedure. The ebook then considers the ways in which these tactile marks can be varied to convey more information. Finally, given the ambiguity inherent in the way this marking system is commonly implemented,...

A false cut that uses the action of burning a card as misdirection. Particularly useful for cheating at BlackJack.

Chuck Smith was recorded doing this cut. (A letter from Chuck Smith to Brick Tilley is reproduced in the PDF.) He used it to beat players during the years of WWII. The sequence of actions is the following. You first openly cut the cards and complete the cut. Then you take the top card, turn it face up and place it as the bottom card. During the action of burning the top card you undo the cut. The demo video will prove how honest and fair this looks.

You will receive a PDF...

A card detective revelations of gambler's secrets.

MacDougall, who refers to himself as magician and card detective, tells of years of tracking down crooks, phony devices, and manipulations in every sort of gambling field. He shares anecdotes of various experiences, and explains several cardshark methods and moves including:

• Culling and Palming
• The Slip Cut
• Bottom Dealing
• Second Dealing and Sort Edge Cards
• The Haymaker Shuffle
• The False Riffle
• The Crimp
• Trick Stacking And A Misdeal
• The Interlacing Riffle

1st edition 1939, 167 pages; PDF 91 pages.

This short ebook considers the game of Texas Hold'em, in which a cheat has knowledge of a single card that will appear on the flop. Whilst a couple of methods for achieving this are briefly described, the main contribution of this work is in highlighting the advantage that can be gained with knowledge of only a single card that will appear on the flop. Using analysis of how the cheats pre-flop range may be adjusted, the results show that even knowing only the suit of a flop card will give a significant advantage.

1st edition 2019, 8 pages.

A shortened, up-to-date version of the 11 Dollar Bill Short Change routine. As a finish, the bills are sealed in an envelope. Upon opening, the envelope is found to contain pieces of newspaper. Here is a demo of the count only:

1st edition 2019, PDF 4 pages + 2 videos

Here'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...
Or just talk like one. This is a new field for most magicians and mentalists, allowing you to give your lecture to civic groups, security seminars, government agencies, corporations -- anywhere people gather. And these organizations have deep pockets, too, able to pay you well for your time.

Fabled Bunco Games of History...
Now become practical, effective tricks in the magician's hands, each...

All 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.

• PREFACE
• ENDORSEMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• EPITOME
• CHAPTER I Exposé of Gambling Devices
• CHAPTER II Exposé of Gambling Devices (Continued)
  • The Mechanical Hold-out Poker Table
  • The Revolving Poker Table
  • The Sleeve Hold-out
  • The Bug Hold-out ...

This 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...

The 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.

• Preface
• CHAPTER I. The Universal Passion Of Gaming; Or, Gaming All The World Over.
• CHAPTER II. Gambling Among The Ancient Hindoos.—A Hindoo Legend And Its Modern Parallel.
• CHAPTER III. Gambling Among The Ancient Egyptians, Persians, And Greeks.
• CHAPTER IV. Gaming Among The Ancient Roman Emperors.
• CHAPTER...

This is an unusual book that teaches basic poker strategies, tactics, and odds in verse form, accompanied by color illustrations. This book is mentioned in Jack Pots.

• A Pretty Game
• One Pair
• Two Pair
• Threes
• Straight
• Flush
• Full Hand
• Fours
• Straight Flush
• 4 Straight-Inside
• Nothing-Ace High
• Nothing-Ace King High
• Pair Sevens
• Three Kings
• Three Nines
• Three Aces
• Seven-High Straight
• Ace Full
• Fours
• Royal Straight Flush
• Chances to Improve the Hand by Drawing
• Pat Hands

1st edition 1895; PDF 29 pages.

This is the review of Robert-Houdin's The Sharper Detected and Exposed that appeared in Saturday Review on May 9th, 1863.

1st edition 1863; PDF 5 pages.

The first part consists of stories about cardsharks and other crooks from Robert-Houdin's recollections. This is very readable and an entertaining part of the work. The second part explains some of the technical details of the methods used by cardsharks. However, the methods are for the most part only described in very rudimentary form. As Robert-Houdin writes himself, this is not meant as a way to teach you how to do it, but merely to give the reader insight in how the different ruses are accomplished. Nevertheless, it provides interesting insight into the ways and means of cardsharks.

KC Card Company specialized in legit and crooked gambling supplies.

• Dice and measuring tools to make sure they were properly manufactured.
• Game layouts
• Marked cards
• Crooked dealing boxes
• Holdouts
• Books on gambling
• and more

1st edition 1961, 77 pages.

A fascinating casebook of true stories from the self-styled "Card Detective" that reveals the inner workings of backroom poker cheats, dice scams, bunco artists, horse race swindles, rigged games of the carnival and midway and much, much more.

Written in a breezy style, "Mickey" MacDougall takes the reader along for an entertaining and informative ride as he consults with casino bosses and card room owners to stamp out cheaters and grifters.

Swindlers take many forms and purvey their trade anywhere people gather: aboard trains and cruise ships, at the racetrack, in back alleys, military...

If you play dice games, or if you have friends who play, you can't afford to be without this information.

Written for the craps player, King delivers the facts in such a way that the dice player will understand and be able to instantly recognize the principal forms of cheating now in use.

The author has eliminated what is usually the bulk of other gambling books - including historical background, rules of the game, statistics, anecdotes, memoirs, and moral admonitions. Instead, he cuts to the chase with the exact methods used by dice cheats, so that you may understand and protect yourself...

Collusion Strategy and Analysis for Texas Hold'em gives a focused and comprehensive look into the concept of collusion in the popular game of Texas Hold'em. The first half of the ebook details the many techniques and strategies that may be employed by colluders, as well as some of the considerations associated with each method. The second half of the ebook then analyses both pre-flop and post-flop play in order to determine the effect of various parameters on collusion strategy. This publication represents one of the most in-depth insights into the theory of collusion, currently available. ...

This ebook focuses on the use of killing cards and the stripper deck to gain an advantage in the popular game of Texas Hold’em. The first part of the ebook is a short investigation into the art of using the cut to take cards out of play. Initially, the mathematics of killing cards is presented along with an assessment of probabilities when all the aces, tens and five value cards are killed. After highlighting the fact that very few cards are exposed during a round of Hold’em, the second part of the book looks at some different types of stripper deck that are available. This covers multiple...