Gambling: page 4

In 1929 H. C. Evans was a large company specializing in the manufacture and sale of sporting goods and casino equipment.

• Casino supplies
• Trade Stimulators
• Pocket Novelties
• Amusement Park Supplies
• Fair Ground Games
• Shooting Galleries

1st edition 1929, 160 pages.

This is a collection of wonderful poker stories, some obviously pure fiction, some based on true facts, at least some of the actors are historical figures that did indeed exist. It reveals a good amount of how card sharps plied their trade, and illustrates many of the local differences in playing draw poker.

The book has been illustrated by Ike Morgan of Frank Baum and Wizard of Oz fame.

• CHAPTER I
  • What Is Poker
  • Its Origin, And Why We Like It
• CHAPTER II
  • The Early Days Of Poker
  • Steamboat Games
  • A Mammoth Raise
  • Bowie's Good Deed
• CHAPTER III
  • Poker In Washington
  • A Story Of...

The first part and majority of this book deals with marked cards. It shows numerous examples of how and where to mark various back designs popular during the early 20th century in the United States. The second part briefly describes sleight-of-hand for the card cheater such as second dealing, bottom dealing, shuffling, false cuts, and mechanical hold outs. Each technique is illustrated with a photo, which is quite remarkable for a book from that time. The third and final part deals with the mathematical odds of draw poker.

Some people believe that F. R. Ritter might be S. W. Erdnase, the unknown author...

An early publication (from the early 19th century) about the odds and strategy of draw poker.

This was the advertisement booklet for Ritter's book Advantage Card Playing and Draw Poker. It describes the motivation of the book and shows some excerpts including four illustrations.

1st edition 1905, 9 pages; digital edition colorized.

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...

A great book on the tricks of the trade of professional gamblers, how they cheat and get an advantage in the game. From the introduction:

This is the story of a boy who ran away from home to become a cabin boy on a Mississippi riverboat at age ten. At fourteen he could stack a deck of cards. And for forty years after this point in time he bilked people from all walks of live, businessmen, thieves, soldiers, ... This is the fascinating story of the King of the Riverboat Gamblers.

1st edition, 1887, Devol & Haines, Cincinnati; reprinted, ?, Applewood Books, Bedford, Massachusetts; 300 pages.

22. A Religious Captain
24. A Cold Deck
27. A Woman With a Gun
150. A Shrewd Trick
163. A Paymaster's Bluff
177. A Crazy Man
186. A Good Night's Work
212. A Euchre...

Stories of card and revolver play, told by a man who "worked" the trains with his confederates in the days when stakes ran high.

If one believes this account, then a lot of the crooked gambling on trains was simply theft at gunpoint rather than sophisticated sleight-of-hand card advantage play.

1st edition 1910, PDF 7 pages.

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 a pre-Erdnase description of moves and ruses to cheat at the card table by an unnamed 'retired professional'. However, Bart Whaley's research revealed that this retired professional was Gerrit M. Evans, that his real name was most likely Edward M. Grandin and that Evans/Grandin was not a professional gambler. (Bart is working on an upcoming book about Evans - The Mysterious Gambler.)

This ebook was created from the 1868 edition. There is also an earlier 1865 edition. The 1868 faked edition drops the name of the author who is, of course, Evans/Grandin, pretends that the "anonymous" author is a "retired"...

From the back cover:

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 a fun book to read. Great stories about pickpockets, burglars, bunco men, thiefs, and others. Houdini collected interesting cases talking to detectives, and police chiefs. The book describes the methods used to scam innocent victims. Some of these schemes are still popular, which shows again, that one can learn a lot from the past.

published 1906 by Harry Houdini, Boston MA; later reprinted by Gamblers Book Club, Las Vegas; 96 pages

Table of Contents

page

3. Preface
7. Shot One - Income of a Criminal
12. Shot Two - Professional Burglary
19. Shot Three - Difficulties of Burglary
25. Shot Four...

The record of a career famous for adventure and vicissitude, and in which the jester won more tricks than the gamester.

• Preface
• Chapter I: Birth And Early Peregrinations
• Chapter II: Becoming A Patron Of The Pasteboards
• Chapter III: Early Times On The Mississippi
• Chapter IV: Getting A Sobriquet And Meeting Great Men
• Chapter V: The Turnpikes, The Packets And The Inns
• Chapter VI: Initiated In The Sons Of Malta
• Chapter VII: From The Green Mountains To Pike's Peak
• Chapter VIII: With The Bold Soldier Boys
• Chapter IX: The Fraternity Of Gamesters
• Chapter X: To Point A Moral And Adorn A...

A sketch of the life of Henry Meyer a converted gambler.

Henry Meyer was by his own account a very successful gambler who would play predominantly in Europe. One day he played against a young man and won all his money. Subsequently, that young man took his own life. At that point, Meyer realized that the young man was his younger brother. This charring experience made him give up gambling completely.

While I don't doubt that Meyer was a professional gambler who would later reform and give up gambling, the story with his brother rings a bit too fantastic. It is hard to believe that he and...

An informal history of gambling in America from the colonies to Canfield.

Inside flap:

This 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

7. Introduction
13. Cheating at cards
13. Mechanical Methods: marking cards, sorts, deck switches, edge marking, daub, punch/nail marks
33. Strippers: types of strippers, Vernon's "Bathroom Strippers"
36. Locaters: short, corner shorts, thick cards, long cards, ridge/breather crimps
40. Holdouts: Kepplinger...

This is an excellent series of articles on the history of gambling in America. Excerpt from the introduction:

• Preying Upon the Wage Earners
• How They Prey Upon One Another
  • Where Every Boy Had to Learn Poker
  • Gambling "Commercialized" and Organized
  • "Square" Gamblers all "Broke"
  • The Story of Hot Springs
  • Politics and "Business" Worked for "the Game"
  • The "Open" Season of 1912-13
  • Something Bound to Happen
  • As the "Straight" Gamblers Saw It
  • Why...

Ian describes carefully and in detail a number of beautiful and cool flourishes with chips. You are sitting at a blackjack table and you have won a stack of chips during the last plays. The dealer ran out of cards and has to shuffle his six decks, which takes a while. This is the ideal moment to impress with a few chip flourishes. Of course, all of these moves can also be executed with coins rather than chips. You will learn:

• The Pickup Move
• Roll Down
• Double Cut
• Shuffle on a soft surface
• Shuffle on a hard surface
• Shuffling tall stacks
• The Twirl
• The Triple Twirl
• The Reverse Twirl ...

This is the book that tells the truth about cards, dice, punch boards, gambling wheels, races, and all other kinds of gambling.

Don't be a sucker! The Open Book reveals how crooked gamblers, cheats, and con artists fleece the innocent and unwary public out of thousands of dollars daily. Even that carnival game at the local fairgrounds may not be as innocent as it looks. Get the inside scoop.

Valuable secrets of marked cards, gaffed dice, ink formulas, holdouts and other cheating devices -- all clearly explained. Also included are scams and cons used by the unscrupulous to bilk the unwary....

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 ...

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.

This...

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....