Holding Out for the Cut

TO HOLD out in a card game is the riskiest and most dangerous form of taking advantage that a player

may attempt, but it can be, and is, successfully practiced when cleverly performed and the player is not suspected. But the only hold out that we consider really safe is made by the dealer, and but for the moment of cutting. After a blind shuffle, with the desired cards on the bottom, the dealer palms in the left and passes the deck with the right to be cut. After the Cut he picks up the deck with the right hand and replaces the palmed cards when squaring up for the deal. Of course, this necessitates a perfect knowledge of palming and replacing, but both actions shell become possible in any kind of company, if the player is not suspected. Holding out for the cut is incomparably less risky than holding out on another's deal; as the deck is never subject to being handled or counted, and the palmed cards remain in the dealer's possession but for the moment.

When there are but two or three players in a game where the cards are dealt one at a time, a top stock of four or six cards may be run up and palmed in the right hand as the deck is passed for the cut. The top palm is replaced when picking up the deck, and usually by a sliding motion. This palming and replacing of the top stock is easier and perhaps less noticeable, and does not require the bottom work in the deal; but when there are five or six players, or when the cards are dealt two or more at a time, the quantity to be palmed would be too bulky.

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Shifting the Cut

THERE is a current supposition that the expert player employs what is commonly known as the two-

handed shift to reverse the action of the cut, but there has never been a shift invented that can be executed during a card game by movements that appear quite regular. If the professional player could always sit in with neophytes, who would stand for actions that are foreign to the usual procedure, he would have little need of special ability to get the money. In the average game where the players keep their hands, and arms also, on the table there is little opportunity to shift the cut. Still there is an opportune moment in some games when the shift may be made with probabilities of being unnoticed. It is immediately after the first deal. The dealer holds the location of the cut until the hands are dealt, and makes the shift as he lays down the deck. Then the desired cards can be dealt from the bottom during the next deal. This moment, after the first deal, is the most favorable, as the players are occupied with their hands, the cut has been made quite regularly, the deal finished and consequently there is less cause for close scrutiny. But principally because the shift can be made with a much more natural action when about to lay down the deck than when picking it up, and also because the deck is much smaller after the deal and therefore so much easier to shift. In any game where cards are dealt the second time the play holds good. But, in any event, shifting is much more noticeable than palming for the cut.

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Dealing Too Many

AFAVORABLE and perhaps the most generally used advantage is in the dealer giving himself one or

two extra cards on the last round. The quantity is not noticeable when lying on the table, and as the extra cards are taken on the last round there is little time for inspection. The dealer immediately picks them up with the left hand as the deck is deposited on the table by the right. The selection is made and the discard palmed and gotten rid of as described under headline, "Skinning the Hand." When holding too many in

Poker, it is preferable to palm and replace the extra cards on the deck; when picking it up to deal the draw than to make the discard and throw the extra cards with it on the discard heap. The dealer palms the extra cards, lays his full hand on the table, replaces the palmed cards, deals the draw and his own draw, then makes his discard and picks up his draw.

A second method of taking too many is by palming the desired number after the deal. The left hand makes the palm as the right is about to lay down the deck. A still safer plan is to make the palm immediately after the cut when squaring up, and maintaining the palm while dealing. This can be alone perfectly and avoids the slightest hesitation or movement after the deal is finished.

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Date: 2016-04-22; view: 707