Crooked Deals

Anyone aspiring to become a card mechanic has an overabundance of crooked dealing techniques available, to choose from. However, Maskelyne only reveals the two of the most basic crooked dealing techniques: the bottom deal and the second deal.

Building this site is a long project. At present the site contains rules for only a minority of the card games that exist. Manipulate - A card focused board game where you build a shady empire and amass Power by manipulating your rivals. Rules Kickstarter. By trusting the players. Manipulation is played with two decks of standard playing cards. Card Manipulation buttons. Hover over the card to reveal its manipulation buttons. Right-click and hold on a a card to begin dragging a targeting arrow. Release right-click on top of a card to target it. Click on the 'Enable Attachment' toggle to make all cards act as attachments and therefore allow them to attach to others. Card game Solitaire, known as the king of hermetic card games, is a staple for office workers and computer inactivates worldwide. Patience games, usually done individually, can up to two players. If you don’t know about this hourly witting, dangerously addictive game, it includes card manipulation and sorting. In order to do this, however, he must play at least one card legally to the table. The player may completely re-arrange the meld layout, however, all the original cards must remain on the table and all melds that are still found on the table must be legal melds. This is usually done to allow the player to play cards from his hand. Manipulation Rummy Games Again the aim is to get rid of all your cards by melding them. The distinctive feature of these games is that when melding, you are also allowed to rearrange the existing melds on the table to form new melds incorporating cards you add from your hand.

The Bottom Deal

To begin, then, with the oldest and most simple manipulations, our first topic is that of the 'Bottom Deal.' This trick, simple as it is, is the very stronghold of the common English sharp. In whatever game he is playing, he seizes the opportunity afforded by picking up the cards preparatory to dealing to place certain cards which would form a good hand at the bottom of the pack, and in shuffling he takes good care not to disturb them. But there is still the 'cut' to be thought about. Well, we shall see later on how the effects of the cut are to be obviated. In the meantime, however, it is evident that if the cards were cut and piled in the ordinary manner, those cards which the sharp had so carefully preserved at the bottom would be brought to the centre. That would never answer his purpose; so, when the cut has been made, if the game is one which does not necessitate the dealing out of the entire pack, he simply takes up the bottom half of the pack, leaving the other on the table. Then, holding the cards as in fig. 35, he proceeds to deal. From this point the trick, as its name suggests, consists of dealing the bottom cards, either to himself or, preferably, to a confederate, in place of the upper cards which should justly fall to that hand.

FIG. 35 -- Bottom Deal

From the position in which the cards are held it will be seen that, as each card is dealt, the finger and thumb of the dealer's right hand fall respectively below and above the pack. It is, therefore, entirely optional whether he shall take the top card with his thumb, or the bottom one with his finger. When a card has to be dealt, then, to himself or to his confederate, as the case may be, it is the bottom one which is taken; to the other players the top ones are dealt out. When quickly done, it is impossible to see whether the card comes from the top or the bottom, although the manner of holding and dealing the cards would imply that the bottom deal was being resorted to: the cards which come from the bottom, being pulled upwards, appear to come from the top. It can always be detected, nevertheless, by the different sound made by a card when brought from the bottom. There is just a slight click, which is distinctly audible, and easily recognized. The reader should try it for himself, and note the effect referred to. After a few minutes' experience he would never afterwards be mistaken in deciding as to whether a card was dealt from the top or bottom of the pack. A sharp who uses the bottom deal rarely employs any other form of manipulation whatever.

The standard countermeasure against the bottom deal is the use of a cut card. A cut card is a plastic card that is kept at the bottom of the deck, during the distribution of the cards, to prevent dealing from bottom. Although this is a good way to protect a poker game against bottom dealing, it should be noted that a cut card does not provide absolute protection. There is a method of dealing cards from the bottom of the deck, even when a cut card is in use. That type of crooked deal is called the Greek deal, and is essentially a technique of dealing the second card from the bottom of the deck.

The Second Deal

The second deal is considered to be a cheating technique used by highly skilled professional card cheats. Interestingly enough, a basic second dealing technique is easier to learn than a basic bottom deal. But learning the mechanics of a move does not make a person capable of cheating in a live card game. For a second deal to be used effectively, the mechanic needs to master several other skills.

We now pass on to the trick known as 'Dealing Seconds.' The trick is so named because it consists' of dealing out the second card from the top instead of the top one. It is particularly useful in connection with marked cards, where of course the top card can be read, and very often the second one also.¹ The effect in this case is that the sharp can always retain the better of the two top cards for himself. Suppose, then, there are four players. The sharp, commencing to deal, notices that the top card is a knave, whilst the second is a three. He therefore deals the second card to the player immediately to his left. It may then appear that the second card now is a king; and, consequently, the sharp deals the top card to the second hand, leaving the king on top. If the card which is now second in the pack is lower than the king, the third player receives that card; but if the second should prove to be an ace, the king goes to the third player, and the ace to the sharp himself. It may happen, however, that the sharp, having dealt round to the three players in this manner, finds that the second of the remaining cards is of more value to him than the first. In that case, of course, he would deal himself the second. Thus it is seen that the sharp has really had a choice of five cards on one round of the deal; and the larger the number of players, the greater his choice, although he may at times have to choose between two cards which would answer his purpose equally well. Ge ms7001ea gas turbine. If he is thus compelled to give away a good card he should dispose of it where it is likely to do him least harm, if he can contrive to do so. Besides marked cards, there are other methods of discovering the value of the top card and, consequently, the advisability of dealing seconds, as we shall see presently.

*1 -- See fig. 7.

The trick of dealing the second card is very easily learned. Take a pack of cards in your left hand, in the manner usually adopted in dealing, with the thumb lying across the middle of the pack. Then with the thumb advance the two top cards slightly to the right. This being done, it will be found that these two cards can be taken between the thumb and middle finger. With the second held by the tip of the middle finger, advance the top card a little further to the right. The cards will now be in a position frequently adopted in dealing, the top card being sufficiently forward to be grasped by the right finger and thumb. So far, there is nothing unusual in the operations; but this is where the trick comes in. If the middle finger of the hand holding the cards is advanced, the second card, resting upon its tip, will be advanced also; and if at the same time the thumb is drawn back, the top card is withdrawn with it. It is now the second card which is the more advanced of the two, and consequently the card which would be taken by the right hand in dealing.

Manipulation Card Game Rules