Sharpie terms. Beware of card sharks! Victim of a cheater 3 letters

If you think that card cheating is dead, then you are deeply mistaken. Such a profitable business does not think of going anywhere. And during the holidays, cheaters hunt their victims with double passion. And for this they put on real performances.

It costs nothing to lure a victim...

In the world of cheaters, their own hierarchy has long been established, depending on the techniques they use and places of “work”. For example, there are cheaters - “packers”. They work alone. The scammers got their name because they tend to invest the money they win in real estate and jewelry (“packing”). Such swindlers have a special style of play. First, they beat their partner (or sucker, as the victim of a cheater is called in the card world), and then let him win back about a third. This is where it all stops. The “sucker”, who initially lost all his money, is happy with this outcome.
The next link in the hierarchy of cheaters consists of “hussars” who “tour” on long-distance trains, on beaches, train stations, airports, parks and even in taxis. They usually play well organized groups, where the roles are distributed in advance, and the techniques of getting involved in the game and playing out are brought to automaticity. One of the group of scammers looks for a victim and drags him into simple game in the "throw-in" Others, two or three, join as fellow travelers. And off we go until the person is left with his nose.

“Hussars” usually pass themselves off as educated, intelligent people, which, in general, they succeed in. Fraudsters have a broad outlook, they are completely relaxed, well-read, devoid of any complexes, and are ready to support any topic in conversation, from art to greyhound racing and politics. They are excellent psychologists and, like clairvoyants, they immediately identify a person who is wealthy and greedy for money, who loves to make money at someone else’s expense.

There are also so-called car “catalogues”. This is their tactic. First they "figure out" the money man. This is usually done when the “client” wanders around looking for a taxi to take him to another locality. In this case, the “catalys” offer to take him for an amount that is five times less than the usual fee. But to make such patronage less obvious, the client is asked to wait until the taxi driver picks up a couple more people who want to get to the desired destination. Clients, of course, are selected from colleagues in the rolling business. One seat in the car always remains free. The subsequent seating also takes place under the conduct of the scammers. As a result, the client always ends up in the back seat near the left window. At the same time, the door lock on this side is always either missing or broken. Then the play unfolds according to the following scenario. At the exit from the starting point, there will definitely be a voter standing on the road. “Shall we take it?” – the driver asks the passengers, as if reluctantly. The answer should be: “You can” or “As you wish.” The driver, of course, wants to. Now the entire theater group is complete and everything is ready to lure the victim online. First, the driver and his companions begin an unobtrusive, heartfelt conversation. Word for word, we chatted, but while we have a long way to go, maybe we can play some cards, just like that? The fellow traveler agrees. At first the stakes are small, but they grow and grow. The sucker’s passion is generally at its limit. This means that the client has matured - now he can be stripped to the skin, which happens very quickly.

At the very top of the hierarchy of card swindlers are the “katranniki”. This is an elite of sharpers, endowed with special powers according to unwritten laws. They play the game on “katrans” - in places reliably hidden from the eyes of the police (dacha, apartment, restaurant). Not only professional players are invited to the fashionable “katrans”, but also some high-ranking officials who want to experience the thrill of feelings. Officials who lose at cards, naturally, must repay debts, which they often have to pay through illegal actions in favor of criminals: for example, provide the necessary information, obtain certain documents, influence the investigator, judge, etc.

Change the card? As easy as pie

Naturally, any pro has thousands of tricks and techniques to help trick a sucker around his finger.

So, the trick of the sharpie is a cunning way of dealing cards. If it’s his turn to deal the cards, before the deal the fraudster can replace not only one or several cards so that you won’t even notice, but also the entire deck, in which everything will be prepared for his win. It takes the swindler no more than one or two seconds to replace the deck. As if by inertia, he lowers his hand with a deck of cards under the table and instantly returns it to its original place above the table, but with a different deck.
In addition, some cards may suddenly disappear at the very beginning of the game or in the middle and appear again when the sharper needs it, for example at the end of the game. Here you need to watch the players' hands. The swindler can hide the card in the palm of his hand, in his sleeve, or in a pocket on his stomach specially made for this purpose.

In addition, sharpers know a myriad of ways to mark cards. For example, they can be trimmed. In this case, the sharper tries to cut the edge of the card not to shorten its length compared to other cards, but so that the cut just appears. After this preparation, the card has the same dimensions as other cards, but its edges are uneven and it fits into the deck with friction. Thus, it can be easily found while shuffling by touch, with your fingers. But now criminals have put the latest achievements of science, in particular, chemistry and physics, at their service: specks are applied to the cards with a special composition, which is visible only through specially treated glass.
Sometimes cheaters use available technical means to spy on the opponent's cards. For example, a box of matches, into one of the faces of which a small mirror is inserted. Having lit a cigarette, such a box is casually thrown onto the table with a practiced gesture and through the mirror edge they observe which cards are dealt to whom. Cigarette cases, lighters and similar things are used for the same purposes - it all depends on the imagination of the sharper and his qualifications.

And in last years In a number of large cities, card swindlers began to use electronic equipment to highlight enemy cards. For example, in Chisinau, when a cheating group was exposed, an “electronic” gaming table was discovered. Using equipment built into it, enemy cards were displayed. The game was controlled by an accomplice located on the balcony.
In addition, video equipment is also used. A micro-video camera is mounted in a chandelier or directly in the ceiling, transmitting the image to another room or even to another apartment where the cheater’s accomplice is located.

Watch your gestures

But that's not all. One of the most common tricks of sharpers is a secret window in the wall, disguised with a mirror, picture or carpet. The victim is seated with his back to the secret peephole so that his cards can be seen from another room. Then the scammer’s accomplice, entering the room, gives the accomplice a signal with a pre-agreed sign which cards the sucker has in his hands. The system of signals is very diverse: for example, crossed fingers mean clubs, scratching an eyebrow means diamonds, bending a finger means hearts, connecting the index fingers of both hands means spades, and so on.
However, high-class professionals try to avoid such risks and not overdo it with tricks, considering them too dangerous - the victim may sense something is wrong and become wary. Everything should look extremely natural and not prevent the sucker from entering the pre-prepared trap.

Revolution in cheating

Usually cheaters try not to show off. And indeed, they are known by name and face only in their own circle. The only exceptions are swindlers who are most famous for their exploits. One of them is P. J. Keplinger from San Francisco, nicknamed the Happy Dutchman, who made a real revolution in the business of cheating.

He developed an ingenious mechanism based on the previous achievements of anonymous inventors. A retractable steel clip was placed in the double sleeve of a specially made shirt, which, at the player’s request, could snatch a card or several cards from his hand and pull them into the sleeve. In the same way, cards could be given from sleeve to hand. The entire system was powered by a cable that passed under the clothes through a series of tubes and wheels up to the Happy Dutchman's knee. Sitting at the card table, he felt for the end of the cable, brought it out through the slit in the seam of his trouser leg and hooked it to the other knee. Under the table, the thin cable connecting the player's knees was not noticeable. By spreading his knees, the swindler forced the steel clamp to extend and unclench, and by bringing his knees together, he closed and pulled the clamp into his sleeve. A few hours of training, and Keplinger learned to hide and give away any card given to him.

He began to use his system in the most famous gambling houses of San Francisco in poker against inveterate swindlers like himself. And he did this not from time to time, as caution required, but almost constantly. His experienced partners quickly realized that things were dirty here: he couldn’t be so lucky from game to game. So they devised a plan to expose the Happy Dutchman.
At a prearranged signal, three opponents grabbed Keplinger and, methodically searching him from head to toe, found his invention. He was offered a choice: either make the same thing for each of the whistleblowers, or be lynched. The happy Dutchman, naturally, chose to stay alive and a few years later his “mechanical hand” became a common tool for cheaters all over the world.

Card scam of the century

But after a while, Bianco got tired of sharing the money, and he fled Cuba. Laforcade tried to continue the scam on his own, but the supply of marked decks introduced by the Spaniard into Havana casinos was drying up. Laforcade himself did not have enough skills and experience to launch his marked “product” into the game. He was soon caught cheating and arrested. But the investigation was unable to prove that he marked cards or threw marked decks into the game (and he was indeed innocent of this), so he was acquitted.

Although such scams are still rare, it is nevertheless very easy to fall into the cleverly placed snares of cheaters. And it is almost impossible to fight them. Simpletons have the only way to avoid the traps of card swindlers - never, under any circumstances, sit down at a card table.

Prepared by Anna Popenko

As you know, cards were invented in the 9th century in China. In Europe, they became widespread only at the end of the 14th century, and almost immediately scammers were found who used marked cards in the game.

In the middle of the 16th century, a book on gambling was published in England, which described in detail how to apply marks on the back of cards that were barely noticeable to the prying eye.

Manufacturers playing cards They immediately began to invent ways to combat this evil. A special, completely opaque paper was developed. The cards were made from two layers of thick glossy paper, which were glued together with black soot-based glue. The map made in this way was not exposed to light under any lighting conditions. In addition, it was impossible to bend it, put dents, wrinkles or abrasions on its surface. The gloss that covered the cards did not allow marks to be made on them with paint or ink. Even more inventive in this matter were those for whom foul play had become a profession.

Cheating has become a rather dangerous activity. In the 16th century, exposed cheaters faced the gallows. The American court gave victims of cheaters the right to take physical action against criminals, up to and including killing them.

In 1849, the magistrate of one of the French cities asked the famous magician Jean Robert-Houdin to examine one hundred and fifty card decks that had been seized from a suspiciously successful professional gambler.

For two weeks, the magician, armed with a magnifying glass, carefully examined each card, but he was unable to find anything suspicious. It should be noted that the reverse side of the cards issued in those days did not have a pattern and was white. It was believed that it was much more difficult to apply specks in an open field.

The upset magician had already decided to come to terms with his failure, stood up from his chair and angrily threw the last deck of cards onto the table. “And suddenly it seemed to me that on the shiny back of one of the cards I noticed a pale spot,” wrote Robert-Houdin. “I took a step closer and the stain disappeared. But it appeared again when I retreated again.”

Finally, the magician understood how the sharper marked the cards. Probably, by applying a drop of water to the cardboard, he removed the gloss from a certain area of ​​the surface. The mark obtained in this way could only be distinguished from a certain distance, from a certain viewing angle and under special lighting. The location of the spot was not chosen randomly: it corresponded to each suit and rank of the card. Robert-Houdin became interested in this problem, and he continued to study it, and a few years later he wrote and published an entire book, which he dedicated to the working methods of card sharpers.

From 1850 to reverse side complex designs began to be applied to cards. The idea of ​​the manufacturers was to thus hide noticeable stains that could accidentally get on the card during its use, for example, drops of coffee, wine or abrasions, by which a dishonest or simply observant player could distinguish a familiar card.

However, scammers have learned to use the design of the card back for their own purposes, applying subtle signal strokes, dots or shades to it.

Card manufacturers have always had to constantly develop new glossing methods to prevent any marks. In response to this, sharpers always managed to create such recipes for paints and inks, with the help of which it would be possible to apply inconspicuous marks on the most shiny cardboard.

The state produced blank decks of cards, which were sent to customers in sealed parcels. Crooks have developed ways to replace these decks with marked ones.

Sometimes they had to carry out large-scale operations: having deliberately lowered prices, they sold batches of marked cards to merchants, which were bought from them by the owners of hotel and club kiosks and restaurants. Having thus prepared the ground, the sharpers went to play in these establishments.

In the middle of the 19th century, the Spanish sharper Bianco purchased a large number of high quality card decks. Having carefully marked each card, Bianco sealed the decks in their original packaging and resold them cheaply to Havana, which at that time was considered the capital of gambling. He then went to Cuba himself to reap the fruits of his labor.

Having landed in Havana, Bianco found, not without pleasure, that his plan was being put into practice: the decks he had marked, with a guarantee of purity, were sold to all the best casinos. Visiting these gambling houses one by one, Bianco made huge bankrolls each time.

In order not to arouse suspicion, in the next casino or club he eloquently complained about a large loss that had allegedly just befallen him at a nearby gambling house.

However, the brilliant swindler did not take into account only one fact. Unfortunately, he was not the only one among those who dreamed of making money in the same way. Some time later, card sharper Laforcade arrived in Havana from France. He managed to infiltrate one of the aristocratic clubs in the Cuban capital, where he stole several decks of cards in order to put marks on them and put them into play in the same club. But, alas, Laforcade was disappointed. When he arrived at his hotel room and printed out the stolen decks, he discovered that someone had beaten him to it: all the cards were already marked. Buying fresh decks from Havana suppliers and finding the same marks on them, Laforcade realized that he had stumbled upon a huge scam.

The French swindler had no choice but to make inquiries. He visited casinos and gambling clubs, pursuing for now the only goal: to identify an enterprising swindler. Finally, Laforcade drew attention to the rather strange behavior of Bianco, who was constantly lucky, but at the same time he did not stop complaining about his losses. And so, in a cozy corner of one of the clubs, Laforcade formed a private game of ecarte with Bianco, during which he caught him in organizing a scam and presented him with a choice: if Bianco does not share half of all his cheating income with him, his deception will be exposed right there. The discouraged Spaniard, of course, preferred to take the Frenchman's share.

But in the end, Bianco got tired of sharing the money, and he fled Cuba.

Laforcade tried to continue the scam alone, but the marked decks introduced by the Spaniard into Havana casinos gradually went out of use. Laforcade himself was not so experienced as to put his marked goods into the game.

Soon he was caught in deception and arrested. But, since the investigation was unable to find evidence that he marked cards and threw marked decks into the game (Laforcade actually did not do this), he was acquitted.

Many sharpers managed to mark cards during the game. In this case, dots or scratches, perceptible to the touch, were imperceptibly applied to their surface with a sharp nail, the tip of a needle soldered to the ring, or with special ink from olive oil, camphor, stearin and aniline. When the need arose, the sharper lightly moistened his finger with paint, a small amount of which was stored on a suit button or a special pad, similar to a stamp, sewn behind the lapel of a jacket. In order not to leave evidence, after the end of the game, a speck of such ink from the marked card was easily removed.

There have long been other methods of card fraud. The sharper does not have to mark the cards every time. You can also see what cards your opponent is holding in his hands. Of course, in rare cases, the most unlucky partner can be seated with his back to a mirror, lacquered cabinet or other reflective surface. When playing with an experienced opponent, cheaters resort to more subtle methods, for example, using a glass table surface, a polished cigarette case, or even a puddle of a drink spilled on the table specifically for this purpose.

Robert-Houdin, already mentioned earlier, described a cheater's snuffbox in his book. On its lid there was a hidden button, when pressed, the oval portrait of a lady was replaced by a concave mirror. Such a thing allowed its owner, when distributing cards, to see what went to whom. Similar mirrors were hidden in smoking snuff boxes, matchboxes, on rings and even on the tips of cigarettes and toothpicks.

According to one American expert on the art of cheating, an experienced swindler can make a lot of money by knowing the place in the deck of just one card. But there are more interesting options when the sharper not only knows the location of the cards, but can also control it by slipping the desired card at the right time or by removing the unprofitable one.

In the simplest cases, card substitution was based only on sleight of hand. The card was hidden in the sleeve, under the knee, under the collar of the shirt. In addition, craftsmen invented mechanical devices with springs that have the ability to remove the card from the sharpie’s hand into the sleeve or in the bosom, and then throw it into the game.

In 1888, a sharper from San Francisco, P. J. Keplinger, nicknamed the Happy Dutchman, made a real revolution in the gambling business, developing his own ingenious mechanism based on the previous achievements of the inventors.

A steel retractable clamp was placed in the double sleeve of a specially made shirt, which, at the player's request, could snatch a card or several cards from his hand and pull them into the sleeve. In the same way, cards could return from sleeve to hand. This whole system was powered by a cable that passed under the clothes through a series of tubes and pulleys up to the knee of the Happy Dutchman. Sitting at the card table, the player felt the end of the cable, brought it out through a slit in the seam of the trouser leg and attached it to the other knee. The thin cable connecting the player's knees under the table was almost invisible. When the knees were pulled apart, the steel clamp extended and unclenched, and when brought together, it was pulled back into the sleeve. After several hours of intense training, Keplinger learned to masterfully hide and give away any card he received, without those around him even knowing about his activities.

The brilliant invention operated silently, imperceptibly and flawlessly. A gaming partner could look into a sharpie's sleeve and not see anything suspicious there. The use of such a very original device could have provided Keplinger with a comfortable existence throughout his life, if not for the greed that had taken possession of him, and perhaps the passion of a professional gambler. The Happy Dutchman began to use his system in the most famous gambling houses of San Francisco in poker against the same inveterate scammers as himself. Moreover, he took this risk not from time to time, but, forgetting about all caution, almost constantly. This could not continue indefinitely, and soon Keplinger's unprecedented luck in all games brought upon him the suspicion of his experienced rivals, who decided to expose the Happy Dutchman.

Having waited for the prearranged signal, the three opponents grabbed Keplinger and searched him from head to toe. The invention, of course, was discovered, so the Happy Dutchman, in order to avoid exposure and lynching, which would hardly have left him alive, agreed to make the same device for each of his whistleblowers. As a result, after several years, Keplinger's mechanical hand became the property of sharpers all over the world. At the end of the 19th century, specialized companies sold his apparatus for $100 apiece. For those years it was a considerable sum, but the magical device, to its credit, was worth it.

The 20th century produced many outstanding innovations in the field of card cheating. One version of the mechanical arm is attached to chest and is activated by deep inhalation or exhalation. In the USA, on the open market you can find cards marked with such a pigment that only the one who wears it can see contact lenses a certain color. The police do not have the right to confiscate such goods because these cards are sold in joke and prank shops.

Professional cheaters also resort to the help of special spotters armed with binoculars and a walkie-talkie. So, in 1949, the famous American sharper Nick Dandolos, nicknamed the Greek, won no less than $500,000 with the help of such a gunner. Opposite the Flamingo Hotel building in Las Vegas, where the game was taking place, a room was rented in which a man armed with strong binoculars and a walkie-talkie was hiding. To avoid detection, Grek's partners were seated with their backs to the window. Subject to this only simple condition the enterprise was simply doomed to success.

First mention of card games ah in Russia dates back to the beginning of the 17th century. Presumably the cards were brought to our country during the Time of Troubles from Poland. Surely people immediately appeared who wanted to profit from this business. At the same time, it is quite difficult today to judge how many cheaters there were then and what punishment they were subjected to, since cards in Russia were prohibited by royal decree. In Alexei Mikhailovich’s Code, gamblers are mentioned in the same line as murderers and thieves, so initially in Mother Russia not only those who engaged in fraud were punished, but also honest players. However, there was an exception to the generally strict rule. Thus, the inventory of palace property that has survived to this day, compiled after the death of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, indicates the presence of several dozen card decks among other things, which led to the conclusion that cards were still played in the royal palace.

But in a legal way for leisure activities they were recognized only under Peter I.

Thaddeus Bulgarin’s novel “Ivan Vyzhigin,” which appeared in 1829, describes some of the methods of card cheating used at that time in Russia. This is how one of the sharpers initiates the hero of the novel into the secrets of his craft:

“Zarezin took a snuff box from a drawer in the table and handed it to me.

– Do you see anything in her? - he asked.

“Nothing, except that it is heavy and very well made,” I answered.

– It’s heavy because the middle is golden and the top is platinum, and this heaviness is very necessary. Do you see how this lower bottom is surrounded by a rib or frame, and in the very middle of the bottom there is a flower trimmed with a mat? Now, if you please, look: here I am, for example, a banker (that is, the one who distributes cards and against whom partners, called punters, play).

At this Zarezin sat down at the table, took the cards in his hands and continued:

– Now I see that the second card should win a big jackpot. I put the cards on the table, cover the deck with a snuff box, as if as a precaution so that the punters would not see the cards; I take out the handkerchief, wipe my nose, then open the snuff box, take the tobacco, take off the snuff box, continue throwing, and you see: the seven, which should have gone to the left, goes to the right.

- How does this happen?

- That's how. The snuff box has two bottoms. This flower is inserted, on a spring, and smeared on the mat with wax or glue. When I take the tobacco, I press the middle with my finger. The top card sticks to the flower and is kept in the frame. The second remains top. Now comes another card, which I need to put to the right. I put the snuffbox on the cards in exactly the same order, press the bottom, and the card lags behind the flower and goes on top, and the one that should have won in the first deal loses to the punter in the second.”

Then Zarezin demonstrates another miracle of technology, the so-called guillotine. “The word is French,” he says, “but the invention is Russian, and not as terrible as the French mechanism of the same name.”

The guillotine was a card whose suit and points were changed by moving a finger. Any card with points (but not a figured one) was carefully split in the middle into two pieces of paper. A device for changing glasses was inserted between them, the role of which was performed by a thin steel spring from a clock mechanism. One of its ends protruded barely noticeably from the side of the card, and to the other were glued glasses cut out from other cards.

Sometimes in such a device the spring was replaced with a flat lever, which was made from a thin sewing needle flattened on an anvil. Then, in place of the glasses, windows were cut out in the front sheet of the split card, after which the entire card was glued together. Such an invention worked well, because in the dim light of candles the partners could not see how the sharper moved the protruding tip of the watch spring with his fingernail in order to place the glasses he needed in the cut-out windows.

At one time, cards were a strong passion for Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. It is no coincidence that his play “The Players” contains a description of several ways to throw marked decks into the game. “Our agent is coming to the fair,” says one of the characters, an experienced gambler. – Stops under the guise of a merchant in a city tavern. He hasn’t had time to hire benches yet; he keeps chests and packs in the room. He lives in a tavern, splurges, eats, drinks - and suddenly disappears to God knows where without paying. The owner is rummaging around in the room. He sees that there is only one pack left: he unpacks - a hundred dozen cards. The cards, naturally, were immediately sold at public auction. The merchants instantly snapped them up for their shops. And four days later the whole city was lost!”

So, using a trick with a missing agent, the cheating team distributed decks with marked cards throughout the city.

Here's another clever trick. Having decided to rob a rich landowner, a group of visiting swindlers gets into a carriage drawn by three horses and flies at full speed past the merchant's house. For greater persuasiveness, passengers pretend to be drunk. They scream and sing songs at the top of their lungs. A suitcase falls out of the carriage. The street people wave after the retreating cheaters and shout, but they allegedly do not notice anything and rush away. Naturally, they pick up the suitcase and examine its contents. Among some clothes they find a deck of forty cards, which, according to the scammers' plans, end up on the master's tables. The next day the owner and all his guests are left without a penny in their pockets. They are, of course, robbed by sharpers who threw them a suitcase with decks of marked cards.

In the book “The Life of a Gambler, as Described by Himself, or the Discovery of the Cunning of the Card Game,” published in 1826, the author of which, for obvious reasons, chose to remain anonymous, tells the story of how a passionate gambler and music lover was beaten at cards with the help of a violin .

Two sat down to play Boston, and the third, a virtuoso violinist, began to walk around the room and play improvisations, supposedly for the entertainment of the players. The musician studied the cards of both players and, through his play, conveyed to his accomplice information about the suits of the cards that were in his partner’s hands. So, if a violinist started playing on the bass strings, this meant spades, on high tones - clubs, etc.

Another way to transmit information is code words. For example, knowing what cards a partner has in his hands, the sharper turns to his assistant with the following words: “What do you think? Go!” or “My friend, how lucky you are!” It turns out that such phrases carry certain information: the first word starting with the letter “H” is an instruction to play with hearts, with “B” – with diamonds, etc.

There have also been international swindlers in Russia who were skilled in cheating techniques. The short-term favorite of Catherine II, Lieutenant General S.G. Zorich, was known as a passionate gambler who introduced a game at court for amounts that no one had ever thought of before. It is about him that Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin mentions in “The Queen of Spades”.

For his scandalous passion for cards, the queen sent Zorich away from the court. He went to Ukraine and settled on his estate in Shklov, where he took up the big game.

After some time, Shklov became an international center for card games, something like the European Havana. Adventurers from all over Europe came to this city.

Among them were the well-known card sharpers of those times - the Austrian counts, the Zanovich brothers, close friends of the famous Casanova, whose high title helped them organize card scams. Knowing that fresh decks were brought to Zorich on convoys, the counts replaced real decks with marked ones in one of the convoys and began to invariably win.

There, in Ukraine, the Zanovichs began producing not only marked cards, but also counterfeit banknotes, for which they were taken under arrest after counterfeit Russian banknotes totaling 700,000 rubles were discovered in Shklov. The counts were expelled from Russia in disgrace. It is likely that, not without the help of such partners, General Zorich accumulated gambling debts worth two million rubles.

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Greetings, friends.

In this article we will talk about the favorite method of all sharpers and card swindlers in the world. But first things first. Let's start from the very beginning...

As you know, cards appeared in Europe at the end of the 14th century and at the same time people appeared who began to put subtle marks on cards in order to identify them during the game. These, as you understand, were the first card sharpers.

These people became the first sharpers and card swindlers of that time!

They turned out so well that in England at the end of the 16th century there was even a book published that described in detail the methods of marking cards!

Card manufacturers of that time immediately began their fight against this evil. Cards began to be produced from completely opaque paper. The cards themselves consisted of two pieces of glossy paper glued together.

They were glued together with a special black glue based on soot. Now the cards did not show through in any light and were better resistant to abrasions, dents and wrinkles. The gloss that now covered the cards resisted ink marks very well. BUT...

Even greater ingenuity was shown by those for whom dishonesty became a job and a means of livelihood. The profession of a sharpie quickly turned into a dangerous game with fire. The caught cheaters were not treated on ceremony and were immediately sent to the gallows.

American justice recognized the right of victims of cheaters to deal with them without trial or investigation. The card sharper stood on a par with the murderer and the thief.

Lynchings swept across young America. Card sharpers were mercilessly physically exterminated, and only the deaf had never heard of card sharpers.

How a magician saw through the cheaters

In 1849, the magistrate of one of the French cities asked the then famous card magician Jean Robert-Houdin to check 150 card decks seized from one suspiciously successful player. The magician sat with a magnifying glass over each card for two weeks, but could not detect anything.

The fact is that in those days the back of the cards was pure white. Therefore, applying specks to it was a very problematic task.

Upset, the magician forcefully threw the cards on the table and stood up from his chair. This is how he describes what happened next: “And suddenly it seemed to me that on the shiny back of one of the cards I noticed a pale spot. I took a step closer and the stain disappeared. But it appeared again when I retreated.”

The experienced magician immediately realized that the card sharper was simply removing the gloss from one place of the shirt. Perhaps he did this simply by dripping a drop of water onto his shirt and thereby leaving a mark visible only at a certain distance, a certain angle of view and a certain lighting.

As usual, the location of this speck indicated the suit of the card and its value. Jean Robert-Houdin became interested in this problem and a few years later wrote a book about the methods of “working” of card cards.

Changes in the life of a cheater

Since 1850, a variety of back designs began to appear on cards. This was done in order to slightly mask coffee or wine stains on the back of the cards, by which the player could remember this card. But this only worked to the advantage of the cheaters.

They began to add to these drawings their own little noticeable strokes, dots or play of shadows in the drawing. A real card arms race has begun between card manufacturers and card sharpers.

Sharpie terms

Fall into the share - join a partner who has a good suit in the game. Only katran operators have the right to fall into share.

Plastic bag - several cards known only to the dealer. There is such an expression as sending a packet. It consists in the fact that the dealer deals several cards at a time and he deals these several cards to a specific player.

Packer - a highly qualified lone sharper who uses the money he wins to acquire valuables, that is, to pack.

Finger to mouth - a gesture, a conventional sign of silence among cheaters.

Boy - jack (playing card).

Soar - get confused, cheat in an account or in a record.

The passenger is a victim of a cheater.

The passenger is spoiled- a player who is familiar with cheating techniques.

Graze - follow, watch, observe someone or something.

Graze - feed, hunt, earn money in a certain place, regularly visit this place.

Guys - playing cards.

Translation - a cheating technique when playing point, which consists in the fact that having collected a large bank, the sharper gives a conventional sign to his partner to go for the amount and deals him the necessary cards.

Flip the volt- a cheating technique that allows you to return the deck to its original position.

Partition - a card when playing a point that spoils the game for a partner.

Rework - the state of a victim who is being played by a cheater.

Distort - use the cheating technique “hold”. Also called volt reception, inconspicuously moving part of a deck of cards back to its original place.

Transfer - a cheating technique that allows you to return the cards to their original position.

Debt dealer- a person who buys a gambling debt, paying it to the winner. The loser is given a deferment, but is charged 30% more than the amount lost.

The dude is the victim of a cheater.

Pinter - card swindler.

Shove - this is what they say when a sharper uses a cheating technique against another player. For example, he uses marked cards in the game.

Plement - playing cards.

Stroking clothes- the conventional sign of a sharper: “Get away from me!”

Stroking the chin- the conventional sign of a sharper: “Come to me!”

choke - run into trouble, fail to beat an opponent.

Selection - part of the cards, which is stacked in a deck in a certain order.

Arson - a game between cheaters who are unfamiliar with each other using cheating techniques.

Shoe the stirs - mark playing cards.

Horseshoe - marking playing cards.

Drive the gravy - make up, lie, deceive, lie, fantasize.

Grease - inciting excitement in the victim who is at a loss (cheating technique).

Undercut - sit down to play cards with the intention of beating a lucky player.

Pillows - fake cards.

Rise dial - have good cards.

Show - a conditioned signal with the help of which secret information is transmitted.

Showman - a sharper's assistant, helping him in determining his partner's cards or his own cards for the game for sure.

Half-color - a card of the same value and color with the partner’s caught card when playing with Thirds.

carry - beat, start winning several times in a row.

Pont-tomta - victim of cheaters.

Bungle - when making counterfeit cards, spoil them.

Tainted - a player who knows cheating techniques, but does not engage in fraud.

plant - play cards.

Put it on the line- play cards for the life of a person unwanted by the group.

Staging - a performance (planned actions in a cheating game), which is played out around the victim.

Stage Director - the author of the production who plans the game and all the circumstances that occur around the game.

My nose started bleeding- the beaten victim pays.

Pospilit - play cards.

Got started - the victim intended by the cheaters began to play for money.

Drive away the Maidan - play a cheating game on trains.

Ring the bells- lose, be left without anything, lose clothes.

Rental - a predetermined amount that a partner must pay if he does not score a single point in the Rams game.

Pad - several unmatched cards that are inserted between matched cards.

Pierce - collect information about the sharper so as not to contact him when playing cards.

Have fun - lose at cards.

Proletarian - the person who lost. Sometimes they say that he flew by.

Push through - when one player uses a cheating technique against another, for example, using marked cards.

Fasten the button- involve in a card game.

Machine gun - playing cards.

The machine gunner is a gambler.

Empty sucker - a passenger intended by a sharper to play cards, but who finds himself without money.

Pyaterik - the same as the troublemaker, that is, cards stacked in a deck in a certain order, only it is more complicated and is intended for those who cannot be taken to the troublemaker. Even cards are placed in one part of the deck, and odd cards in the other; even cards are slightly sharpened along the edges.