The Cost of Card Cheating
Culling is a technique for arranging one or more cards at a desired location in the deck, usually at either the top or the bottom. After a cull is performed, a cheater can easily false deal the desired cards to himself or to a partner. A skilled cheat can deal a card from any place in the deck. In one of the more popular methods, the discard cull, the cheat culls from the discard cards. After scanning the cards, he then gathers them and maneuvers them to the top or bottom of the deck. If you suspect someone of cheating through discard stacking, there are few things you can do to protect yourself:
• Gather the discards yourself and give them to the dealer in a squared pile.
• Fold early when the person in question deals.
• As the person begins to deal, bow out of the hand so the stacked deal will be out of the cheater's desired order.
When the card mechanic has positioned his desired cards, there are many variations of false shuffles to give the illusion that the cards are being mixed. The top or bottom stock can be controlled easily by a riffle, or interlocking shuffle. By dealing a normal shuffle and releasing the top card last, or for a bottom stock, releasing the lowest card of the left side first and riffle shuffling the cards above, the desired cards stay at the top or the bottom after being shuffled.
After shuffling, many players demand to cut the deck. A cheater can get around this challenge by foiling the cut with a crimp because people usually cut at the same point in the deck, at the top, near the middle, or at the three-quarter mark. By observing the player on the right, most cheats can determine where he is likely to cut and position a crimp accordingly. Before giving the deck to someone to cut, the cheat pushes down and inward on the inner corner of the bottom cards with his right thumb. When these cards are placed on top of the stack, the bent cards will mark the location of the stacked cards. The bend creates a gap so that the deck tends to cut at that point, putting the cards back to their original order. To avoid this common technique, be sure to cut in different areas of the deck throughout the game.
Once dealers believe they have convinced the other players that the cards are well shuffled, they can proceed to use crooked dealing techniques. The second deal is one of the most effective false dealing methods. The dealer appears to deal normally from the top of the deck but in reality he is sliding a card underneath the top card to any accomplice or to the cheat's own hand. There are several signs that point to second dealing. Watch for the thumb of the hand holding the deck. After dealing the top card, dealers sometimes lift their thumb as it returns to push off the next card. When the cheat deals a second, the thumb needs to be kept flat as it drags back the top card. The difference in these motions is the giveaway.
Another technique is bottom dealing. The cheat deals to other players from the top, but for himself he deals the bottom card. A common tell for a cheat using the bottom deal is listening to the sound of the cards. Cards coming from the bottom of the deck sound different than those off of the top of the deck. Additionally, some bottom dealers produce "hangers." Often when the bottom card comes out strongly, one or more cards trail or hangs after it, and is left partially sticking out of the deck.