Chapter XLIII: Part VII: On Games with Four Players

It may be imagined, that in a game where there are four people playing, cheating is impracticable, since the cards the sharper ought to deal, are collected and shuffled by another person.

The reader may remember that in one of the chapters, at the beginning of this work, I have given him a concise explanation of this very subject. This explanation I will now complete.

At the game of Bouillotte, for example, a Greek makes an agreement with an accomplice, whom he places near him.

This accomplice, while collecting and shuffling the cards, arranges them for the following hand. The trick will cause no suspicion; for it is not to the Greek who deals the cards, but to his confederate, that the good hand comes. Besides, these gentlemen always pretend to be unacquainted with each other.

There are numerous other tricks in which no second party is required, and which are all contained in the general rules I have laid down.

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Again, I have sometimes heard it observed, that a Greek cannot exercise his vocation in the higher class of clubs, as they are so strictly watched.

He will certainly not venture, in these _réunions_, in the midst of a crowd of lookers on, all more or less interested in the game, to _sauter la coupe_, _filer la carte_, &c., &c. But, can he not have recourse to other deceptions, where there is no danger of discovery?

The marked cards, for example: can he not bribe a servant, by offering him half the profits, to let him have the packs of cards before giving them to the players?

The telegraph also is equally available, even before the most critical observers.

The Greek of fashionable life has sufficient tact and _finesse_ to cope with any situation, however difficult, in which he may be placed; and when he makes up his mind to cheat, he generally succeeds.

If he does not venture on sleight of hand in public, he makes use of it in small parties, where the players are not conspicuous for their intelligence and perspicacity.

Far be it from me to say, that wherever there are players, there must be rogues; on the contrary, I believe that in many clubs such a character is unknown; still, that is no reason that sooner or later a Greek might not gain entrance there, and exercise his infamous vocation.