STOCKING TO CHANGE THE PACKS.

This trick is sometimes put in practice; the object of it is to deceive the opponent in his own hand, by giving him a hand from which it would appear quite certain that he could make from four to eight or nine points. This is done in order to entice him into a bet. We will suppose a player to lack five points of the game; the dealer deals him a hand of the highest order, having in it the four honours, and other good trumps, with regular sequences of other suits, and he feels quite sure of winning; and when the dealer proposes to bet him that he cannot make two, or even one trick over six, he will be readily induced to bet on the strength of his hand; and this is just what the dealer has been striving for.

Explanation.—The person who intends practising this cheat will retire, and if he makes clubs trumps, he will select out the ace, king, queen, jack, ten, and nine of clubs; these are the six highest trumps. He will put with these the ace, king, jack, queen, ten, nine, and eight of spades; this hand is for his opponent; and from having two regular sequences, he will be very sanguine of beating, thinking it more than likely that his partner has some of the seven remaining low trumps, or that they are scattered between the other three players. By the time his are all played out, he will have drawn from the other players their trumps, and can win, as he supposes, the other tricks by leading from his spade sequence ; but he will be deceived, for the dealer gives himself the seven low trumps—a regular sequence of diamonds from ace to nine; that is, the ace, king, queen, jack, ten, and nine. This hand is for himself, and the way in which he puts the pack together so as to get these cards, and to give his opponent the other cards is this : he will take the first selected hand, and lay down one card from it, face up; then put upon it two cards from the part of the pack left after the selection, then one card from the hand which he wants for himself, then one from his opponent's hand, and two from the other portion, &c, until the whole are put together. Then, when they are wanted they are introduced upon the table as in the other case. We will suppose that A and C are partners, and B and D are their opponents: A will introduce this pack upon the table when B and D are yet wanting five points; his left-hand opponent, B, gets the hand containing the high trumps. A's partner, 0, knows that this pack has been introduced, and in order to entice B and D to a bet, C will say, "We have nothing, and might as well give B and D all they can make." Then B, holding so good a hand, will claim the game, as he has the four honours, which count him four, and, besides, a regular sequence of spades, which is good for every trick after the trumps are all played, and he feels sure that he can make three or four old tricks, and one is enough to win the game for him. He will persist in being allowed the game; but A opposes, and offers to bet on it, and B feels so very confident, that he will accept of a bet on such a hand ; and if A should fail getting a bet on better terms, he will bet B that he will not make one odd trick. This bet he will be certain to take, and they then play. B trumps, and wins the first and the five succeeding tricks ; A still has one small trump, and wins the seventh trick, and leads from his sequence of diamonds, and makes every trick after that, and of course gets the odd trick, and B loses. These methods of stocking cards for the purpose of winning the game are but a few among the many methods by which the gambler pursues his way.

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