STOCKING.
This fraud in playing cards is, to the gambler, an important one, as it
generally enables him to get such cards as he wishes, or to give them
to his partner in a manner that seems to be accidental good luck.
Stocking is placing cards in such a position in the pack that the
cheater is able to know whereabouts in the pack they are, and to know
to whom they are dealt. But the grand object is for the person who
stocks them to get them himself; which if he or his partner should do,
he wins ; if not, he cautiously acts on the defensive. Gamblers, when
they have stocked cards, can almost always shuffle in so deceptive a
manner as not to alter the positions of the particular cards they have
stocked; and by that means they will, although the pack appears to be
well shuffled, go where the gambler intends they should go.
One way of stocking, in games that are played with a trump, is this:
if a particular suit is wanted for trump, this will be obtained by
placing one of the desired suit at the bottom of the pack; and keeping
it there throughout the shuffle. Then, when the pack is cut, the
gambler will put it under at the bottom of the pack; but the dealer,
instead of putting it there, takes it in his left hand, and draws the
other part of the pack to him with his right, as if he would put it on
top ; but as his two hands come together, he so dexterously slips the
cards in his right to the bottom of those in the left, that the keenest
eye cannot detect the cheat. The pack remains the same as before cut,
with the one at the bottom which he placed there ; and as all the pack
is dealt out, and the bottom one turned up for trumps, he has the one
he wants. The base cheat of stocking is apt to be practised to a
greater or less extent every deal, and gives advantages that could not
be obtained without its use. It is done in almost all games, and in a
great variety of ways, some of which I shall explain as I proceed. None
need think of detecting it but the most expert gamblers; and even they
have it often practised upon them, and are beaten by it.
In whist they stock principally to get the honours, that is, ace,
king, queen, and jack, of the suit that is trump. These, when they are
all on one side, count them four, and this is a great stride toward the
game. It is also of some consequence to a gambler to get a "sequence"
by stocking the cards; but they prefer making sure of the honours, and
running their risk for an equal share of the good cards. A still more
dangerous method of stocking is at times carried on by the gambler, and
by means of which he is certain of winning any amount which he can
succeed in enticing a man to bet with him ; and I know of no baser
piece of villainy in the whole routine of card-playing than this vile
artifice, which gives the gambler every advantage, by which he is
enabled to rob his victim with as much ease as he will deal his cards,
and without the least remorse of conscience attending this and the like
intrigues.
When a gambler intends practising this cheat, that is, the mode of
stocking of which I have just spoken, he retires, and obtains a pack
like those in general use, which is always easy to be done. He will
then retire and stock them just as he wishes, which he can do so as to
make any number of points, from one up to ten, and is enabled to go
completely through a game the first hand, if he choose to do so. Should
he wish to go out the first hand, he will stock them as follows: Making
any suit trumps that he chooses—we will suppose that he makes
clubs trumps—he will take the ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine,
and eight of clubs; then, of spades, the ace, king, queen, and jack; of
diamonds, the ace and king. He then takes the balance of the pack, and
lays out three cards face up, and puts one of those he has selected out
upon these three, and goes through the whole pack in this way, having
one of the clubs for the last and top card; this will be the trump; and
as the cards he picked out were placed every fourth card throughout,
the dealer or the one who stocked them gets them. He will then trump
the first, if necessary, in order to win it, and will keep the lead
throughout, winning every trick, which counts him six ; and possessing
the four honours, counts him four, which makes him ten, and the game is
won. And the way this pack, alreadystocked, is introduced on the table, is as follows, it is called
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