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Lessons my mother never taught me
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Location: Blogs Sly Comments |
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| Posted by: Emory Schley |
9/26/2007 4:51 AM |
Lots of card tricks seem too mysterious for an ordinary mortal to figure out, but that’s exactly what makes them so appealing. Bob Schmitz, Belleview, sent me an e-mail a few days ago mentioning a Website that offers on-line card tricks. You can find it at www.ecardtricks.com along with a few entertaining examples suitable for the Web.
The few I went through seemed pretty simple to figure out, but without the manipulating hand of the card trickster, I suppose there’s a limit to what you can do just on a computer screen, while trying to make it seem interactive.
I knew some people in the Army decades ago, who were pretty adept at such trickery. Only problem was they didn’t hesitate for a moment to bring those same skills into a barracks poker game. There were several of these guys over the years, and getting into a poker game with any of them was just about the quickest way to an empty wallet known, other than through outright robbery. They accomplished the same thing a robber with a gun did, it just took them a little longer to complete the task. I seldom played poker, considering it too big a risk of my few hard-earned dollars, but I did enjoy watching others play.
I once saw a guy named Daniels wind up with four cards to a flush along with one he couldn’t use. The guy on his right folded by tossing his cards, face up, onto the table, which is not the proper way to do it, but that’s the way he did it. And as luck would have it, one of the cards he threw down was a perfect match to the almost-flush Daniels was holding. Daniels said something like “Aw man, you never gonna win if you don’t play,” and as he said that he reached out with his right hand, which was holding his cards, and deftly swept them in an arc, pushing up the discarded hand and flipping the cards over on their back, which is how they should have been thrown onto the table to begin with. I watched Daniels do that, and never noticed anything untoward going on, but when Daniels opened up his hand again, it held all five cards he needed for the flush. He had dropped his one useless card into the pile of discards, and picked up the exact one he needed, and apparently did it quicker than the blink of an eye. It all was done so smoothly that no one was the wiser. It just looked like he was turning over the cards that were no longer in play. Had I not been standing behind him where I could see what was in his hand, I never would have realized what he did either.
Needless to say, he won that hand, and a lot of others that night, too.
I learned a few lessons that night. Never play with a cardshark. Things are NOT always what they seem, even in a “friendly” game. And keep a REALLY close eye on both the cards and your money.
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Re: Lessons my mother never taught me |
By Annabelle on
9/27/2007 9:20 AM |
| I don't believe in gambling either, but I'd bet a load that Daniels is now a Congressman, am I right? |
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Re: Lessons my mother never taught me |
By Emory on
9/27/2007 11:11 AM |
| Gee, Annabelle, I have no idea. I've always secretly hoped he was in prison somewhere. However, he was a pretty shady character, so I suppose he's well qualified for congress. :-) |
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