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"I wouldn't want to play cards with you!"

I'm sure anyone of you who performs magic, in this instants card magic has heard this statment or something similar. I know I have. Well it's been a slow day today and so I thought I'd throw this question out there;

Have you ever actually used the skills and knowledge from card magic for your own gain in a card game situation?

Of course this might be something you don't want to share for obvious reasons but it's just a thought. If so though, how? What was it you did and with who? (Mr. & Mrs X are ok as alternatives to real names.)

Personally, No, I've not used anything I would consider cheating when it comes to playing with money. I have however used them for fun when playing fun, friendly games, just to show off a little. Dealing one person all the aces, ect...

So, anyone else?

Never, but I've been accused of it. A friend invited me over for poker night. I said no becuase there is money on the table and if I win I could be accused of cheating. He told me that he told everyone that I was a magician before he invited me, and they only play for very small amounts of money.

So they turned out to be worse poker players than I was and I was winning. Somebody got very upset and accused me of cheating because I am a magician. I fully expected my friend to have my back. He didn't and it turned a little ugly. I told them I wasn't cheating and frankly the 20 bucks in total I won wasn't worth the hassle so I just threw it on the table and told them to have a nice day. Next day my I asked my friend why he didn't stand up for me. He said he enjoyed playing poker with them and if he sided with me he would no longer be welcome at the game. We are not friends anymore. There is a lot more to the story, but that sums it up.

Here is an extract from my memoirs "The Lives of a Showman" which is relevant to this question.
............................................................................................................................................................................................................................I I ended up the whole exhibition just playing cards with other exhibitors, wandering around the show and only doing the occasional demonstration. I was earning very little money from selling the cards. This was compensated for by the fact that I was winning a lot of money playing cards with the other exhibitors. These exhibitors in the main were grafters from other stands selling non-magic products.

I used to play a lot of cards for money in those days but I am very glad I gave it up since I have always believed gambling leads to rack and ruin. I think it is the worst vice of all and can lead to even more harm than drugs, drink and smoking. If you win you still lose because the excitement of winning hooks you to keep playing and in the long run you end up penniless.

However, at this particular Holiday Fair I was winning all the way more from good luck than any particular skill I had. I hardly knew how to play the game I was involved in and kept asking the players what the rules were and what the hands meant. I kept winning and winning, however, and the players were getting very resentful and started to think my innocence of the game was all an act particularly when they found out I was a card magician. It didn’t help matters when mischievous exhibitors passing by made remarks like “You are not playing cards with him are you? You must be crazy!” They knew I did card tricks and assumed I would know all the wiles of cheating. The truth of the matter is that most magicians are terrible card players and even card magicians know very little about cheating methods. Or to phrase that a bit better they may know about cheating methods in theory but could never carry them out in practice since they don’t plain have the mentality required.

Suffice it to say that I had no idea how to cheat at cards and in those days I was hampered in my life by great honesty that would probably have had me nominated for sainthood. Therefore the game was actually above board and I was winning great gobs of money using no deception whatsoever. I wasn’t a particularly good player but I just seemed to be getting good cards dealt to me by sheer force of luck.

My playing companions were getting very suspicious and kept hinting that I was cheating. Eventually one of the heavy losers went up to Ron’s Svengali booth and asked one of the demonstrators if I cheated at cards from time to time. The magician in question answered jokingly, “I wouldn’t put it past him!” Alas the enquirer didn’t take it as a joke and was suitably furious and took the reply as evidence of my great dishonesty.

He wound up the other players about my alleged wickedness and convinced them that I was a card shark with a history of great crookedness. This was very far from the truth but they got very angry and threatened to lynch me. The legend persists to this day (forty-five years later at the time of writing) about the time I played cards with the grafters and cheated them out of all their money. If any of them are still alive and reading this-it ain’t true and I didn’t do it. Get over it.

Ok!! This is the truth About 6 years ago was playing a game of poker with 2 friends from my work place, and was using my own cards, to with were just slightly rearranged a hour before the game. ha ha!! just for the record was just trying to master a new move so thought I would try this out on this night on my buddies... So basically put all 4 aces on the bottom of the deck and bottom dealed myself a perfect 4 of a kind!!! Isnt magic wonderful??? Oh by the way did give back the £35 that I won after the game finished. Garry