The Experts at the Card Table

Book excerpt: "The Experts at the Card Table is a new interpretation of the seminal work on card cheating and magic, "Artifice, Ruse and Subterfuge at the Card Table", self-published originally by an S.W. Erdnase, in Chicago in 1902. Here, Ben offers a fresh and new perspective on what he describes as the "Erdnase System" for "Advantage Play"-- that is, cheating at card play. The reader is taught, in great detail, using over 800 photographs, clandestine card table artifice including how to secretly locate desired cards, secure them and then how to stock them for the deal. Ben has reformulated Erndase's original prose for greater clarity, in order to illustrate how one can falsely shuffle and cut the deck, manage and maintain the desired cards--all the while creating the illusion that the cards are being thoroughly mixed. Finally, the reader is instructed how to place the controlled cards into the desired hands. While the general reader will find the technical information and the "Erdnase System" highly educational, the book is intended for those with an advanced understanding and skillset of this arcane practice. This book is the first of three volumes that examines and discusses the science and art of manipulating playing cards for advantage play."--