Poker Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
The sharper, let us say, has three kings on top of the deck. He cuts the
The sharper, let us say, has three kings on top of the deck. He cuts the deck into two blocks and shuffles them together. It looks like an ordinary standard shuffle, but during the action he puts just the right number of cards between the kings so that in the deal, which will be on the level, his opponents get cards at random and he gets the kings. It may take him four or five riffles to arrange the kings as he wants them, but if the riffle is his specialty, he can and will do it in two or three riffles. He gets the same result as in the pickup stack, but this sleight-of-hand method will take the smart boys who would spot the overhand stack and the pickup stack (both explained below).
Cleverly executed, this stack is almost detection-proof, but there is
Cleverly executed, this stack is almost detection-proof, but there is one way of spotting it, and then, if you can't correct the matter by forcing the cheat out of the game, the only safe thing to do is force yourself out. Most riffle-stack sharpers riffle the first cards fast and slow up perceptibly near the top, where they must count the cards as they riffle. They also watch the deck carefully as they count the cards into place. Riffling in this fast-slow tempo and watching the deck too intently during the shuffle are the danger signals. The player may not be a riffle-stack expert, but he's acting like one. Look out!