Chapter XIII: Entertaining Tricks

Piquet--Écarté--Baccarat--Impériale--Whist--Bouillotte--
Bézigue--&c., &c.

In the former chapter I have given various examples of serious cheats performed by Greeks.

I shall now present to my readers, a series of what may be termed entertaining tricks; they are done in such a way that a juggler may, whilst amusing his spectators, show them how easily they may be cheated at every game.

Let us go back to the preceding _coup de piquet_, which we will now perform in a more agreeable manner.

We will suppose the juggler to have in his hand--

1. A sixième of spades.
2. A quatorze of aces.
3. A quatorze of kings.

His adversary is the elder hand; it is for him to call; he announces a _sixième_ from the queen; for, as he has the chance of a sequence in three suits, it is most probable that he will succeed with one.

"Six cards," says he.

"What do they count?"

"Fifty-four."

"That's not good. Is that all you have to declare?"

"Yes; for it is not likely that my three queens will turn out valueless."

"Indeed!" You then spread your _sixième_ major on the table, and say--sixteen and six make twenty-two; and _quatorze_ of kings (you show them) ninety-six; and _quatorze_ of aces, a hundred and ten.

These two _quatorzes_ have all this time been hidden in your left hand.

Here I must explain, _par parenthèse_, something which it will be necessary for my readers to know, so as to understand what follows. While continuing the counting of this _coup de piquet_, we will secretly prepare a _coup d'écarté_, which we will execute after this game.

Let us take up the counting where we left off.

"A hundred and ten," we have said. "A hundred and eleven," you say, taking up the nine of spades of your _sixième_, and putting it on one side--"a hundred and twelve," putting the ten on it; and, continuing your calculation, you do the same with the other four cards; with this difference, that when you come to the king, you put the ace before him, so that he may be the last card in the pack.

In finishing your counting, you put the three kings and the three aces on these six cards, which brings it to a hundred and twenty-three. This, with forty for the _capot_, makes a hundred and sixty-three.

The pack not being played out, the cards have not been shuffled, and it is easy, with the slight preparation I have just pointed out, to arrange the following _coup_.