Tournament 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
As the sun began to rise in the east,
As the sun began to rise in the east, Steiner, while accompanying me to my room at the nearby London Hilton Hotel said, "Scarne, since you told me you were going to switch in a stacked deck on Mr. X's deal when he offered you the deck to cut, I watched you like a hawk each time you cut the deck and never did I see you make a move. I was as surprised as Mr. X and Mr. Y when I was dealt a royal flush. Your deck switch tonight was a masterpiece."
Some years later I had the pleasure of
Some years later I had the pleasure of being the technical adviser to the 1973 Academy Award-winning film, The Sting, which starred Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Robert Shaw. In addition to my duties as technical adviser to The Sting, I performed all the card manipulations seen in the film. Of particular delight to movie patrons was the Poker game scene which took place aboard a train. In one scene, the villain, Robert Shaw, was shown switching a stacked deck into the Poker game to fleece Paul Newman. The stacked deck switch was not faked. They were my hands that actually switched decks. I've seen The Sting a dozen or more times, and believe you me, the switch was executed so smoothly that even I can't spot the switch. This is the same deck switch I executed at the Poker game described above. If you happen to see a rerun of The Sting, try to spot the deck switch. I'm sure you won't.