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
Seated at the table at my left was Benny Binion, followed by Johnny
Seated at the table at my left was Benny Binion, followed by Johnny Moss, Jack Strauss and Jack Klugman, with Merv Griffin seated at my extreme right. My performance began when Griffin picked up the deck from the table, opened and shuffled the deck several times, then handed the cards to me and remarked, "Scarne, you're on."
I looked at each of my Poker-playing adversaries and said,
I looked at each of my Poker-playing adversaries and said, "Gentlemen, I shall begin my manipulative demonstration by performing a card trick that I have had the pleasure of performing at the White House in Washington, D.C., for Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and their guests." I then handed Binion the deck and had him select a card, mark it for identification and tear a corner off the selected card, return it to the deck, shuffle it, and hand the shuffled deck to me. After receiving the deck, I immediately spread the deck face up ribbon fashion across the table with my right hand, and with my left hand produced my wallet from my inside coat pocket and placed it on the table alongside the spread-out deck. The wallet was completely enclosed on its four sides by twelve tight-fitting different-colored rubber bands. I slowly removed the rubber bands from the wallet and out came Binion's selected marked card minus the corner. Griffin quickly matched the torn corner and remarked, "It fits perfectly."