Stacking Four of a Kind and Wheels.

In five-card stud, the dealer concerns himself only with stacking his first two cards and knowing the other players' hole cards. In seven-card stud, the dealer can easily stack himself three of a kind. (But stacking three of a kind in five-card stud does not work because someone usually folds the first round of betting and the third stacked card will go astray. Besides, the strength of three of a kind is seldom needed to win in five-card stud.) In draw, the dealer can stack himself three or four of a kind (or a wheel in lowball). After folding on the hand prior to his deal, he immediately begins collecting discards for his deal, glancing briefly at them when necessary, and proceeds with his culling or stacking:

The Neocheater can stack three or four of a kind in draw quite easily. Remember, he scans the cards with a glance, never staring at them and always turning them face down as quickly as possible. His movements are natural -- casual and unhurried. Even for lowball, he can usually stack at least a four-card low combination, striving to include the joker if it is used. And he can frequently stack a wheel. Generally, however, the Neocheater avoids such powerful hands as they would be too suspicious to deal to himself hand after hand. Also, as explained in the final chapter, winning too often with powerful hands can actually work against winning maximum money.

Now to proceed to the third method of discard stacking: Suppose the Neocheater has a good hand and prefers to play it out, although his deal is next. Or suppose the discards are tossed to the current dealer, and the Neocheater has no easy access to them. In those cases, all the discards or the entire deck may come to him in a flood,

all at once face down, when the play is over. The technique described next is a rapid and effective method for stacking or culling [ 15 ] in such situations.

The Neocheater gathers the mess of discards, keeping the pile uneven with edges and corners of cards protruding at all angles. He holds the cards vertically and facing him as shown in Figure 11. In such situations, cards facing the dealer are quite natural and unsuspicious. To others, the dealer is simply shielding the card faces from the other players as he squares the deck before shuffling.

Figure 11

Bringing Aces to the Top Through Discard Culling

What the Neocheater strives for is a virtual mess of cards that will completely conceal his culling. To the other players -- who see only the backs of the cards -- his culling is simply an attempt to square the deck by smoothing out awkwardly tilted cards. Done rapidly and casually, the entire process appears innocuous and normal to others.

Quickly and smoothly, while straightening the sides of the deck and squaring the cards from their vertical angles to a horizontal position, he culls aces or kings (or unpaired low cards for lowball); he passes them to the top or bottom of the deck as shown in Figures 11 and 12. Once passed to the top or bottom, those cards are available for rapid stacking by several simple techniques described in Chapter V.

Figure 12

You can quickly and easily cull aces or kings from the discards. For example, spot an ace, pass it to the top; spot another, pass that quickly to the top; then repeat the process once or twice more. Three or four aces can be culled in a few seconds. While passing cards to the top (or bottom), use your fingers to alternate the passing movements with brief squaring motions on the sides of the deck. Or periodically take an awkwardly tilted card and pass it to the opposite end of the deck from your culled cards. The point is, never hesitate and keep your fingers in constant motion. When you cannot immediately locate a second or third ace, or other desired card, use your thumb to fan small batches of cards that may stick together. The fanning motion is shielded by other cards sticking out at various angles and, therefore, cannot be seen by other players. Such fanning not only spreads the cards for a better selection, but also keeps the deck from being squared too quickly.

With a little practice, anyone not only can cull, but also can discard stack by the above method. For example, stack a pair of aces for stud: First find an ace in the mass of discards and pass it to the top. Next seize two or three cards and pass those above the ace. Then while keeping count, pass two or three more cards to the top, depending on the number of cards you are trying to stack above the ace. Alternate the culling movements with brief but deceptive squaring motions on the sides of the deck. Now find and pass your second ace to the top, fanning cards with your thumb if necessary to locate that ace. Then again pass the necessary number of cards above that ace so both aces are stacked to end up in-your hand. ... And as always, memorize the top cards of the stack in order to know everyone's hole card.

But since several easier and quicker stacking techniques are taught in Chapter V, the above discard-squaring method is usually reserved for rapid culling. In any case, the Neocheater never spends more than eight or ten seconds with the deck facing him. Practice seizing and quickly passing desired cards to the top or bottom of the deck. And the more uneven the discards are, the more selection and time you will have for culling cards. (In Figure 12, the culled cards have been passed to the bottom and the deck has been squared.)

When practicing this method of discard stacking, start by dropping the deck face down from a height of six inches onto the table. Use a sharp twisting motion with your wrist to unevenly spread the corners of the cards. Or actually deal out hands and then gather them as discards, deliberately effecting sloppiness while tossing those cards on top of the deck so they will require more time to square. In either case, pick up the mess of cards all at once and commence with culling or stacking. Fan small batches of cards with your thumb to expose their corners. Glance at the cards, but never stare. Keep your eyes in motion, glancing from the cards, to where a player would be, back to the cards, to where the ante would be - all in an unhurried pattern. ... When done without hesitation, discard culling and stacking look quite natural. Try discard culling in front of a mirror to see the moves from the victims' viewpoint.

Now that the Neocheater has stacked himself a winning hand, how does he thoroughly shuffle and cut the deck without destroying his stack? . . . The answer lies in the next chapter.

6. Detection and Defense.