Cheating Words, by Allan Kronzek

Originally, 52 Ways was to include more on language. All underworld slang is vital, but the lexicon of card cheating is, to my ears, especially zippy and inspired. The perps are cozeners and jugglers, sharks and sharps, grifters and mechanics, rounders and itemers, painters and artists. Cheating specialists play the lights with twinkles and glims (reflectors), or slip ice and bombs (fully stacked decks) into the game. The hustler can burn, beat, and buffalo his victim, the hapless cony, dupe, patsy, gull, sheep, lamb, pigeon or fish. Steeped in this intoxicating linguistic stew it became far too easy to turn out sentences in which mechanics hustle fish, cozeners buffalo pigeons, and sharks burn sheep. It's not a bad thing that most of this ended up on the cutting room floor.

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Allan Kronzek

52 Ways to Cheat at Poker

cards

cheating

poker

scams

card sharp

Penguin Books

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