Ranking
Center deal, or palm/shift?

A question i often think about is whether the center deal, or the palm is the best way to surpass the cut. For it is said in Erdnase:

"Though he may run up a hand however cleverly, the cut sends him to sea again."

Hence, it is made clear that, if working alone, the clever player must find a way to either surpass, or negate the cut. I've gone through some ways this could be done. Namely the palm. But there is a way that is still considered "unconventional", despite that the method has been known to the public from ca 1933. Credit must be given to Allen Kennedy of Kansas for coming up with this move.

The move, of course is the legendarey center deal. The center deal was long considered to just be an in-joke for magicians and card hustlers, but it is very much real. While it is true i can not perform the move my self, i understand the principle behind it's execution.

So, why is it so sought after? Well, it is a way to negate the cut, and a false deal, in one. If one were to stoc, say, four Aces on the bottom, in order to bottom deal them. They would also need to bypass the cut, and then bottom deal. If they instead were proficient in center dealing, they could stock the Aces on the bottom. When the cut is completed, the aces will be burried in the middle. And the center deal can be performed. Hence, the dealer has removed one "move" from the "equation".

What are the cons if this move, then?

Well, in order to find the aces in the middle, they would either had to be crimped, or the man who cuts must cut in the traditional sense, i.e. placing the top half beside the bottom one, leaving the dealer to carry, or complete the cut. In this moment, the dealer can easily acquire a break between the packets, and by means of that "marker", he can find the Aces.

When comparing the center deal with the shift, the only con is that the center deal is a "long lasting" move, i.e. it involved maintaining a crimp, or break during the deal, hance the deck must be moved very rapidly. When performing a shift and a bottom palm, there are two "shorter" moves; the shift, and the bottom deal it self.

I must, however, give the "award for best way of negating the cut", to the palm. It is an extremely risky move, but with practice, and with a company that is not suspicious, it is a perfectly valid method.

What are the principle pros of the palm? It is completely safe from the man who cuts. I.e. the man who cuts can not in any handling of the deck, "lose" the slug, or stock, since it is out of the deck. If a cutter does a running cut, or a riffle, the Aces are lost. He could also remove the crimp. There's also the problem of the "cutter" cutting too many, or too few cards, so that the aces does not end up in the middle. This is a killing blow in games with five or more players. Take this example:

Assume five players, draw poker. So the dealer would have to deal 25 cards. Which is about half the deck. If the man who cuts cuts, say 35 cards, something that happens pretty often. The Aces, depending on where they are reserved, will end up too high up, and the covering cards would run out before you could deal them all.

In short: The center deal is a very good move, and a move that should be practiced, but i still stand with the palm as the best way to surpass the cut.
A move used by "mechanics" and magicians alike is the "iron man", or "the cooler". It's called the iron man because it just can not be beat, and the cooler because the cards used are actually cooler than the original ones.

The move in question is of course the deck switch. This move can be seen in the movie "The Sting". It is a fairly well-known move amongst lay-people, though, ironically it is a very difficult one, that is seldom used. The expert handler despises the move, since it requires him to "go south", i.e. drop the extracted deck in his lap, or hide it elsewhere. How ever, it is a move that is at times worked successsfully at the card table, and when it hits, it is quite sufficient to ensure a stable living.

It might be the most powerfull move ever devised, hence the name. This is because in this instance, the expert have all the time in the world to stack a deck during a game, so as to give everyone around the table a Full-House or perhaps a Flush, and continue to give himself Four Of A Kind in deuces. (so as to not make it look too staged). This would lead to an intense betting round, and depending on the game, maybe two or three more after that. Then of course, the expert would make a great win. This move is so powerfull, that it is adviced to "lay off" the move, since it can easily be over used.
Cheating at tests.

Finally the day has come, for me to give my thoughts on how to get an advantage in a test.

First up(p): Math test:

Math is unlike most other subjects, in that a test in math does not contain, as in other subjects, "hard information" i.e. information that you need to study. For example:
In a biology test, you might be expected to have studied mitochondria, and know all about them.
It is not the same in math. While you will need to study certain laws and so on, a lot of the assignments on a math test are such that you have to calculate them. In other words:
In math you don't study the raw information, but rather the TOOLS on how to calculate the information.

This anomaly makes the cheating procedure different from other subjects, hence, it is discussed first, to get it "out of the way".

I have spoke briefly about this in earlier posts, but i doubt anyone remembers it. So here it is again:

The small amount of raw information that is included in math can be used in a cheating method which i will from here on call "info-table".

The principle of an info-table is simple. It merely takes some piece of information, and translates it to a compressed format. Why is this useful? the answer will become clear in following posts.

So, how is this done? Well, quite simply:

You take some piece of information that might be useful to know while doing the test. For example a special formula. Let's take the PQ-formula as an example:

The PQ-formula looks like this (keep in mind that the PQ-formula is dependent on the equation being in a certain format, we will come to this later.):


X = ((-p)/2) +/- sqrt( ((p/2)^2) -q )

This is an equation which you might want to transfer into a more compact format. It is done by inventing a language that you can understand, consisting of very short words:
(p/2)^2 can be translated to: "PN". Or any other letter. I chose "N" because it looks like a line going up, then going diagonaly down, and finally up again. This reminds me of a value: P, being devided, and then gaining something. The "P" ofcourse is just the value.
It's hard to describe, since it is bery subjective, but the principle is that you need to find a character, or symbol that can substitute the original. Another example:

+/- sqrt() Can be written as: "~". Simply because the "~" symbol looks like it could be two things, i.e. + and minus. And since a sqrt sign often follows a +/-, I just connect the two to one single character.

This method can be performed with all kinds of equations and laws. But why? Well, it might seem like wasted effort to just shorten down equations into a "code". But the reason is as follows:

The less space something takes up when written on a paper, the better.

So, this method might seem contradictory to the goal of cheating: to not study. Since you'd have to study this "code". But in the long run, it does save you quite a bit of "study-time".
The origin of burning cards.

If you've ever seen a game of Hold 'em being played, you've probably noticed that the dealer often "burns" a card before every laying out the flop, turn, and river. This is an old tradition, and the origins are quite interesting.
See, a crooked dealer could easily glimpse the top card, and then "transmit" what card it is to a player, or, if the dealer is also a players, he can bet accordingly. Therefore, it became a common occurance to "burn" i.e. place the top card face down on the muck before each round.
Of course, a skilled dealer might as well just deal a second, but most people don't even know what that is, so it's natural that there is no official remedy for this ruse.