" This
operation will the more readily be apprehended by seeing it
practised half a score times; when once you are aware of it, it
will otherwise (I may say fairly) pass upon any person that has
not been let into the secret. This being allowed, the next point
and difficulty is to shuffle and cut.
'I say, that either A or B are such curious workmen, and can make
a sham shuffle with a pack of cards so artfully, that you would
believe they were splitting them, when at the time they will not
displace a single card from its order! Such is the SHARPER'S
shuffling.
'Now, to cut the cards, a BEND is prepared for you to cut to--
the middle is the best; and it is odds but you unwarily cut to
it; if not, SLIP is the word; but if you have no opportunity to
do that neither, then deal away at all hazards, it is but an
equal bet that they come in your favour; if right, proceed; if
otherwise, miss a card in its course, and it brings the cards
according to your first design; it is but giving two at last
where you missed; and if that cannot be conveniently done, you
only lose the deal, and there is an end of it.
'But when A or B is to cut, they make it all safe; for then they
make the CORNER-BEND, which any one that knows may cut to, a
hundred times together.
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