Faro Exposed

Written by Alfred Trumble and first published in 1882, Faro Exposed was a landmark book on America's favorite crooked card game. It explains the origin, rules, and history of Faro, as well as the sophisticated methods used by card cheats to beat the odds. Twenty years before Erdnase, Faro Exposed explained riffle stacking and gaffed dealing boxes, along with countless other subterfuges and sleights used to "get the money" in a game that was, until the rise of poker, America's national past time. Techniques described include rough, sanded, rounded, and stripped cards; gaffed faro boxes; dodges with alluring names like “The Coffee Mill,” “Squared Sights and Tie Ups,” “Horse Hair,” and sundry other card-sharping tactics. The author sums up faro’s crooked nature on page 47: “There is not in the United States to-day one single faro-banker who is willing and content to confine himself to the strict percentage of an honest game. They practice every trick, cheat, fraud, device, contrivance, sk