Amateur Gin Rummy Cheat

Gin Rummy Cheater

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the amateur cheat and the thoroughgoing, no-holds-barred, but honest player. I used to play Gin Rummy with an elderly lady who had a habit, after the cards had been cut for her deal, of glancing down and noting the bottom card of the deck as she squared it. Harmless? She peeked at a card that would never get into the play of the hand. Harmless? Well ... her knowledge that the card is dead is useful information in planning her play; it is pertinent information not available to me.

She is a Amateur Cheater

And she is the most dangerous kind-the amateur cheat. The amateur is usually a friend whom you don't think of suspecting and who for that reason can get away with murder. The good-natured, trusting American card chumps collectively lose billions of dollars annually to friends and acquaintances whose card-playing tactics are less than honest.
For every dozen crooked moves made by the agate-eyed professional card sharp, the amateur will blandly and brazenly attempt a hundred swindles. At Poker the amateur cheat will connive with a confederate and each will give the other some sort of a signal when he has a good hand and wants a raise. At Gin Rummy, Pinochle or Canasta, the amateur cheat will add an extra five or ten points on the count of the hand. Trapped in a recount-any embarrassment? Not a bit! Aren't we all entitled to a certain percentage of error?
In the History of Black Jack, when the dealer is busy, the amateur cheat will call a phony count on his cards, collect his cash and account the feat an act of skill with not the slightest objection from his conscience. At Bridge he will deliberately drop a card to the floor and while leaning down to retrieve it try to get a peek at an opponent's hand. He likes to think of this maneuver as Bridge strategy.

Acquaintance of Cheating

What do you do when you suspect a friend or acquaintance of cheating? This is a department of etiquette which Emily Post doesn't mention. It can develop very easily into a sticky situation because it is possible that an honest player may unconsciously do some of the things that cheaters do, and your suspicion may be unjustified. There is no need to raise a hue and cry. Your best bet is to demand quietly and graciously that the rules of the game be strictly followed. This should in most cases remedy what is wrong or looks wrong. If not, then make some polite excuse and leave the game. This will give no offense and do no harm to anyone's sensibilities or reputation or to your pocketbook.
Rules are made to be followed-or broken revealingly-by players. A friend told me once, "John, I play Poker with a good friend. He never offers me the cards for the cut. I'm afraid to insist on the cut because he may think I'm accusing him, and I value our good relationship. What shall I do?" I asked him who was the winner between them, and he said his friend was a few hundred dollars ahead.
"I don't know whether your Poker game is lousy or whether you're being cheated," I told him. "I've never seen you and your friend play, but I know that if the cards were always cut you would not be suspicious of your friend-and suspicion is a lot worse than losing a few hundred dollars." You must decide such things for yourself. As for me, I play by the rules, and I play no more with the old lady who peeks at the bottom card.