What makes card sharps special?

Hollywood has long romanticised and glamorised the personality of card sharps.  They had Paul Newman and Robert Redford staking it out in The Sting.  They also had Mel Gibson, James Garner and Jodie Foster trying to outwit each other in Maverick.  Of course there is also Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, the cult classic Rounders and Shade.  On the silver screen, card sharps are so romantic and special that if one did not know that their trade is criminal, one would be inspired to emulate them.

There is a reason why cinema paints such an interesting picture of card sharps.  Cheaters card sharps may be, and their activities with cards are deplorable at best but one cannot help but respect them for their abilities and perhaps wonder not just a little as to how they ply their trade.  After all, while all card sharps are cheats, not all cheats can become card sharps.  Card sharps belong to a whole new level altogether.

What makes card sharps so special?  For one, card sharps are masters of strategy in cheating at cards.  While they do not exactly know every trick there is out there in lowering the odds of a card game in their favour, they definitely know more tricks about cheating in cards than the everyman.  More than that, many card sharps specialise in a particular trick and strategy in cheating at card games.

Card sharps are not born; they are made.  It takes card sharps many years to hone their skills at cheating in cards.  Either they are taken on by a card sharp who has taken a fancy to teaching someone else the trade, or they learn on their own.  Most of the time, it takes card sharps many expensive losses to learn their lessons.  For card sharps, these losses are investments towards a more successful future in playing cards, and as time goes by, their skills are further honed and perfected with practice.

Contrary to popular belief, card sharps employ tactics and strategy to win their way through a card game.  Precious few card sharps ever use a marked deck nowadays.  Marking each of the 52 cards in a single deck is now considered tedious and unnecessary.  Such is also now thought of as an insult to the skills card sharps possess.  Most self-respecting card sharps now stay away from marked decks.

Would you really know if you are facing card sharps across a table while playing a game of cards?  It is highly unlikely that you would ever recognise the card sharps from the ordinary players just by looking at them.  Card sharps are also good actors and bluffers.  They can be obnoxious, loud and smelly.  On the other hand, they can also be good-looking, suave and polite.  Most of the time, however, card sharps look just like ordinary people, people who do not like being given too much attention.

The only time you would ever know that you have sat across card sharps across the table while playing a game is when your money has been wiped out.  And even then, you can never really be sure if the persons you have played with are card sharps or just horribly lucky.  Or perhaps they are just horribly good.  Card sharps do their tricks with such finesse that you will never even notice them at work.

Good card sharps will never be caught cheating.  They are good at covering their tracks and they may even allow themselves to lose a little to get their playmates off their scent.  Try as anyone might, but no one can beat card sharps unless the other one is a card sharp himself.

More related articles below: