Charlie Productions : Cheat At Poker

I'll be honest - it's not like we're the premier cheating dons at the British tables. We don't play that often. We did start the company on money won cheating at school break-time poker sessions. Remember as the older you get, the more serious it can get and the more likely the easy stuff will be rused.

FIXING THE CARDS isn't a particularly smart thing to do unless you're a card sharp, and if you are you won't really learn anything new here. Our most memorable time of fixing cards was a schooltime trick:

Eddy, a hapless bovine acquaintance, came in the room and accepted the Blaine's invitation to a card game. But first he had to go and talk to Tom at the other end of the room. Chris then put the cards into order so it would give Eddy a Full House and Ben a higher Full House. Eddy probably looked over while he was doing it. When Eddy sat down at the table, Ben and Chris advised him that they had 'fixed the cards'. Eddy laughed, went pale when he was dealt a full house, then proceeded to bet a large amount of money (for us at the time) on this one hand, which of course he lost. But still paid out.

The point is we only fixed the cards with the stupid. Other cheaters damaged friendships at school by trying the move on some cannier members of the class. It's best avoided, everyone feels a little dodgy when they're dealt a good hand unless they've been playing for quite a while - one look at the probabilities tells you why.

PARTNERSHIPS are of course not meant to happen in Poker. It's everyone against everyone else. The unfortunate thing when you've got a good hand is that many times everyone else will pay to see you straight away. If you play in a partnership you just give a little signal to your partner and the fun of raising can begin - until everyone is equal the hand hasn't ended. This doesn't mean you raise people for all they're worth every hand, but means you subtly raise the amount gained for each winning hand, so by the end you've reaped a healthy harvest. As long as it's not done by coughing out the hand you have behind a clenched fist, it can be a quite subtle way of working over the others.

Ben and Chris simply raised an eyebrow to say they had a 'good' hand. They never made a rule as to what was good, it just depended on how they felt. Then one raised the other in support of that one hand, safe in the knowledge no-one needed to see their hand when they paid to see the best hand. That's how we raised our money to start the company anyway.

In Rounders they go to card games with people they don't know, two partners pretending they don't know each other, one winning, the other losing like a fool all night long, but really helping out the other. The only thing is - Ed Norton and Matt Damon, similar ages. It's fine when they go to a college card game and fleece the student fools whilst pretending they don't know each other, but going to a game which consists only of off-duty coppers playing, no-one under thirty-five, and you can understand why the cops were pretty suspicious from the beginning.

Charlie Productions believe passionately in doing things and always trying to stop in time for tea.
Brook House Design Studios, Bluebridge Road, Brookmans Park, Herts AL9 7SX
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