cardsharp n : a professional card player who makes a living by cheating at card games [syn: card sharp, cardsharper, card sharper, card shark]

English

Alternative forms

• cardsharper

Etymology

From card + sharp.

Noun

1. One who is skilled at card games, especially at cheating in them.

   One of Tim's great-grandparents had been a cardsharp in the wild west, and had been shot dead during a game.

Synonyms

• (skilled card player): cardshark

Translations

• Finnish: korttihai

See also

• gambler

A card sharp (informally also cardsharp, card shark, cardshark) is a person who uses skill and deception to win at poker or other card games. Also known in card gaming jargon as a "mechanic", and an older politically incorrect term is "Greek".

The label is not always intended as pejorative, and is sometimes used to refer to practitioners of card tricks for entertainment purposes. In general usage, principally in American English and more commonly with the "shark" spelling, the term has also taken on the meaning of "expert card gambler who takes advantage of less-skilled players", without implication of actual cheating at cards (in much the same way that "" or "pool hustler" can, when used by non-players, be intended to mean "skilled player" rather than "swindler").

A card sharp (by either of the gambling-related definitions) may be a "rounder" who travels, seeking out high-stakes games in which to gamble.

Methods

Card sharps who cheat or perform tricks use methods to keep control of the order of the cards or sometimes to control one specific card. Most, if not all, of these methods employ sleight of hand. Essential skills are false shuffles and false cuts that appear to mix the deck but actually leave the cards in the same order. More advanced techniques include culling (manipulating desired cards to the top or bottom of the deck), and stacking (putting desired cards in position to be dealt).

Dealing the cards can also be manipulated, by dealing either the bottom card from the deck or the second one from the top instead of the top card. These are called the bottom deal and the second deal respectively. Dealing may also be done from the middle of the deck, known as the middle deal or center deal, but this is not as common.

Entertainers' view

The use of these methods to actually cheat at cards is generally frowned upon by stage magicians and card trick artists, as this associates practitioners as a class with swindling. However, they often use card sharping techniques that originated as cheating methods in their card trick routines. For example, Derek Dingle created the following effect, later modified by Michael Ammar and performed on television with a slightly different handling: While retaining the same handling of the deck, he inserts the four aces into the deck, shuffles the cards (face-up into face-down), and finds all of them in 30 seconds under the watchful eyes of 2 casino security people, leaving 4 royal flushes – all face up – in the end.

Etymology and usage

According to the prevailing etymological theory, the term "shark", originally meaning "parasite" or "one who preys upon others" (cf. loan shark), derives from German Schorke/Schurke ("rogue" or "rascal"), as did the English word "shirk[er]". "Sharp" developed in the 17th century from this meaning of "shark" (as apparently did the use of "shark" as a name for the fish), but the phrase "card sharp" prefigures the variant "card shark". The original connotation was negative, meaning "swindler" or "cheat", regardless of spelling, with the more positive connotations of "expert" or "skilled player" arising later, and not supplanting the negative ones. (However not even all American dictionaries agree with this,

In popular culture

Film

Card sharps are common characters in caper films, since the questionable legality and morality of their hobby also plays well with that of their occupation. Notable examples of such films are:

• The Sting (1973)
• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
• Rounders (1998)
• Shade (2003)
• 21 (2008)

Television

• Sanford and Son featured an episode where card sharps defeated Lamont at poker; while he went to get drinks, Fred was able (through a specially marked deck and one of his many pairs of reading glasses) to defeat the card sharps and win Lamont's money back.
• Stage magician and actor Harry Anderson (of Night Court fame) made several appearances on Cheers as card sharp "Harry the Hat".
• On Prison Break, the character Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell is an expert card sharp, to the point where "there are maybe five people in this country who can do what I do with a deck of cards"; while this may have been an exaggeration, T-Bag uses this skill successfully in the episode "Bluff".

See also

• Card marking

References

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