I don't know sh*t from Shinola about Faro Bank or dealing cards but this is impressive.

It is recalled in the book, "Always Bet on the Butcher."

Waren Nelson speaking:

Through a gentleman by the name of Homer White, I learned about a Faro Bank scam. Homer was a faro dealer from the Bank Club (Reno). After he got off shift he would come into Harrah's and play the horses or faro bank, blowing a couple hundred every day. We were always friendly, but I just kept wondering where in the h*ll this guy was getting all this money.

This went on for a year or more, until one day Homer came in and said to me, "Warren, I'm going back to Texas, I'm just getting too old to deal this game. But before I go, I want to show you something. Give me a deck of cards."

He picked four aces and four kings out of a deck of cards and put them on the top. Then three times he cut the cards and shuffled them before loading them into a faro bank box. He had perfected the cutting of the deck to twenty six cards exactly, and each time, with every shuffle, he achieved a perfect shuffle. After three shuffles, the first eight cards would be in precisely the same order they were in when they were prearranged and placed on top of the deck. Thus, when the first set up card appeared in the deal, you'd know what to bet next to win. I just couldn't believe it!!

(In faro bank there are two piles of cards, one for the losers and one for the winners. In a scam like Homer was demonstrating for me, the dealer's confederate would merely memorize the last eight cards placed on top of the losing pile, and the dealer would put the losing pile on top top to shuffle. Those cards would remain in exact sequence through the shuffle.)

"Homer," I said, do you mind if I get Billy Panelli? I'd like him to see this."

"Well, I really didn't want to show it to anybody but you. But if you want Billy in on it I'll show it to him, he's a good guy."

I went and got Billy and Homer showed him the shuffle and he couldn't believe it.

"Homer, where did you get this.?

"Well, Warren, years ago when I was a young man dealing faro bank in Texas, I ran a game on my own. A guy accused me of cheating, so I shot and killed him. I did twenty years in a Texas prison, and I probably wore out a thousand decks of cards shuffling. I came up with this deal where an absolute honest looking shuffle could go through, and I'd catch three or four winners with eight cards I had memorized from the previous deal. I'm showing you this because I'm an old man and I'm leaving town, and I'm an old man...not going to last much longer. Before I go I wanted someone to see this. I did this for twelve years in the Bank Club and nobody ever suspected me."

"Homer, is there any protection against this?"

"Well, sure, just don't let them split the deck in the middle."

Billy and I thanked Homer, and after he left we began to practice the deal. Although we weren't as good as the old man we proved to ourselves it could be done. And if it could be done in the faro bank game it could be done in twenty one, which was a much more important part of our gaming business.

From that point on we insisted on cutting the deck, a twenty one dealer must first take a third of the cards from the bottom of the deck to the top, then cut the cards for the shuffle. "Third from the bottom, half from the top." That's the way we have dealt twenty one ever since. However, this is just a precaution, because to my knowledge nobody in the business ever mastered the scam except Homer White.

Cool,Huh, hopefully not a Snopes Urban Legend...

Mark