How Gamblers Win or The Secrets of Advantage Playing by Magicana – Book Murphy’s Magic Supplies, Inc.

Introduction Excerpt from Book:

“How Gamblers Win or the Secrets of Advantage Playing Exposed is an important contribution to early American card-sharping literature. The earliest American expose on cheating is An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling with the author listed only as a”An Adept.” The third major contribution to this body of information was How Gamblers Win or the Secrets of Advantage Playing published in hard cover in 1865 and attributed to Gerritt M. Evans. When republished in soft cover a few years later. Evan’s name was omitted and the author was simply listed as “A Retired Professional.” Why the sudden need for anonymity? One can speculate that Evans may have experienced heat from the gambling/card-cheating fraternity (as did Green), but no one knows for sure.

The first thing that grabs you with how Gamblers Win is the graphically stunning jacket design featuring a devil standing on a giant die with cards in one hand and a dice cup in the other. The caricature is spectacular and the cover alone make this title a favorite with collectors of antique gambling books. Next is the terminology “Advantage Playing” in the subtitle, employed by cheaters. Although Green and An Adept both referred to the advantages practiced by cheats, neither used the catch-all phrase of Advantage Play or Advantage Players as synonymous with cheating or cheaters. Evans was the first, I believe, and the terms were later adopted by other authors.

How Gamblers Win presents a comprehensive treatment of the different advantages practiced by the professional sharper in short cards, banking games played with cards and dice, and gambling cons. There’s some limited history along with a “brief analysis of legitimate play” as stated on the title page. All of the popular games of the day are addressed with one striking omission. Faro, a game covered in detail by both authors previously mentioned…

..How Gamblers Win is a curious, revealing and important early card-sharping title that will make you want to pick up a deck of cards and explore the technical possibilities, or pick up another book on cheating to make historical comparisons. It’s loaded with more than enough gambling moves to satisfy the technicians; plenty of historical relevance to appeal to the historians; and for those who read for entertainment, the work is replete with amusing metaphors, anecdotes and showy terminology. How Gambler’s Win is a bonafide classic and a cinch to become a showpiece in any gambling or card-sharping library.”

-Steve Forte

Pages 93 – Hardbound with Dust Jacket