COLD DECK

This is generally done in short cards, or short games. A pack of cards is shuffled, and just as they are about to be dealt out, another pack is substituted. This is sometimes done by faro-players. The dealer having shuffled the cards, or having got another party to do it, drops the cards at his feet, and lifts the packed cards from a handkerchief on his lap. He calls on Sambo, the darkey waiter, to lift a check at his feet, and thus the evidence of his guilt is carried off unobserved. When cleverly done, the trick can not be discovered. One gambler often plays this trick on another, and hence it derives the expre ive name of "cold deck."