The Spread

[JoshuaGillespie]

In my copy of Erdnase it states that he was once caught cheating on a ship using a technique known as "the spread". I've googled this proliferously to no avail. Can anyone enlighten me?

 

[Nicholas S]

From A.D. Livingston's book:

The spead---a method of cheating in which the cheat must have a confederate and a set of signals---is best explained by example. Say the cheat holds a diamond fourflush. He asks his confederate, by signal, whether he has a diamond. If the confederate does have one, the cheat proceeds to get rid of his off-suit card by palming it onto the discards (no doubt while pretending to push the discards to one side) or by copping it with a holdout device. His confederate, meanwhile, will be palming the diamond in his own hand with its face to his skin. At the showdown, the cheat says, "Flush!" He slaps his cards---only four---onto the table face up but in a packet, so that only the top diamond shows. Quickly saying something like, "Seeing is believing," the confederate reaches out to spread the cards. During this move he deposits the palmed fifth diamond onto the poker hand. During his confederate's move, the cheat will probably be reaching dramatically for the pot to help distract attention from the spread.
Although the spread is usually worked with flushes, it can be used to fill a straight or a full house. Watch for it.

FYI, Although Martin's claim of Erdnase being caught using the spread is stated rather definitively, there's really no proof that it happened to him (Martin was a believer that "Erdnase" was MF Andrews). Considering what we know now, it's just speculation on why it was left out of the book considering how common the move was at the time.

Hope that helps.

 

[JoshuaGillespie]

From A.D. Livingston's book:


FYI, Although Martin's claim of Erdnase being caught using the spread is stated rather definitively, there's really no proof that it happened to him (Martin was a believer that "Erdnase" was MF Andrews). Considering what we know now, it's just speculation on why it was left out of the book considering how common the move was at the time.

Hope that helps.

That does help a lot, thanks. It's pretty genius.

 

[Vinnie C.]

From A.D. Livingston's book:

Wow, what a clever little move.

Best,
Vince