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An essence of all Neocheating is its simplicity and ease of execution. But the ease of execution for different Neocheating techniques varies somewhat. Some Neocheating maneuvers require more effort than others. But any maneuver must be safe, easy, and effective to qualify as Neocheating. And all Neocheating maneuvers are easier and safer than classical or traditional cheating.
An example of a difficult classical-cheating technique evolving into a relatively easy, invisible Neocheating maneuver is the complete false riffle. While that false riffle requires several hours of diligent practice and is one of the more difficult Neocheating maneuvers, it is still easy compared to classical techniques and safe compared to traditional techniques.
The complete false riffle is also called the pull-through. It is invisible and hinges on a unique false riffle that keeps the entire deck intact. The complete false riffle can be effectively used not only in poker but in any card game. The maneuver is executed as follows:
With the deck on the table, remove the top half of the cards with the right hand and proceed to riffle shuffle as you would in the Las Vegas variation (described on pages 90-92) with two exceptions -- (1) riffle shuffle the deck legitimately, without keeping the upper right-hand deck portion intact, and (2) keep the right-hand portion of the deck angled as shown in Figure 32 (half the deck is turned face up to illustrate the moves more clearly).
For the Las Vegas variation, you continue shielding the cards with your hands and fingers while using your palms to push the deck halves together. But for the complete false riffle, you stop shielding the deck as your hands shift immediately after interlacing the deck halves and before pushing the halves together. Your hands shift so that the middle fingers and thumbs grip the sides of the deck halves near the ends and the ring fingers press against the deck ends as shown in Figure 32.
Keeping the deck angled, push the deck halves together as far as they will go so the angled halves move completely through each other and protrude at opposite ends as shown in Figure 33. Next, grip the protruding corners of the deck at their sides between the middle fingers and thumbs of both hands while keeping the outer fingers close together to shield only the deck ends. Now with your thumbs and fingers square the sides of the deck, but not the ends.
At that moment, the deck halves are no longer angled, but form a straight line as the interlaced halves protrude about a quarter to a half inch from each end. Those protruding ends are hidden by the fingers of both hands that are squaring the sides of the deck and seemingly squaring the ends as the little fingers caress the ends of the deck. The entire side-squaring maneuver should take no more than two or three seconds.
With the fingers still shielding the ends of the deck, the thumbs and middle fingers firmly grip both sides of the deck at the corners. Now with a tight grip, swing the far left edge of the deck toward you an inch or so with your left hand and pull those cards smoothly outward to extract the entire original right-hand portion of the deck (the original stacked, top portion) as shown in Figure 34. Press down with your left forefinger as you extract those cards-- the entire block should slide out easily. Then simulating a cutting motion, slap that block of cards on top of the right-hand block and square the deck. All the cards, including the stacked cards, are now back in their original positions.
Done properly, the complete false riffle is undetectable. With practice, it can be done very rapidly and gives the appearance not only of thoroughly shuffling but of capping each shuffle with a solid cut. The key to executing that maneuver lies in lightly and loosely riffling the cards and then gently pushing the halves inward. After the side-squaring motion and without groping or fumbling, the original top block of cards is pulled out intact with the left hand.
Since the complete false riffle looks so reassuring, the maneuver is valuable to the Neocheater--especially when he is discard stacking. But the Neocheater must be willing to invest a few hours of practice to master the maneuver. Three or four rapid repetitions of the complete false riffle, followed by a crimp and a false cut is a perfect, invisible maneuver for the discard stacker.
Note particularly the difference in the position of the hands between the Las Vegas variation riffle and the complete false riffle: In the former maneuver, the deck remains completely shielded during the entire riffle shuffle. In the latter maneuver, everyone can clearly see that the dealer has thoroughly "shuffled" the deck when his fingers grasp the sides of the deck and push the interlaced card together. Only after that push-through does the dealer shield the deck to falsely square its ends. That allows him to pull the deck apart again with all the cards in their original positions.
When practicing the pull-through, go slowly at first and concentrate on accuracy -- speed comes with practice. Also when practicing, invert one of the deck halves as shown in Figures 32-34 to ensure that the entire deck stays intact during each complete false riffle. Your stack can be ruined if a card or two from one block of cards get caught and end up in the other block of cards.
The complete false riffle is not only effective in poker, but is especially effective in bridge for dealing premium hands to you and your partner, even for arranging grand slams. Bridge seems tailored for discard stacking since players can handle and spread out tricks on the table in order to "check, think about, and memorize" the cards that have been played. The object is to discard stack a few extra honor cards or to concentrate suited cards for the next hand by casually placing the desired cards in the proper stacking order as the tricks are handled and gathered.
Assume you have easily discard-stacked aces, kings, and queens for yourself and your partner by placing them in the proper sequence as the tricks are spread and then collected. Now, after the hand is played and the cards are stacked and gathered, use the complete false riffle to "shuffle" the deck four or five times. Next, crimp and cut the stacked deck at about the middle and offer it to your opponent for a cut. Four out of five times he will cut at your crimp. Thus with the complete false riffle, you can regularly deal you and your partner cards with unbeatable advantages. . . . And your partner never needs to know what you are doing. He along with everyone else will simply believe you are both lucky.
But suppose your opponent misses your crimp and cuts so that he and his partner will be dealt the premium hands. In that case, you can "accidentally" expose a card during the deal and insist on redealing.
Most Neocheating techniques have evolved from difficult or risky forms of classical or traditional cheating. If a safe and easy Neocheating maneuver presently does not exist for a particular function,[ 28 ] such a maneuver may possibly evolve in the future. For example, no Neocheating method presently exists for very rapidly stacking culled hands for two or more players. But a classical cheating maneuver called the interlace (also known as the faro shuffle) can stack culled hands for two, four, or eight players in less than five seconds. The interlace, however, is not Neocheating because it requires too much skill when used to stack cards, as described below:
Ironically, the basic interlace maneuver is innocently used by many honest players executing sloppy wedge or butt shuffles. But when the interlace is purposely executed with precision, it is far from innocent: The deck is split into two equal portions as it sits on the table. (The deck need not be split precisely in half.) Each half is then gripped at the ends along the sides between the thumbs and third fingers. With the edges of the deck halves perfectly squared --an absolute necessity -- the ends are pressed lightly together as the halves are held at a slight V angle (i.e., the inner ends are pressing together while resting on the table-top as the outer ends are held about an inch above the table as shown in Figure 35). After some diligent practice, the cards will interlace perfectly one by one as the butted deck halves are lifted while being lightly pressed together. With light pressure, the alternating interlacing action commences from the top and works its way down. (The interlace is easier to execute with plastic cards than with cardboard ones.)
The interlace is effective for quickly stacking culled hands. The technique, however, is applicable only to two, four, or eight players. With the culled hands on top of the deck, one interlacing riffle stacks for two players, two interlacing riffles stack for four players, and three interlacing riffles stack for eight players. But since so many other easier and effective Neocheating techniques are available for stacking, the interlace is rarely used in poker.
The interlace, nevertheless, can be ideal for stacking gin rummy and bridge hands. But a player must be willing to invest much more time and effort in mastering interlace stacking than the easier Neocheating stacking techniques. And since so much practice is needed to achieve the required perfect alternation of the cards, chances of encountering an interlace stacker today are rare. Still, as with all stacking methods, any suspicious move can be countered simply by demanding and making deliberate center cuts that would destroy any possible stack. And to prevent the cut from being foiled by the dealer, always cut in noncrimped areas, complete the cuts, and square the deck before the dealer picks up the cards.
While interlace stacking is a safe and innocent-looking maneuver, its proper execution currently requires too much practice and skill to be classified as Neocheating. But if a sufficient need or advantage exists for very quickly stacking culled hands for two, four or eight players, interlace stacking could evolve into Neocheating. Shortcuts might evolve -- perhaps just a certain angle of the cards or a turn of the wrist would make interlace stacking easy and nearly skill-free. The technique then would become Neocheating.
But if another maneuver were developed or evolved that could also quickly stack culled hands to several players, safely and easily, cheating techniques filling that function, including the interlace stack, would become obsolete. ... Thus as safe and easy Neocheating techniques evolve, all corresponding classical and traditional cheating techniques become obsolete.
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[ 28 ] Once the Neocheating maneuver fills a function, all other more difficult or detectable forms of cheating for that function become obsolete. That is why, as demonstrated in Appendices A and C, Neocheating has obsoleted essentially all classical and traditional cheating techniques.
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