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Artist (noun) - a crooked card manipulator.
(to) Back (verb)- to bet on a card.
Bar the Bet (expression) - to exempt your own checks from play while you are away for any reason. During this time they do not win or lose, but come back into play when you tell the dealer "it goes".
Behind the six (expression)- to be out of funds, since the dealer's bank was behind the 6 card (see photo).Black leg (noun)-crooked gambler.
Bonneting (verb)- the act of throwing a blanket over the head of a dealer to rob him.
Both ends against the middle (expression) - betting King, Queen, Ace, 2, 6, 8, and 7 to win against Jack, 10, 9, 5,4, and 3 coppered.
Bottom Dealing (verb) - to have a card preserved at the bottom of the deck to be advantageously placed by a careful manipulator.
Break-up (verb) - when a game is disrupted by police, or roughs, or general disturbance that ends the game for the moment, the night, or from that point on
Brace (adj)- fixed, gaffed, set up to lose.
Brace House (noun)- a house where criminals working together to cheat a patron out of money by pretending it is an honest game. Also called a Skinning Den.
Broken (adj) - When a player exceeds the capital allotted for the game, they 'break' the game.
Bucking the tiger (expression)- to play faro. May also be called similar terms such as tussling, fighting, riding, combating, &c. - the tiger.
Calling the Turn (expression) - to bet on the sequence the remaining 3 cards that remain at the end of the turns. Also called "Making the Turn", or "Betting the turn." The winning bet is paid 4:1.
Capper (noun) - a con artist that loafs at a cheating location until a dupe arrives, then they play faro and work in concert to cheat the dupe, may be a Roper or a Steerer at times.
Case (noun) - 1 a rare occurrence in calling the turn in which all three of the remaining cards are the same. No one can bet and no money is passed out. 2 the last or fourth card in a denomination is also called a case or case card.
Case Counter (noun) - a device used to count the cards that have been played so far in the faro turn. Also called a "cue box", a "case", a "counter", and a "cue keeper".
Cat Hop (noun)- in betting the turn, if 2 of the 3 remaining are the same. The winner is paid 2:1 if successful.
Checks (noun) - betting pieces in 19th century gambling. Often made from ivory, horn, or bone.
Check-Sweater (noun) - One who 'sweats' checks, a causal player that bets low and loses slowly, See also Piker. Coffin Driver (noun) - one who works the case counter. Traditionally sits opposite of the dealer in the middle (see photo)
Copper a Bet (expression) - to place a copper on a bet to make it win on a losing card, but lose on a winning card.
Cork (verb) - a stolen stack of checks replaced with a placeholder that gives the impression that there are checks underneath, used to cheat an unwary dealer. Corked checks have a carrot of potato underneath a few checks to look full.
Crabber (noun) - see also Piker, a low better that plays just enough so he does not lose his seat.
Cue-Papers; Cue-Cards (noun) - see Tabs.
a Deal (noun)- the full 25 turns in a game of faro makes up one deal.
Dealing Seconds (verb)- to deal the second card on the top, and not the top one.
Draw (verb)- to take a card off the top of the card deck.
Drop a Bet (expression)- to cheat by placing a bet on a card that won surreptitiously while the dealer is distracted .
Earthquake (verb)- to have an extraordinarily lucky streak, or to break a faro bank with a high limit.
Flat (verb)- to bet on a single card.
to Fleece or to Skin (verb)- the act of parting a fool from his money.
Flyer (noun) - before copper betting became commonplace in faro in America, this was the term used for it and was exclusively a private side wager between the bank and the player. See Copper a bet.
Gaffed (adj) - crooked; can be used to describe gambling equipment or a person (is gaffed, or is a gaffer).
Gull (noun) - a clueless target.
Heeling a Bet (expression) - two bets; one to win, another to lose. One who does this as their strategy is a "heeler" or a "heel".
Highs and Lows (expression) - to play high valued cards to win against low valued cards coppered.
Hock (noun) - the last card in a faro turn, when calling the turn. In old faro games before Calling the Turn became common game play, the bets remaining on the hock card were lost to the dealer.
Horse-Hair Copper (noun)- a cheating device to yank a copper off a bet that won instead of lost.
It Goes (expression) - when a punter returns to the table after barring his bet (see above), these are the magic words to make their bets go back into play.
Keeping Tabs (expression) - to track the cards as they are played (see Tabs below).
Layout (noun) - the playing field in faro, 13 cards ace thru' king.
Limit (noun) - two kinds of limits. Running limits are set by the house by stated amounts that limits how many times one can go their paroli (see Paroli). An example would be a $10 limit and a $80 running limit which lets a punter go their paroli up to 4 more times on a single card, the most a card can win but if the bet is split between cards can go more. An open bet is a limit with no limit to how many times a punter can go their paroli.
Lock Box (noun) - an expensive crooked dealing box that can be 'locked up' to appear honest and then be unlocked to begin cheating again (example left is a 'tell box', note the two positions of 'M').Lookout (noun)- a person who watches the game on the dealer's right side who looks out for cheating and help collect bets or pay them out for the dealer. Sometimes also called the dealer's assistant.
(to) Mark (verb) - a method of cheating that identifies one card, some, many, or all cards as to what they are by surreptitious means on the card.
Milking Down (verb) - the act of separating crooked card and arranging a hand that is advantageous to the house; comes from the motion of shuffling.
Needle Squeeze (noun) - a crooked dealing box that would tell the dealer (or a player) what card was coming up next as the needle shifted the card in the box ever so slightly.
One end against the other (expression) - betting on the 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, and 4 to win against the King, Queen, Jack, Aces, 2, and 3 as coppered, essentially the left side of the layout against the right side.
Oddcard (noun) - When drawing two card from the dealing box in a crooked game, this means there are less than 25 turns in a deal, so an oddcard is added beforehand to make it seem as if there were a full amount of turns.
Odds and Evens (expression) - to bet on even cards to win against cards that are odd coppered.
On the Square (expression) - meaning fair, correct, or trustworthy. See Square Game.
Paroli, Parlee, or Parolee (noun) - When a bet wins and the winner elects to not remove their winnings, that is called their paroli, parolis are limited by the house, see Limit.
Pasteboards (noun) - the cards.
Patent Artist or Patent Dealer (noun) - See Artist.
Pigeon (noun) - person enticed to play a crooked game.
Piker (noun; monte term)- a timid bettor or one who makes small bets.
Passed in his checks (expression) - to cash out.
Playing a shoe string (expression) - to start making small bets and then making larger ones in a series of lucky bets.
Playing on the velvet (expression) - to play only using the winnings of a game.
Plunger (noun)- a reckless gambler.
Punter (noun) - in faro the term used for an average player.
Ride (verb)- to place a bet as someone else, particularly if that someone is on a hot streak .
Rolling Faro (noun) - a form of faro where instead of cards being pulled, a roulette type of wheel with cards painted on it is spun and action on it is the same as standard faro. Only the means in which the cards are picked has really changed. Frequently, this game is crooked.
Roper (noun) - a con artist that befriends a stranger and decoys their new friend to a cheating location.
Sand-Tell (noun) - a dealing box with a minute gap just below the slit that will draw out the second in line card if it is a tell card or not if the cards have been sanded for this purpose.
Scratching (verb) - a lifestyle of a punter that lives entirely on the winnings of faro. It is feast-or-famine life where the punter may live luxuriously one night and sleeping in a park the next. The term is used in New York after the Civil War.
Sharp(er) (noun)- frequently a gambler. Sometimes used to describe a crooked one or a con man.Skinning Den (noun) - see Brace House
Sleeper! (expression)- placing a bet on a dead card (on in which all four cards have been drawn) and in some aggressive tables of faro, one calling 'sleeper!' entitled that person to take whatever bet was placed on the sleeping card at the expense of the foolish punter who placed the bet.
Snap (noun) - a cheap temporary game of faro.
Snaking (verb) - the act of stealing the dealer's equipment.
Snowballing (verb) - placing bets in a way to get the most amount of play during a turn on the layout
Snow-Out (verb) - When a fresh deck is put into play, a punter or punters may request to examine the cards to make sure no cheating is going on; one method is the snow-out that spreads out all the cards on the table and mixes them randomly.
Soda (noun) - the first card in a faro turn, it neither wins nor loses.
Soda to Hock (expression) - meaning from start to finish since the soda card starts and the hock ends the deal.
Split (noun)- when a punter's card and a dealer's card come up as the same value. Half the bet going to the dealer and the difference in an odd bet as well.
Squeal (verb) - to appeal to law or authority regarding the honesty of a game.
Square Deal (noun) - one deal (or 25 turns) using untrimmed (thus "square") cards. A fair game.
Stringing Along (expression) - to make all odd or even bets to play one way.
Steerer (noun) - See Roper.
Stock (noun) - the arrangement of cards to advantage the house, comes by using crooked cards and false shuffling techniques.
Stool-Pigeon (noun) -originally this was term was used to decoy suckers into playing a crooked game .
Sucker (noun)- a naive player who is duped into losing.
Tabs (noun)- sheets of paper used in place of a case counter to watch played cards, the common phrase "keeping tabs" originated with these papers.
Take Down (verb) - removing the paroli winnings to comply with the limit.
Tie-Ups (noun) - crooked cards that are tied by a hair in order to lose, these are usually done on the last card of a denomination since those are heavily bet on since they will not split.
The Tiger (noun) - generally refers to faro, see also Bucking the Tiger.
Tinhorn (noun; chuck-a-luck term)- references chuck-a-luck operators ('dealers' so to speak) who turned the cage with the dice 3 times and then dealt out winnings and collected losses but as time went on the term was meant to be a player or dealer of limited skill or ability since it did not take much skill to be a tinhorn operator (Chuck-a-luck cage in photo left).
Turn (noun) - the drawing of a losing card and then a winning card makes up one turn.
Turn Over The Box (expression) - an action done by the dealer, turning his dealing box upside down, thus indicated one of two things; the bank has been broken, and for sure means that the game is over.
Two Card Box (noun) - A crooked dealing box that would allow two cards out of the box instead of one.
Velvet (noun) - the banks money.
Whipsaw (verb)- to win on a copper and win on a winning card; or to lose on a losing card and lose on a copper.
Wolf-Den or wolf-trap (noun) - a gambling house of the baser sort with low limits and paid the owner of the house 10% of the winnings. Surprisingly these places were generally on the square as no sharp dare ply his subtle trade for pocket change and risk being shot in a place as dangerous as a wolf den. Somewhat different than a 'skinning den' see above.
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