Learn how to avoid card cheating

Card cheating is as old as card playing and it seems that people will never stop trying it. If you are thinking about cheating in cards while playing in serious casinos, there is a big chance that you'll get caught and end the night in jail, but if you are an honest player, you should definitely learn how to recognize the most common card cheats in order to prevent a chance in which you'll be deceived by card sharks and crooks.

Here are the most common card tricks and cheats that you might encounter while playing card games:

Marked Cards

Also known as 'readers' or 'counterfeit cards', marked cards mimic the look of the regular cards but are usually manufactured with a slight difference that allows those who use them to recognize them and use them in different ways. There are cards that the player marks during the game and there are cards that already have been marked before the game starts.
Ways to mark cards are to put nail marks into them, to crimp the corners, the mark them with blotches of ink or missing print, or to change the pattern on the back of the card.

Prearranged Card Deck

When a player brings a 'cold deck' or a prearranged deck into the game, it's probably because he already setup a good hand inside of it and when he'll deal it, he will get the marked hand, while others will never notice it. Sometimes the cheater might also add a false shuffle in order to strengthen the impression that he's not cheating and that the deck is a random and regular deck.

False Dealing and Shuffling

In this technique the desired cards are added to the deck or dealt to the player in a seemingly legitimate shuffle or dealing. The dealer must be very quick and usually he draws the players' attention to something else on the table while he deals or shuffles.
This manipulation isn't very common in large casinos because the dealers there are usually very trustworthy and go through a long process of verification before they start working in the industry, but you can easily encounter it in small casinos and illegal gambling parlors.