Phantoms of the Card Table

Walter Irving Scott was the sharpest man to ever deal a card. Throughout the 1930s and '40s, he dazzled and frustrated fellow players by dealing himself winning hands from shuffled decks. Sixty years later, Gazzo, an expert magician with a specialty in cons and scams, tracked down the elusive Scott in a Rhode Island retirement home. This is his amazing story. Phantoms of the Card Table takes us into the hidden world of the professional cardsharp, telling the history and methods behind such moves as "The Take," "The Key," "The Sniff Peek," and of course -- "The Scott Bottom Deal." Seventy years ago, New York's finest magicians gathered to watch Walter Scott, and later paid handsomely to learn his secrets. Now, for the rest of us, the mysteries of the card table are finally laid bare. Book jacket.

David Britland is the author of numerous books on magic and mind reading