Square Deal

Many terms that started out being associated with poker have passed into general usage. Often, those who use the terms are not even aware of these derivations. Such terms include pass the buck, ace in the hole, ace up one's sleeve, and square deal.

In The Official Dictionary of Poker, we see:

square deal

(n phrase) An honest deal, as indicated by a deck containing no trimmed or shaved cards. The term has passed into general usage.

But we need to know a little more.

Back in the days of paper decks, card thieves came up with many ways of fleecing their victims. Skill wasn't enough for them; they wanted to take everything from the suckers, and they wanted it all right away. They were greedy, and didn't want to give their targets any chance. So, the thieves did funny things to the decks, and trained themselves to recognize the modified cards. They shaved the edges in several ways so that they could tell by feel which were the key cards. A crooked dealer would then know what cards he had given to his opponents, or would deal seconds when he recognized by feel certain good cards at the top of the deck until he could then deal those cards to himself or his confederate. For example, if the aces were shaved or trimmed in one of the following ways, the thief, while dealing, would know when an ace was next to come off the deck. He would then not deal that card until he could give it to himself or his confederate. And this he would do by second-dealing. So, here are all of the terms associated (with the exception of deal) with such chicanery:

belly stripper

(n phrase) A card having its long edge shaved. See side strippers.

belly strippers

(n phrase) side strippers

concave card

(n phrase) A card trimmed such that its middles are narrower than its ends. Opposite of convex card. Also see glass-work, humps, sand, shears, strippers. Also called concave.

convex card

(n phrase) A card trimmed such that its ends are narrower than its middles. Opposite of concave card. Also see glass-work, humps, sand, shears, strippers. Also called convex.

deal

1. (v) Distribute the cards to the players. 2. (n) The act of dealing. "He got a full house on the deal." "Whose deal is it?" 3. The dealing position. (This is a subtle distinction from definition 2.) "Where is the deal?" means "Where is the dealing position?" and it implies "Whose deal is it?"

deal seconds

(v phrase) Perform a cheating maneuver in which a card manipulator deals cards not from the top of the deck but from directly beneath the top card. See seconds.

end strippers

(n phrase) Cards whose ends have been shaved by a thief so they can be located by feel during manipulation of the deck. These cards are somewhat shorter than ordinary cards, allowing the thief to find them easily. Compare with belly strippers, which are shaved on their sides (long edges). Also see glass-work, humps, side strippers, strippers.

glazed card

(n phrase) A card that has been sanded slightly, to allow a cheating dealer to find it among the other cards. Also see belly strippers, end strippers, humps, strippers.

high belly strippers

(n phrase) A deck marked by shaving the long edges of some cards (making the ends narrower than the middles), so that a thief can tell by feel the values of certain cards, usually certain high or low cards, such as the aces. Also see belly strippers, low belly strippers, end strippers, glazed card, humps, strippers.

humps

(n) A deck marked by shaving the long edges of some cards such that they are wider toward their middles, so that a thief can tell by feel the values of certain cards, usually certain high or low cards, such as the aces. Also see belly strippers, end strippers, high belly strippers.

low belly strippers

(n phrase) A deck marked by shaving the sides of some cards (making the middles narrower than the ends), so that a thief can tell by feel the values of certain cards, usually certain high or low cards, such as the aces. Also see belly strippers, high belly strippers, end strippers, glazed card, humps, strippers.

mechanic

(n) One who unfairly manipulates the cards, such as a cheat who deals cards from the bottom instead of from the top of the deck (where they should come from), or from the middle, or the second card from the top, or who falsely shuffles the cards so as to arrange them in a manner that he has predetermined, or who palms cards, or uses any other of scores of cheating methods involving card manipulation or sleight of hand.

mechanic's grip

(n phrase) A way of holding the cards that is popular with mechanics because it's easiest to deal seconds, bottoms, or middles when holding the deck this way. A right-handed dealer holds the deck in his left hand, with the thumb along the left edge, the forefinger at the front, and the other three fingers curled around the right edge. (A left-handed dealer does the same, mutatis mutandis, with his right hand.) Since many noncheating players also hold the deck this way, the grip alone is not evidence enough to accuse a player of cheating.

middle dealer

(n phrase) A mechanic who can deal from the middle of the deck. This is extremely difficult compared to dealing bottoms or seconds.

move

1. (v) Perform a cheating manipulation of the deck. To deal seconds or hop the cut are to move. 2. (n) The performing of such a manipulation; often preceded by make a. The word generally applies to each occurrence, as, for example, dealing bottoms is a move. 3. Any fancy play. 4. Betting all of one's chips, in the phrase, "He's making his move."

peek

1. (n) A look at one or more cards in a hand, often those drawn. See free look. 2. A surreptitious look at cards drawn to a hand, usually in such a way as to imply that the peeker actually has not seen any of the drawn cards, prior to this person claiming (or implying to claim) that he is now making a blind bet - that is, one based on really not having seen the cards. Also, fast peek. 3. A surreptitious look by a thief at the undealt top or bottom card of the deck. 4. (v) Look at drawn cards, often done by squeezing the cards - that is, slowly separating them, as if the viewer wishes to surprise himself with the cards; this is often done agonizingly slowly, frequently when it is the peeker's turn to act, as if the player deliberately wants to annoy the others, while he pretends to be innocent of any knowledge of what effect his slowness is having. 5. Make the cheating maneuver of looking at the undealt top card of the deck (prior to possibly dealing a second) or the bottom card (prior to dealing a bottom).

sand

(v) Use sandpaper on the sides of some cards so that their ranks can be determined by feel, or so that they can be easily located within a full deck; a method of shaving the cards. See shave and strippers.

second

(n) The second card off the deck, when referring to being dealt by a cheating dealer; often plural. "He dealt himself a second." "They barred him for dealing seconds."

second deal

1. (n phrase) The dealing of one or more seconds. 2. (v phrase) Deal seconds.

seconds

(n) 1. The dealing of one or more cards from the next-to-the-top position of the deck. 2. Cards so dealt. See second.

seconds dealer

(n phrase) A mechanic (card manipulator) whose specialty is dealing the second card from the top. The reason for such a move is to hold back the top card, which he knows because he has peeked (see peek) at it, until he can deal it to himself, to a confederate, or to someone he is trying to cheat. Sometimes second dealer. Also called deuce dealer, number two man.

second-story man

(n phrase) seconds dealer

shave

(v) Trim the sides of cards, to make them thinner so as to be easily detected by a thief. Also called trim.

strip

(v) Trim the sides or edges of cards, to make them identifiable by feel to a thief. This produces strippers.

stripped pack

(n phrase) stripped deck

stripper deck

(n phrase) strippers

strippers

(n, always used in the plural) A deck marked by shaving the edges of some cards such that a thief can tell by feel the values of certain cards. Examples are belly strippers, end strippers, high belly strippers, humps, low belly strippers, side strippers. Also see concave card, convex card, glazed card, sand.

If a deck contained no cards that fell into any of the thieving categories, it was said to be square, in the sense of having no rounded members. And, of course, a square deck meant an honest one. So, a square deal in poker was one dealt from an honest deck. The term entered the general English language to describe any situation or deal that was honest.

Are you surprised that so many terms associated with this kind of cheating exist? (This list doesn't even come close to exhausting the terms associated with cheating in general.)

Until recently, an unfortunate part of poker was that many thieves were associated with the game. Some would rather spend their time devising ways to cheat their fellow players than devote the time to learning to play the game well. Some of them, of course, were not capable of that skill. Others preferred earning a dollar dishonestly to honestly. Whatever the underlying reasons, poker once had lots of thieves. Thieves still are found in private games, but most casinos and cardrooms go out of their way to make their games honest. Once a room gets a reputation as being a hangout of dishonest players, business drops off quickly. Word of mouth can shut a place down faster than all the politicians and do-gooders in the world. Smart owners and managers know this, and do not tolerate thieves. In years gone by, some houses would allow the thieves to play, under the philosophy that they were live (at least living) players who sat patiently and kept games going while waiting for the suckers to drop in. Some managers would say, "If we barred all the suspected thieves or all those who have ever done anything dishonest, we'd have no games. There aren't enough live ones to go around." This, of course, was a shortsighted view, and never worked for very long. Other managers and floorpeople got kickbacks from the thieves and "looked the other way." Those attitudes have changed, fortunately, in the last several decades, and cardrooms and casinos are the safest places to play poker. This is not always the case in private games, which is why you're always better off playing in public cardrooms than home games. Casinos have knowledgeable staff, surveillance, and a vested interest in keeping their customers happy.

But in private games, particularly, and too many public poker establishments of yore, thieves of all stripes plied their maleficent trades, and the words they used worked their way into the vocabulary associated with poker. For the protection of their patrons, most cardrooms use plastic decks and have center dealers, relegating many of the terms to history. The curious etymologist needs to have a general knowledge of the terms to gain a complete understanding of where the term square deal comes from.