Had Sure Thing at Stud Poker

Feb. 1920

Playing with Marked Cards, New Yorker Cleaned Up an Immense Sum

New York.—-A group of screen magnates and music publishers along Broadway has been fleeced out of $350,000 by a wealthy manufacturer with a deck of marked cards, whom they admitted to their private games. He was finally detected and thrown out of the house of the man who caught him. The World prints the story, calling the fleecer Mr. Trimmer and the other man Mr. Screen. It asserts it has their real names.

For a considerable time a group of twelve or fourteen men, all of ample means, have been playing stud poker. There were Mr. Screen, a big picture promoter and the husband of one of the prettiest and most talented stars; Mr. Flickers, of equal rank in celluloid productions; Mr. Circuit, who owns a flock of theaters; Mr. Ragg, who receives immense royalties from his song compositions, and others quite as well known in their respective fields.

Last summer, at Far Rockaway and Arverne, their ranks were augmented by Mr. Trimmer. He is a manufacturer on an immense scale of a certain article of women's wear, and is generally known as a millionaire.

They Thought It Was Luck

Mr. Trimmer's "uncanny luck," as the other players called it, was noticeable from the very start. In one session, for instance, which began on a Saturday night and continued into Sunday, he cleaned up more than $40,000.

The daring of Mr. Trimmer's play was what interested the others more than anything else. He would make bets against seemingly impossible odds — and win them.

Mr. Trimmer always knew what the other fellow's secret card was, when he was the dealer, and he always won. Also he always knew, when he held the deck, what card his opponent would get next, and what card he (Trimmer) was going to get next, for his cards were what is known to gamblers as "readers."

The design on the back of them — which meant nothing to others — told him exactly what denomination each pasteboard was.

At last, suspicion intruded, and one of the other men at a party which Trimmer had arranged pocketed a deck of Trimmer's cards and took them to a professional gambler for examination.

"They're readers," said the professional. At the corner of each card, on the back, was a design composed of four fleur-de-lis — the three leafed flower of France.

If the right hand petal of the flower at the upper right hand of the group was heavily shaded the card was an ace; if the center petal of that particular flower was accentuated, it was a king; if the shading was on the left hand petal it was a queen.

There were four flowers, each with three petals. The shadings, therefore, stood for 12 different cards, according to where they were placed, these cards ranging down from the ace to the deuce. If no petal was shaded the card was the deuce.

An exposure was planned at Screen's house. There were eight players. Trimmer, on a few hands off square cards, lost $650. Then he produced a deck of his sort. As soon as Screen saw the marked cards he exposed the cheat to his guests and proceeded to beat Trimmer up, winding up by throwing him out of the house.