Fisher, John: Never Give a Sucker an Even Break ©1976 Elm Tree Books Hardcover, w/dj, 128 pages ©1976 John Fisher, Pantheon Books, NY Softcover, perfect-bound, 6x9", 128 pages

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Comments: "Tricks and Bets You Can't Lose"

Contents (from paperback book edition):

7 Introduction: on scams and W.C. Fields

13 Shameless Simplicity
14 Samson: breaking a match
15 Molasses: setting fire to sugar cube
16 Glacier: picking up a sugard cube in water with a string
18 Meniscus: floating a cork
18 Tipsy: balancing forks
20 Mixture: whiskey and water challenge
20 Cocktail: matches and penny puzzle
23 Exchequer: silver & copper coin puzzle
25 Pick-Up: pick up coin challenge
27 Hazard: catching a die
28 Untouchable: the bill drop

29 Never Play Cards With Strangers
30 Second-deal: a simulated second deal
31 Casework: card memory demonstration
32 Aces: making a corner short
34 Circus: the next card I turn over will be yours...
35 Shill: even your confederate won't fully get it
36 Kentucky: simulated horse race with cards
39 Jonah: poker challenge
40 Martini: with one-way back design card
41 Automatic: spectators stack the deck
44 Honesty: with a new deck
45 Gateway: poker gag

47 Follow Me - If You Can!
48 Edifice: balancing dice
49 Pyramid: stacking billiard balls
50 Tumbler: glass flipping puzzle
52 Transparent: cigar wrapper challenge
52 Flopover: balancing a match-box
53 Twister: untwisting a rubber-band
56 Hexagon: coin puzzle
57 Hydra: heads or tails swindle with a double sided coin
58 Mismatch: matchbox puzzle

61 Odds That Aren't What They Seem
62 Dicey: some dice gambles
63 Serial: dollar bill serial number odds
64 Sandwich: a coin date guessing act
64 Heads-or-Tails: coin odds challenge
66 Spinner: improving the odds of a spun coin
68 Penney (Walter Penney): Coin toss game
69 Payline: card selection challenge
70 Cartomancy: a selection of card bets in your favor
71 Matrimony: string tying challenge
73 Googol: a gamble with written numbers
73 Birthday: for groups of 30 or more

75 Dicing With the Future
76 Oddity: carefully worded dice bet
77 Certainty: odd and even card piles
78 Milady: a 7 card Monte dealt by the spectator
79 Turnover: a subtle heads-tales divination
80 Humm-dinger (Bob Hummer): finding the bill under a tea cup
81 Jackpot: a coin counting swindle

83 The Classic Swindles
84 Spot: cover the red dot with discs
86 Pentagram: coins on a star
88 Morra: a finger tossing system
90 Shortchanged: betting the spectator's own money
91 Inferno: cigarette burn game
92 Corridor: hotel room puzzle
94 Dilemma: card-coin trick you can't lose
94 Matrix: card-coin cover challenge
96 Columbus: domino challenge
98 Garland: last coin wins
99 Buster: using gimmicked dice
100 Mosca (Benjamin Siegel): sugar cube and fly wager
102 Thirty-one: gambling game of cards
104 Nim: gambling game with match sticks
106 Rattlesneak: the rattle game
108 Monte: the real game, with the throw taught
112 Monte-Plus: placing a clip on the Queen
114 Garter: pricking the garter, catching the loop

119 The Old Army Game: the three shell game with basic pattern taught

124 Appendix: two false shuffles and a false cut taught

126 Acknowledgements: some references mentioned

128 About the Author