EXPERT: MODULE ELEVEN

This is MODULE ELEVEN of HOW TO BECOME THE EXPERT AT THE CARD TABLE

Join me at the card table as I share my thoughts on the Psychology of the Card Cheat.

For the professional player, there is always a balance between playing the game and playing the opponent.  I believe that the professional, or should I say, the better player, always plays the game first, then the opponent second.  If he were to make room at the table for his ego then his insecurities would push him into attempts to outplay the opponent regardless of the cards, but if he’s playing another good player, he’s only setting himself up to walk away with no chips and a damaged ego.  The better player knows that it’s a game of playing the cards that you are dealt, folding when they’re bad, playing when they’re good, always abiding by a rule to only bluff in the opposite direction - act weak, when you’re strong, and always fold if you have to act strong when weak.  As Stu Ungar said, ‘fold and live to fold again.’

The Card Cheat is playing a completely different game.  His appearance at the card table is not theatre but performance art - ‘in performance art the knife is real.’  The cheat must pretend to be playing the same game, inviting his victims to decide whether he is playing the game or the opponent, perhaps like the professional, a healthy imbalance of both.  The card cheat knows the outcome as he is controlling and deciding it, the cheat’s primary responsibility is to convince his opponents that he is not a cheat, and to do that he must disguise his devilry under the cloak of fair play - hiding his truth, and hiding his sleight-of-hand.

When initially planning Module Eleven over a year ago, it was set to look quite different, but when I sat down to talk about the Psychology of Deception, I realised that the entire course is laced with every note on psychology that would have made up this volume, and so Module Eleven became something quite different - not an explanation of the psychology of deception, but a one-hour exploration on Deceptive Psychology through my experiences in the deceptive arts.

You can also watch MODULE ELEVEN and every other module at The MADISON LIBRARY

Mad Love  🖖🤚

You can access this and every other module from the course as a benefit of joining The SLEIGHT CLUB