Description
The St. James’ Guide, or The Sharper Detected, is a rare book published anonymously in London in 1825 and mentioned by only a couple of early historians and bibliographers on magic and gaming. The original title page claims to include four separate parts but only the first three have ever been discovered and the fourth, if ever produced, is unknown and not included here. The book reveals the methods used to cheat the unwary at the many pastimes of the period: from playing cards, to billiards, to dice, to backgammon.
This reprint is a new transcription and contains commentaries by Gianfranco Preverino and Marco Pusterla.
The book is hard bound with gold titles,168 pages, plus 12 full color plates on high-quality glossy stock. Only 300 hand-numbered copies have been printed.
Important Gambling Techniques
Amongst the most important stratagems described (and illustrated, some for the first time) are:
- “Belly Stripper” cards
- How to open and re-seal a deck of cards
- The “push-off” second deal
- How control dice in advantage play
- Stratagems to cheat with dice
- How to cheat at Back-gammon
- The “Greek Deal”
- The first explanation of the “Third Deal”
- How to indicate a partner where to cut the deck
- … and much more
Don’t miss this rare and often overlooked treatise on advantage play!
