John Scarne

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Orlando Carmelo Scarnecchia (March 4, 1903 - July 7, 1985) was born in Steubenville, Ohio, The United States of America and at some point anglicized his name to John Scarne (pronounced /ˈskɑrni/). He grew up in the New Jersey communities of Fairview and Guttenberg.[1] Leaving school after the eighth grade, he learned as a teenager from a local card shark how to perform tricks like Three-card Monte and to gamble using cards.[2] Scarne began practicing card manipulation, with the goal of becoming a card shark. His Roman Catholic mother, not wishing her son to become a professional gambler or to cheat others, encouraged him to take up magic instead, and Scarne started using his skill at handling cards to learn and devise card tricks. He spent a few months learning about crooked gambling devices (including marked cards and loaded dice) at a nearby novelty store.[3] Thanks to his endless practice, Scarne began making money as a magician.

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[edit] Cards

Gradually, Scarne became quite an expert at tricks and games of all kinds. Articles were written about him in various magazines, and he was hired as a consultant or adviser by various companies, as well as by the US Army, which sent him to bases around the world in order to educate soldiers about the dangers of card and dice cheats. He wrote fifteen books and co-wrote a few more for a total of twenty-eight books on games, such as Scarne on Dice, Scarne's Guide to Modern Poker and Scarne's New Complete Guide to Gambling. He also wrote two autobiographies: The Amazing World of John Scarne: A Personal History (1956), and The Odds Against Me (1966). Scarne was often proclaimed by experts, magicians and editors of the time as the greatest card manipulator of all time.

He served as a technical advisor in the 1973 motion picture, The Sting, and doubled for actor Paul Newman's hands during scenes that involved card manipulations and deck switching.

But he was happiest when inventing (and marketing, through his company John Scarne Games, Inc.) new games, which he did quite a bit. And he was especially proud of one called Teeko, which he invented in 1945 (version withdrawn), re-invented in 1952 and modified in the 1960s. He was so proud of the game that he named his son John Teeko Scarne. Teeko quickly spread around the world. Even Orson Welles was reported to have been playing Teeko. But he never made a profit on the game mainly due to water damage in the warehouse which eliminated the entire stock in one day. Today Teeko is virtually unknown.

Scarne's most famous card trick was appropriately titled "Scarne's Aces". The trick involved taking a spectators shuffled deck of cards, performing a series of riffle shuffles himself and then cutting to all four aces.

Scarne was also the first person to attempt to discredit Edward O. Thorp's blackjack card counting system.[4] In his 1966 autobiography The Odds Against Me, he analyzed Thorp's system and concluded that the whole system was loaded with mathematical errors and it was pure fiction dreamed by Thorp. Scarne also went on to attempt to discredit Wilson's famous blackjack point count system. Scarne offered a challenge to blackjack card counters, but Scarne and the prospective participants were never able to agree upon the terms for the challenge.[5][6]

In The Odds Against Me, Scarne described his own technique for counting down up to four-deck blackjack with the rules generally used in Las Vegas in 1947: Scarne made use of his stacks of chips as a device to help track the contents of the undealt cards.[7] A more complete description of his technique is present in his later book, Scarne's Guide to Casino Gambling, where he also described preventative measures taken by casinos to combat card counting.[8]

[edit] Trivia

The character Scarne, played by Bo Hopkins from the 2003 film Shade was named for John Scarne.[citation needed]

[edit] Personal life

Scarne married Steffi Storm (née Norma Kearney) in 1955 (and they had John Teeko the same year).

Scarne died July 7, 1985 at 82, while living in North Bergen, New Jersey.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Cook, John. "JOHN SCARNE, GAMBLING EXPERT", The New York Times, July 9, 1985. Accessed January 16, 2008.
  2. ^ Scarne, John (1966). The Odds Against Me. New York: Simon and Schuster, 20-34. 
  3. ^ Scarne, John (1966). The Odds Against Me. New York: Simon and Schuster, 40-71. 
  4. ^ Tamburin, Henry (July 2002), “Legends of Blackjack Honoring the achievements of the game’s pioneers”, Casino Player, <http://www.casinoplayer.com/archive/0702cp/blackjack_part1.htm> 
  5. ^ The History of Card Counting, John Scarne versus Ed Thorp
  6. ^ Scarne, John (1978). Scarne's Guide to Casino Gambling. New York: Simon and Schuster, 122-129. 
  7. ^ Scarne, John (1966). The Odds Against Me. New York: Simon and Schuster, 366-368. 
  8. ^ Scarne, John (1978). Scarne's Guide to Casino Gambling. New York: Simon and Schuster, 104-106. 
  • Cook, Joan (July 9, 1985). John Scarne, gambling expert. The New York Times, p. B6.
  • Eskin, Blake (July 15, 2001). A world of games. The Washington Post Magazine, p. W18.
  • Deaths Elsewhere (July 9, 1985). The Washington Post, p. D8.

[edit] External links

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