Card tricks come in all shapes and sizes … from those meant to entertain as performed by a magician through to those meant to cheat as performed by card sharps. The latter includes poker card tricks of course but there are always the elaborate ‘custom’ made ones.
Back in the 60’s, the main movie phenomenon was the James Bond series with Sean Connery as 007. He was portrayed as a great card player who didn’t have to cheat … in fact he abhored cheats hence the wonderful opening scene in “Goldfinger” when James spots Auric Goldfinger ensconced in a game of gin and realises he must be cheating. Looking up to the hotel rooms overlooking the pool area where the card game is taking place, James decides to visit Goldfinger’s suite only to find Jill Matherson, a paid assistant, spying with binocular on Goldfinger’s opponent at the card table and relaying the information to her boss via an earpiece he’s wearing (on the pretext he’s hard of hearing). Bond of course then delights in forcing Goldfinger to lose $15,000 at cards as penance. A card trick that didn’t pay the dividends he expected!