Effect of Suspicion

To be suspected of skill is a death blow to the professional. His opportunities are dependent upon belief prevailing among the company he is in that the chances are even. Players may be alert and watchful, which is quite natural in all money games, without disconcerting the expert in the least; but where there is knowledge or even mere suspicion among the players of his ability as a manipulator, it will suggest retirement at once rather than playing against the handicap of being especially watched, and a further possibility of getting his congé from the company. But though under certain circumstances a past-master at the card table may be suspected, detection in any particular artifice is almost impossible, and proof of the act is wholly wanting. For those reasons knowing players require nothing more than a bare suspicion of skill to immediately seek a less misty atmosphere.