John Scarne was an American magician and sleight of hand expert. He was born on March 4th, 1903 and died July 7th, 1985. As a boy, Scarne dreamed of being a gambler, but thankfully for the magic community, his Roman Catholic mother persuaded him to take up magic instead. Scarne would still become famous for many of his gambling sleights with cards, but he did not use them to cheat, most of the time.
John Scarne became famous at an early age, he was best known for his signature effect, Scarne’s Aces. He doubled during The Sting during a scene with some fancy dealing and was in a TV special in which he exposed many methods of cheating. Scarne even lectured to soldiers during WW 2 about the dangers of crooked gambling. Scarne has authored and co-authored a total of 28 books on games and also wrote two autobiographies, The Amazing World of John Scarne: A Personal History and The Odds Against Me. Scarne’s books are a great read, some of the best being Scarne on Dice, Scarne’s Guide to Modern Poker, and Scarne’s New Complete Guide to Gambling.
John Scarne was born Orlando
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He also learned about loaded dice, marked cards, and other cheating utilities at a local store. Scarne was paid $5 for his first public performance, after which he moved to New York to find work, armed with only a deck of cards and the addresses of every agent in town. Scarne’s early show consisted of a rope trick, followed by some card tricks, and then an effect with a lemon to finish. During one of his first shows in New York, Scarne performed an encore. He took out the deck of cards and performed what is now known as Scarne’s Aces. A pack of cards was shuffled and one by one Scarne cut to all four aces. His display caught the eye of one of the biggest gamblers at the time. He hired Scarne to appear at his house in front of all his gambling mates, and all they wanted to see was Scarne’s