1. John Scarne was an American magician and author who was particularly adept at playing card manipulation.
19 Facts About John Scarne
1. 2.
John Scarne became known as an expert on cards and other games, and authored a number of popular books on cards, gambling, and related topics.
3.
John Scarne was born Orlando Carmelo Scarnecchia in Steubenville, Ohio, United States, and at some point anglicized his name to John Scarne.
4.
John Scarne grew up in the New Jersey communities of Fairview and Guttenberg.
5.
John Scarne spent a few months learning about crooked gambling devices at a nearby novelty store.
6.
Thanks to his endless practice, John Scarne began making money as a magician.
7.
Gradually, John Scarne became an expert at not only magical effects, but games of all kinds as well.
8.
John Scarne wrote fifteen books and co-wrote a few more for a total of twenty-eight books on games, including Scarne on Dice, Scarne's Guide to Modern Poker and Scarne's New Complete Guide to Gambling.
9.
John Scarne wrote two autobiographies: The Amazing World of John Scarne: A Personal History, and The Odds Against Me.
10.
John Scarne 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.
11.
John Scarne was often proclaimed by experts, magicians and editors of the time to be the greatest card manipulator of all time.
12.
John Scarne was so proud of the game that he named his son John Teeko Scarne.
13.
However, John Scarne never made a profit on the game, mainly due to water damage in a warehouse which destroyed the entire stock of Teeko sets in one day.
14.
John Scarne created a quadruple coincidence, wherein a spectator selects a card and four apparently impossible predictions of their card are made.
15.
John Scarne attempted to discredit Edward O Thorp's card counting system for the game of blackjack.
16.
John Scarne dismissed Wilson's famous blackjack point count system as "hokum".
17.
John Scarne offered a challenge to blackjack card counters, but the prospective participants were never able to agree upon its terms.
18.
Scarne married Steffi Storm in 1955, with their son John born the same year.
19.
John Scarne died on July 7,1985, at 82, while living in North Bergen, New Jersey.