Busted card-cheating ring found success in simplicity

Expensive cars, flashy jewelry, three houses � Pai Gow John had it made, all thanks to a magic touch at casinos from California to Connecticut.

Too magic, as it turned out.

Tomorrow, the 44-year-old man whose real name is Phuong Quoc Truong is to be sentenced in San Diego federal court for helping run one of the biggest, most audacious card-cheating rings in modern history.


What is detailed in court files is how the organization operated and how easily it found dealers who were willing to go along � five alone at Cache Creek, a casino west of Sacramento.

Richard Marcus, a former casino cheat now working as a gaming consultant in Las Vegas, said it probably helped that many of the participants are Vietnamese and have language and cultural connections.

�It sounds risky, but they were comfortable approaching these dealers, getting to know them, having a drink after work,� Marcus said. �And the main thing you have to remember is that everyone who works at a casino knows it's not their money. So they aren't all that invested in protecting it.�

Marcus, who has written extensively about the Tran Organization on his Web site, said working in a casino gets boring, �and this scam probably sounded exciting to the dealers. Throw them some money (up to $5,000 per false shuffle) and away you go.�

With the bribed dealer in place, here's how mini-baccarat � the ring's preferred game � was typically rigged, according to authorities:

At least one ring member, the recorder, secretly wrote down the order of the cards as they were dealt from the shoe, a rack that holds multiple decks. When the shoe was played out, the dealer gathered the cards to shuffle.

During the shuffle, through sleight of hand, the dealer kept a group of cards � called a slug � intact, in the order that was just played. A typical slug was about 40 cards.

After the false shuffle, the dealer put the cards in the shoe and started dealing again. When the slug appeared, the recorder, because he knew what cards were coming, could determine which hand would win. He signaled the other ring members, and they would string together winning bets until the slug ran out.

�If it's done right, the false shuffle is pretty close to the perfect scam,� Marcus said. �But you have so many people involved, it's bound to fall apart. People talk, they get greedy.�



One thing I never did - is cheat at cards. I won big! (and later lost big!) but the closest I ever came to "cheating" was getting paid $3750. on a blackjack hand where I had actually lost (but the Power of the Force Over Weak Minds enabled me to convince the dealer that I had won). Read my upcoming Vegas novel for more details.