You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two Boys

Let’s face it ladies and gents, most of us are crooked to a certain degree. Think back through your life and remember all those times that you have told lies to further your own ends. Most of the time these fall into the category of little white lies which are relatively harmless. But we go much further than that from time to time unless you are auditioning for a part in “The Sound of Music” or contemplating spending the rest of your life in a monastery, you will at some stage have been involved in chicanery to some extent.

You may have even found a wallet without handing it in or stole chocolate from the local shopkeeper as a kid, very few people out there are whiter than white. But most of us have a limit to the amount of wrong doing that we are prepared to do and thank goodness for that otherwise the entire world would be full of people like Fagin or Bonnie and Clyde.

But there are people out there who are prepared to go that extra mile and cross the barriers of right and wrong in a big way. Criminals and thieves have been romanticised in film and literature down the years to such an extent that we almost class some of them as lovable rogues. People like Robin Hood, Raffles and Butch and Sundance all represent the acceptable face of being a criminal.

Which takes us on to poker, that glorious game of mental combat which pits man against man (and woman of course). To deny that there is no skulduggery in poker would be like denying that your children never lie to you or that at fifty years of age you are still as fit as you ever were. There is money in poker and wherever you find money you will get people who are prepared to do anything in order to get it.

Believe it or not there are such things as professional cheats and con men who do this kind of thing for a living and it is a very skilled profession for the greatest exponents of the art. Films like “The Sting” and programmes like “Hustle” were all based on real people at some stage or another. The poker world has it’s fair share of undesirables and I caught up with one of them who I have known for a good few years and asked him to reveal a bit about himself and his life. In the shady environment of the gaming underworld, he goes by the nickname of “The Darkness” but we call him “Darky” for short.

So where did the nickname come from?

(Pauses a while) I think that it originated from when I used to go into town with my uncle as a pickpocket. We always went at night and picked on the drunks and night clubbers who were easy pickings. When the time came that I wanted to work on my own, I only ever worked at night because it was impossible during the day. The “day pickers” who we knew started calling it me because I was the only night worker among them.

I’ve never actually spoken to a pickpocket before, I’m puzzled as to how you got started with your uncle?

I was always closer to my uncle than I was my father. My dad never wanted kids and made it obvious and I didn’t see him for over five years. My uncle almost became a fatherly figure and he was separated from my auntie so it was easy for us to spend time together. I’d always known that he was a rascal and into all sorts of stuff but I never imagined that he was a pickpocket.

I confronted him one day when I was about fourteen or fifteen when I overheard a conversation between him and a mate of his. I was intrigued by it and I wanted to learn the sleight of hand stuff.

Was he keen about showing you?

Not at first but when I told him that I just wanted to learn the moves he finally gave in and relented. I don’t think that he fully believed me but he started to show me the techniques while I was still at school.

So when was your first time as a pickpocket and how much did you take?

My first time was at school, I took a kid’s pocket money while he was sat beside me in a lesson. I was nervous as hell but knew that I could pass it off as a joke if he caught me, he never did. I only ever took stuff off kids who I didn’t like. When I was sixteen I took a wallet from a teacher…wow what a buzz that was. There was only about thirty pound in it but that was a colossal amount of money to a sixteen year old back then.

So how did picking pockets turn into poker?

(laughs) I had always had an interest in poker and played in a few small games but when I was about twenty two or so, I started going to casinos and playing in games with the money that I had took. Looking back I was useless as a player, many a time I would lose my entire weeks takings in a couple of hours. But it suddenly hit me how much some of these people were carrying and that it was here where I should be working and not on the streets and in the malls.

So what do you go after?

Chips and wallets, you’d be surprised how careless people are with them. I think it is because psychologically many people still do not perceive chips as being real money. It’s why casinos like players playing with chips and not cash. As for wallets, it still surprises me just how many blokes carry thier wallets in their back pockets.

How do you feel when you take someone’s money?

I don’t really feel anything, these people are losers because they frequent casinos. If I didn’t take it then they would just lose it to the casino who’s bosses make millions.

Are you trying to justify theft?

No not at all but there are different types of theft. I would never steal off anyone who needed the money and the people in these places don’t need the money in my opinion or they wouldn’t be in here. If they do need the money then they are doomed anyway and I am just taking my share before the casino fat cats get hold of it.

Is this kind of thing rife in casinos?

I wouldn’t have thought so, the ability to do what I do does not come easy. I have seen other people attempt to steal chips and work people but they are clumsy because they haven’t had the proper grounding, my uncle was one of the best and to be the best you need to learn from the best. (I nod my head)

Can you show me a move?

Yeah sure, this was one of the first moves that my uncle showed me. He used to call it the “slider” and I have taken numerous wallets in card rooms using this technique.

Darky hands me his wallet and tells me to put it into my back pocket and stand up and turn around so that I have my back to him. After a few seconds, he accidentally bumps into me and then profusely apologises and walks away. He then turns around and smiles at me and asks me to hand him his wallet back. It is gone and I never even felt him do it. “So come on then, how did you do that” I asked?

Depending on the tightness of the trousers or jeans, sometimes there can be a gap between the wallet and the persons backside. This means that there is no contact between the wallet and the persons body and they cannot feel the movement. You are quite slim Carl so you are easy. When you accidentally bump into someone, you do it from behind. At the momemt of impact you quickly slide the wallet upwards so that it is above the top of the pocket. The mark turns around and as you are apologising you just complete the move and take the wallet. A great time to do this is when players are stood watching the final table of a poker tournament. Large groups tend to congregate towards the end of the night and watch the conclusion of these things so they present easy targets.

What if someone notices their wallet is gone straight away?

This is why I work with someone in closed environments like casinos. As soon as I lift the wallet, it is immediately passed to my associate who leaves the building. We target players and punters who we know will have money on them and targeting players in crowded poker rooms means that CCTV is less likely to pick anything up.

What Techniques do you use to steal chips?

The key to this is identifying the proper target, players who are careless with chips or who are drunk are perfect targets. Roulette is a great place to steal chips because as the ball is going round the wheel, this is where everyones eyes are focused. If a player is placing ponies (£25 chips) on the numbers then I will buy in for colour chips of a small denomination. I will place my chips on top of their bets and then look as if to change my mind and place them somewhere else. As I lift my chips back off the surface, I have their pony underneath and quicky place a replacement stack of my chips back onto the number with my other hand so that the punter who is playing in ponies does not notice. If they are plastering the layout with ponies then even if their number comes up, they will just assume that they have missed a number in the confusion. Although you must avoid the system players who bet the same numbers all the time because they will notice when their bet has gone.

What about when you are playing poker?

It staggers me just how untidy certain players can be when they are playing with chips. We use a simple little move where my accomplice causes a seemingly natural and accidental diversion in the card room. No big deal but a couple of seconds is all we need to take a couple of ponies (£50) off a careless player. The way that certain players stack their chips is just asking for trouble. Some players stack them in irregular numbered stacks and don’t really know the true amount of how many chips are in each stack. Once I have slid the chips away from their stack, I simply add them to mine.

Have you been caught yet?

I’ve never been caught but I had a few close shaves back in the early days. Back when I was working the malls I had to do a couple of runners. Once when the punter felt me and another when someone else saw me. I was green then though and didn’t know much, I haven’t made the same mistakes since. It’s all about picking the right moment and the right person, you do that and you won’t get caught.

So what do you make in an average week then?

(Laughs)

I think about a couple of grand on a good week, most of the time it is about half that.

Do you ever see yourself doing anything else?

Possibly but not yet, it’s just too easy at times and I don’t know where I could earn money as easy as this anyway but I would hope to do something else in the future. I am still single but if I met a girl and I liked her then working nights may prove a bit of a problem. I would also have to lie to her about what I did which wouldn’t be a nice thing to do to someone who you love would it. (I shake my head in agreement).

At this point “Darky” was summoned away from our “interview” to take a phone call from which he never returned. But that just added to the mystique of the man, here talking to me one minute and gone the next. Here sat side by side were two professionals, each one respectful of the others skill and expertise in their chosen field.

While I admire “Darky’s” skill, I do not condone what he does and I do not agree with his excuses for robbing people either. But my brief trip into the world of the professional poker cheat was both illuminating and educational but despite his methods, Darky is and forever will be my friend.

This article was produced for Poker Pro Europe magazine and has been reproduced here with their kind permission.