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card sharp / card shark / sharp / sharper / shark

Dave Wilton

• 9 min read
card sharp / card shark / sharp / sharper / shark
Caravaggio’s The Cardsharps, c. 1595. (The title is a modern one.) Oil on canvas painting depicting men in late sixteenth-century dress cheating at a game of primero, a precursor of poker. On the left is the dupe, unaware that behind him the older card sharp is signaling his accomplice with a hand, the glove having had the fingertips cut out in order to better feel marked cards. At right, the young card sharp reaches behind his back to pull out a card hidden in his breeches.