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Faro is a card game, a descendant of Basset.
It enjoyed great popularity during the 18th century, particularly
in England and France, and in the 19th Century in the United
States, where it was practiced by 'Faro dealers' such as the
infamous Doc Holliday. It has since fallen completely out
of fashion. Its name is a corruption of pharaoh, and refers
to the Egyptian motif that commonly adorned French playing
cards of the period.
Although both Faro and Basset were forbidden
in France, on severe penalties, these games continued to be
in great vogue in England during the 18th century; apparently
because it was easy to learn, it gave the appearance of being
very fair, and, lastly, it was a very quiet, quick game, and
could be played discreetly.
Faro's detractors regarded it as a dangerous
scam that destroyed families and reduced men to poverty. Faro
bankers were alleged to employ 'gentlemen' to give a very
favourable report of the game to the town, so that the games
would be allowed to transpire without further inquiry. See
three card monte.
Faro was played with an entire pack of cards,
and admitted of an indeterminate number of players, termed
'punters,' and a 'banker.' Each player laid his stake on one
of the 52 cards.
The banker held a similar pack, from which
he drew cards, one for himself, placed on the right, and the
other, called the carte anglaise, or English card, for the
players, placed on the left.
The banker won all the money staked on the
card on the right, and had to pay double the sums staked on
those on the left. Certain advantages were reserved to the
banker: -- if he drew a doublet, that is, two equal cards,
he won half of the stakes upon the card which equalled the
doublet; if he drew for the players the last card of the pack,
he was exempt from doubling the stakes deposited on that card.
Suppose a person to put down 20s. upon a
card when only eight are in hand; the last card was a cipher,
so there were four places to lose, and only three to win,
the odds against being as 4 to 3.
If 10 cards only were in, then it was 5 to
4 against the player; in the former case it was the seventh
part of the money, whatever it was, £1 or £100;
in the latter case, a ninth. The odds from the beginning of
the deal insensibly stole upon the player at every pull, till
from the first supposed 4 per cent. it became about 15 per
cent.
Faro was undoubtedly one of the most popular
card games of the 18th century, especially among the lower
classes. Our life here, writes Gilly Williams to George Selwyn
in 1752, would not displease you, for we eat and drink well,
and the Earl of Coventry holds a Pharaoh-bank every night
to us, which we have plundered considerably. Charles James
Fox preferred Faro to any other game.
Faro is played by characters in saloons on
the HBO series "Deadwood".
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