Liar's Poker

Radar Online: "When Penn Jillette—the taller, louder half of the magic duo Penn and Teller—was 18 years old, he hitchhiked across the country. One of the rides he got was from a journeyman poker cheat who, for some mysterious reason, divulged many of the secrets of his trade and, for a couple months, also gave the hairy young man food to eat, a place to sleep, and some money to get on his feet. Decades later the cheat e-mailed Jillette saying that Penn could finally repay that solid he’d done him decades before. He wanted the famous magician to get his memoir-slash-how-to-book published. And he also wanted Penn to pretty much write it. The result: How to Cheat Your Friends at Poker, a handbook that in addition to teaching you how to become the perfect weasel at card games—the false shuffle, how to shortchange the pot, and the kinds of jokes to tell while you’re robbing your new friends blind—also provides step-by-step instructions on porking the host’s wife. Radar Online talked to Jillette about the charming little tome and the perils of owing guys like the pseudonymous “Dickie Richard.”"