By the early twentieth century, most saloons and casinos had exchanged faro for more profitable games.įaro is a French variant of the Italian game bassetta, and like monte, lansquenet, and vingt-et-un, it requires a dealer or “banker.” Faro is a fast-paced game, and proceeds in turns with multiple players betting on the probability that a certain card will be drawn. The odds of the house making money on an honest game of faro are only slighter better than 50-50. Another reason for the decline of faro is found in the nature of the game itself. By the late 1800s, the image of a tiger had become synonymous with faro, and some gambling districts were simply called “Tiger Alley.” Despite its popularity, faro died out during the twentieth century, the victim of increasingly restrictive gambling laws. In America, most faro rigs were sold in a mahogany box sporting a Bengal tiger on the lid, which gave rise to the euphemisms “bucking the tiger” or “twisting the tiger’s tail” for playing the game. The name “faro” is derived from a popular brand of French cards, which had an image of an Egyptian pharaoh on their backs.

By the 1880s, more money was wagered on faro each year than all other games of chance combined. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Belle Siddons were all faro dealers, and Wild Bill Hickok and Bat Masterson were avid devotées. Some of the most famous names from Western lore were quite fond of the game. Arriving from Europe to New Orleans in the early eighteenth century, faro spread up the Mississippi like wildfire, and was soon played everywhere from mining camps to Eastern casinos. The most popular card game of the American West was faro. This is followed by instructions on how to simulate a faro game in a Deadlands campaign, with suggestions on relating faro to a player character’s Gambling skill, and making this “game-within-a-game” more meaningful for the players themselves.Īlthough most Western movies show gunslingers and cowboys hunkered over a poker table, poker was fairly obscure until after the Civil War. After a discussion of the game’s importance to the Wild West, the rules of faro are explained, along with some ways to cheat at faro. This document describes the game of faro in the context of Deadlands.

John Neville Maskelyne, Sharps and Flats, 1894 The methods of cheating used in connection with it are so numerous and so ingenious that it becomes really necessary to devote an entire chapter specially to them. Faro may almost be said to occupy in America the position of a national game.

Faro faro card game