Next time you’re in America, here’s a bar bet you can always win: ask your victim to name the source of the quote, ‘Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.’ Nine times out of 10 the person will say Shakespeare, because here in America, whence I hail, most people think almost every clever thing said in English stems from Shakespeare. These words, of course, are not Shakespeare’s but Sir Walter Scott’s.

The only reason I bring this up is to introduce a fundamental fact of shorthanded poker: even more than in its full-handed cousin, you have to lie to win.