Stuss or Jewish Faro is a card game, a variant of
faro. In this version (played in house games, back rooms, and saloons), the cards are dealt from the dealer's hand, not from a
shoe
A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture to ...
. Also, the house wins all the money when drawing two equal cards, as opposed to half in traditional faro. This greatly increases the house's advantage over its patrons.
Stuss was particularly popular in the late nineteenth century in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
and Chicago in the United States, continuing until the time of
World War I. It was frequently played in ethnic immigrant neighborhoods.
References
''The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Card Games'' Sterling Publishing, New York 1995 p. 335-337
Scarne: ''Scarne on Card Games.''''How to Play and Win at Poker, Pinochle, Blackjack, Gin and Other Popular Card Games'', 2nd ed., Courier Dover Publications, Mineola, N.Y. 2004, pp 173 –175,
* Luc Sante: ''Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York''. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, New York 2003 ,
Alex Garel-Frantzen: ''Gangsters & Organized Crime in Jewish Chicago'' The History Press, Charleston, S.C. 2013, p. 86 f, 2013
G. R. Williamson: ''Frontier Gambling''.''The Games, the Gamblers & the Great Gambling Halls of the Old West''. Indian Head Publications, E-Pub edition, 2012,
19th-century gambling games
Banking games
Lottery card games
American gambling games
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