Some people know about Walter Irving Scott maybe because he was the greatest second, middle and maybe bottom dealer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Irving_Scott and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_the_Card_Table . There if famous story of how in 1930 he makes one appearance only and fools all the big famous magicians with his punched or punch deal which nobody ever knew existed or could have done so well if they knew the secret.

I discover by accident when I write about the greatest I ever saw the India master magician Aladin http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......rum=62&1 and that he talked about in 1989 he was with Lennart Green and Carlos Vaquera in London late at night and they were completely fooled by Gazzo Gary Osbourne, the student of Scott, who borrowed Lennart Green cards and returned back to him. So this means he was at some point secretly punching the cards after they were presented to him. Aladin is himself completely unbelievable technically and he said that in this specialism that Gazzo was on a different level to him Aladin, to Lennart and to Carlos Vaquera. I think it made Carlos Vaquera quite angry or maybe jealous if I remember what Aladin says. I think not Aladin, or Carlos Vaquera or Lennart Green had an idea about the punching and also they could not believe or actually DETECT Gazzo was doing second deal. Aladin said that he had a lot of respect for Gazzo because he offered to show the deal and then he actually turned the top card face up so they could watch better. I think the atmosphere was that Aladin and Lennart certainly believed Gazzo was the greatest ever second dealer they had ever seen and also Carlos Vaquera applauded and a few other friends that were watching. This was after Ron Macmillan London International Magic Convention which Lennart Green, Carlos Vaquera were winners of and in 1989 Gazzo won this.

Tragically Gazzo had a stroke in 1994 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazzo_(magician) and a year later in 1995 Scott died. So really there were the two occasions when there were Phantoms of the Card Table and sadly now there are nobody who is as good I think.