Cold Deck

A cold deck is a stacked deck of playing cards which is typically switched with the deck actually being used in the game in question, to the benefit of the player or the dealer making the switch. A stacked deck is a deck of cards arranged in a preset order, designed to give a specific outcome when the cards are dealt. The term itself refers to the fact that the new deck is often physically colder than the deck that has been in use; constant handling of playing cards warms them enough that a difference is often noticeable.

In the broader sense, the term can refer to the preset deck itself or to the practice of using one, as in, "I tried a cold deck on him but he spotted it in a second." As a verb, it can refer to cheating or being cheated by use of a cold deck, as in, "I think I may have been cold-decked when I lost that $800 pot."

More recently, the term has come to refer to a hand that plays out as if a cold deck has been in use. For example, in most forms of poker, four of a kind (four cards of identical rank, e.g., four Kings) is made rarely and a straight flush (five consecutive cards of the same suit, e.g., the six, seven, eight, nine and ten of spades) is made extremely rarely. If one player is dealt four-of-a-kind and another is dealt a straight flush, both players would usually be justified in making large bets and raises. When the player with the straight flush wins the pot, the player with four-of-a-kind might jokingly complain of being cold-decked without meaning to accuse anybody of cheating. The hand itself is called a "cooler".

Although a cold deck is most commonly associated with gambling cheats, as in poker or blackjack, a cold deck might be introduced in any game using playing cards.