Is it "card shark" or "card sharp"?

[Homer]

Everyone is saying card sharp, but does anyone remember that game show Card Sharks? That was a good show.

[daryn]

i remember it, thanks to game show network. it's funny when you watch the reruns and see people "go with their gut" and pick lower with a 5 or 6 or something.

[Oski]

Without looking it up, here is my understanding of the terms - they both refer to two different things.

Card Sharp = cheater. Someone who manipulates the game.

Card Shark = pro, or very good player seeking out crappy players. The shark feasts on the fist. This is similar to "Pool Shark", which has nothing to do with cheating, but does descripe a "hustler" or very good player.

[Jimbo]

I believe the post by Oski is correct and the most succinct. Being a former "Pool Shark", hey, I should know. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


Jimbo

[Michael Davis]

Whoever wrote the book on stud with the nom de plume Konstantin Othmer appeared on Card Sharks and did very well.

-Michael

[John Cole]

Jimbo,

"Cardshark," though, originated from people mishearing "cardsharp." Barbara Stanwyck played a cardsharp in Prseton Sturges's The Lady Eve, a great movie, which also starred a befuddled Henry Fonda, much at Stanwyck's character's mercy.

[Phat Mack]

"Cardshark," though, originated from people mishearing "cardsharp."

Do you have a source for this? OED lists shark as someone who exploits others at gambling or cards as late 16th c.

[Jive Dadson]

From www.dictionary.com --


sharp
n. Informal.

An expert.
A shrewd cheater; a sharper.

[blackaces13]

Shark = good card player who doesn't cheat a far as anyone knows

Sharp = cheater who wins money.

In rounders Matt Damon is a shark and Ed Norton is a sharp.