Vernon was perhaps the most skillful sleight of hand artist that ever lived and, with Ed Marlo, possibly the most influential card magician of the 20th century. In fact, a huge portion of the sleight of hand had been discovered by Vernon over years of searching. He was famously under-credited for much of the work published in Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue's Expert Card Technique, though a later edition included an extra chapter which acknowledges Dai Vernon's contributions. More information on this and other magicians can be found in The Phantoms of the Card Table by David Britland.ĭai Vernon spent most of his life traveling all over the United States of America looking for card cheats and anyone who might know anything about sleight of hand with cards. However the only magician not present that night was Dai Vernon. None of the magicians present saw how it had been done, earning Scott the nickname 'The Phantom of the Card table', and many believed that his skills rivaled that of Dai Vernon.

The blindfolded man proceeded to deal out six hands of five-card draw poker, and in his hand were four aces and a king. After Scott was blindfolded, one of the men watching shuffled and cut a pack of cards and handed it to Scott. In 1930, Walter Scott, then an unknown card hustler, was brought in to do a demonstration. It was here that the extremely famous incident involving Walter Scott occurred. Vernon made his home in the magic circle in New York, which was basically the back of an old magic shop, and had perhaps the best and most famous card magicians in the world at the time as its residents.

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