Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US Und.) lit. or fig., to cheat, to deceive; also as n., a deception; thus cold-decker, cold-decking n.

1871		Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 9 Feb. 2/6: This generally brings the game to a close, because the cold-decker has won all the money.
1880		in M. Lewis Mining Frontier (1967) 128: I don’t believe there’s a rooster [...] mean enough to take advantage o’ my ignorance and cold deck me right on the first deal.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 68: Mebby it’s twenty years ago when a party [...] allows as how Jim’s aimin’ to cold-deck me when he onfolds about the habit of them beans.
1909		W. Irwin Confessions of a Con Man 18: Cold-decking was his specialty. By ‘cold deck,’ I mean the substitution of a deck, already stacked, for the one which has just been shuffled and cut on the table.
1910		B. Fisher Mutt & Jeff 4 Oct. [synd. strip] We’ll cold deck him and cop his roll.
1938		H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 35: The sharper [...] used the marker and stripped cards [...] to cold deck the sucker, or surreptitiously exchange his own pack for one actually in the game.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 271: He is ‘cold-decked’ – that is, a duplicate deck is introduced into the game.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 46/2: Cold-deck, n. [...] the act of robbing by cold-decking. ‘We gave the mark (victim) the old cold-deck for five C’s (five hundred dollars).’ [...] Cold-deck, v. 1. To cheat by using stacked, marked, or otherwise prepared decks of cards. 2. To cheat or swindle in any manner similar to card-cheating.
1962		S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 250: They caught his blackjack dealers cold-decking, didn’t they?
2002		J. Myers Doc Holliday 188: Served with his own type of political deal, Sheriff Behan had been cold-decked and euchred.