Russian literature of the 19th century is permeated with the theme of the card game: “The Queen of Spades” by Pushkin, “The Gamblers” by Gogol, “Masquerade” by Lermontov, “The Gambler” by Dostoevsky, “Preference and the Sun” by Nekrasov - this is just a short list of works whose heroes spend time at the card table. But how did the authors know the rules and terms of the games that arise during the situation and even the techniques used by cheaters? It was not customary to talk about this, this topic has been little studied, but Derzhavin, Pushkin, Krylov, Dostoevsky, Belinsky, Kulchitsky, Nekrasov, Grigoriev, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Tolstoy, Bukovsky knew firsthand about card passions, since they themselves were avid players. The book contains documentary evidence from contemporaries about the behavior of writers at the card table, their gaming preferences, and their attitude to the concepts of honor and duty. Acquaintance with these interesting materials allows readers to discover Russian classics from a new side...