"trim the sucker"

Anyone ever heard of the phrase "trim the sucker"? Here's the context: "We use it like a blackjack player uses a deck of cards to trim the suckers--just as elegantly."

Well known gardening phrase - not!

suckers=rubes=marks

to trim? to skim off, to fleece, to cut them down to size

you have simply stumbled upon a bad piece of metaphor.

L

Thank God for context. So fleecing the mark is intended, apparently. But it IS a well-known gardening phrase as well. SS