deal from the bottom of the deck

To act in a duplicitous, deceitful manner in order to serve one's own interests; to cheat. A reference to a dealing technique in card games used by magicians and cheaters. I'm not surprised the politician got caught committing fraud. That buffoon has spent his entire career dealing from the bottom of the deck. You can't deal from the bottom of the deck and expect to succeed in a competitive school like this. There's no substitute for hard work. A: "Why would I deal from the bottom of the deck?" B: "Because you want to cut me out of the profits from our shared invention, that's why!"