Three-card Monte
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Three-card Monte, also known as the Three-card marney, Three-card trick, Three-card shuffle, Follow the lady, Find the lady, or Follow the Bee is a confidence game in which the victim, or mark, is tricked into betting a sum of money that he can find the money card, for example the queen of spades, among three face-down playing cards. In its full form, the three-card Monte is an example of a classic short con in which the outside man pretends to conspire with the mark to cheat the inside man, while in fact conspiring with the inside man to cheat the mark.

This confidence trick has a great deal in common with the shell game.

Contents

Rules

The three-card Monte game itself is very simple. To play, a dealer places three cards face down on a table. (The table is often nothing more than a cardboard box, providing the ability to set up and disappear quickly.) The dealer shows that one of the cards is the target card, for example, the Queen of Spades, and then rearranges the cards quickly to confuse the player about which card is which. The player is then given an opportunity to select one of the three cards. If the player correctly identifies the Queen of Spades, he wins an amount equal to the stake he bets; otherwise, he loses his stake.

Usual card selection

Since there are only three cards, the Jack of Spades and Jack of Clubs often complement the "money card", which is usually a Queen. The Queen is often a Red card, typically the Queen of Hearts. Sometimes the Ace of Spades is used as the money card, since the Ace of Spades is viewed as lucky, which might lure the mark into playing the game.

Drawing a player in

When the mark arrives at the three-card Monte game, he is likely to see a number of other players winning and losing money at the game. The people engaged in playing the game are invariably shills, confederates of the dealer who pretend to play so as to give the illusion of a straight gambling game.

As the mark watches the game, he is likely to notice that he can follow the queen more easily than the shills seem to be able to, which sets him up to believe that he can beat the game.

Eventually, if the mark enters the game, he will be cheated through any number of methods:

  • An example of a simple scheme involves a dealer and two shills, all of whom act as if they do not know each other. The mark will come upon a game being conducted in a seemingly clandestine manner, perhaps with somebody "looking out" for police. The dealer will be engaged in his role, with the first shill betting money. The first shill may be winning, leading the mark to observe that easy money may be had, or losing, leading the mark to observe that he could beat the game and win money where the first shill is losing it.
  • While the mark is watching, the second shill, acting as if he is a casual passerby like the mark, will casually engage a mark in conversation regarding the game, commenting on either how easily the first shill is winning or how he is losing money because he cannot win at what appears to the mark to be a simple game. This conversation is engineered to implicitly encourage the mark to play, and it is possible the second shill could resort to outright encouragement.
  • If the mark does not enter the game, the dealer may claim to see police and will fold up his operation and restart it elsewhere. Or, he will wait for another mark to appear on the scene.
  • If the mark enters the game, he may be "had" (cheated) by a number of techniques. A common belief is that the operator may let the mark win a couple of bets to suck them in, but this is virtually never true. In a true Monte scam, the mark is unlikely to ever win a single bet; it is simply not necessary. There are just too many ways for a well-run mob to attract the mark, suck him in, and convince him to put his money down.
  • When the dealer and his shills have taken the mark, a lookout, the dealer, or a shill acting as an observer will claim to have spotted the police. The dealer will quickly pack up the game and he and the shills will disperse.

How it is done

Dealers employ sleight of hand[1] and misdirection to prevent the mark from finding the queen. Several moves are in common use.

The throw

In the throw, the dealer holds 2 cards facing out in one hand. He then holds them over the table facing down and tricks the victim that he is dropping the bottom-most card when in reality he is throwing the top card over it. He does this by holding each of the 2 cards with the same thumb but pinching with the index on on the top card and middle finger on the bottom one. He then swings the top card around with his index finger.

Done properly, the throw is virtually undetectable; even shills can't reliably follow cards through the throw. Three card Monte crews use secret signals so that the dealer can tell the shills where the queen is.[1]

The throw accounts for the characteristic sideways motion of the dealer's hands as he moves the cards around on the table.

The Mexican turnover

If a mark should happen to pick the queen when the dealer doesn't want him to, the dealer can use a Mexican turnover to exchange it with another card.[1] First, the dealer picks up another card—not the one that the mark has chosen. He holds it by a corner between his thumb and forefinger, and slides it under the chosen card—ostensibly in order to turn over the chosen card. In fact, as the two cards come vertical, he shifts his grip from the unchosen card to the chosen card, taking the chosen card away in his hand and leaving the unchosen card to fall face up on the table. Like the throw, a properly executed Mexican turnover is virtually undetectable.

Historic

  • It was taking a victim with three-card Monte, on July 7, 1898, that caused the shooting death, two days later, of infamous con man Soapy Smith [2].

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Penn Jillette, radio interview, NPR, ca. 2000
  2. ^ Sauerwein, Stan (2005), Soapy Smith, Skagway's Scourge of the Klondike 

External links
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