Welcome Back To The Underworld Academy!
In This Lesson – The Three Card Monte Trick
There is an art involved in a successful Three Card Monte Trick just as there is in any good confidence game. Practice is required to train your hands to be quick enough so that you can keep track of the “One-Eyed Jack” but not so clumsy as to be SEEN keeping track of the “One-Eyed Jack.”
You need a surface where the cards can glide over the surface but with enough grab to keep steady control over them. You have to have a patter, a spiel that you are comfortable with, to chat up the most jaded passersby and tourists who are looking for a walk on the wild side.
And you have to have an authentic personality. You’ve got to be able to put people at ease quickly. People can distrust the GAME, but they have to be comfortable with you. As they say, if you can fake that….
You’ll need to be the lovable rogue who is engaging, with just a hint of excitement, but who is still fallible. In order for the game to succeed, you have to be able to be beat.
You will lose, and lose often. You’ll be good-natured to show that there are no hard feelings. You win some and you lose some. You will be sharp, well-practiced, and patient. And you WILL lose, but you won’t ever be beat.
At this point, the game hasn’t even started yet, because the trick of a good confidence game isn’t in the game, but in the confidence.
In a crowded city where you present an engaging and talkative figure, people WILL notice you, but they won’t be lining up to give their money away, which is fine. What would be the fun in that anyway?
The crowd will form once people begin to play and win.
For a successful Three-Card Monte scam to work, you have to start slow and a little clumsy, just to let your mark know that they have a chance at winning. You might even drop a card or two. The crowd will be skeptical, as they should be, but they’ll start to like you.
In the back of the audience a fresh-faced, likable girl will push to the front of the crowd and asks for a chance to find the jack. Before she throws around her money, however, she’ll want to inspect the cards, to make sure that everything is on the up-and-up. And you’ll oblige!
The girl may or may not lose the first round, but she certainly wins the second or third. After that she is absolutely unstoppable and only steps aside once you firmly-but-kindly ask her to so someone else can have a chance.
She WILL step aside, but only long enough to put the CON in “Confidence Game.” The girl will pull aside someone from the crowd and tell them that there is a tiny lipstick smudge on the left top corner of the jack’s card. She put it there and asks if they want to help her out-hustle this street hustler.
Being a fair and upstanding crowd, they will most probably be inclined to tell her to “shove off,” but even if they don’t, not to worry. Things won’t get that far.
You WILL overhear her and you WILL be offended. “I run an honest game, here, lady, and I won’t be cheated.” Wiping off your cards and replacing them, you’ll tell the crowd that he only wants to play a game that’s “fair and square,” and if that isn’t them, then you’ll gladly move on.
The girl will apologize profusely for having cheated this fair street hustler and beg his forgiveness. You’ll mull this over while the crowd warms up and forgives this innocent child for her momentary lapse in judgment. After that, all is forgiven, a good time is had by all, and feelings are restored.
And sheep are fleeced! Just remember in order to keep a nice profit margin, you should cut in the fresh-faced girl for no more than forty percent.