3 Card Monte

Three card monte is a con game similar to the shell game. It involves a set of three cards and usually a gamble of an amount of money. In three card Monte, a con man, known as an inside man, tricks a victim, known as a mark, with the help of an outside man. The trick is often executed on an unsuspecting mark through a sleight of hand by the inside man. It is also known as triples, three-card marney, three-card shuffle, and three-card trick.

• How To Play 3 Card Monte
• 3 Card Monte Gif

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2. This is the classic 3 card monte played all across the world, from the streets of La Rambla in Barcelona, to the Bronx in New York. How high is your score? Features: - Relaxed, fun theme - Easy to start, but then it gets difficult over longer periods of time - Simple gameplay - Tutorial included.
3. The three card monte magic trick is one of THE most famous card tricks in history. It’s definitely a trick that every magician should learn sooner or later. But there’s so many different versions of the three card monte that it’s hard to know where to begin.

A confidence game, three card monte is best performed when the mark gains confidence in his ability to win, or confidence in an outside man. The outside man is usually an accomplice of the inside man, a fact unknown to the mark.

Dec 22, 2015 As soon as we saw it was obvious to us it was a three-card monte scam, where in fact there were around 4-5 scammers ‘playing’, 2-3 scouts (looking for cops) and then actually only really 1 or 2 ‘marks’.

Three card monte is played with three playing cards. Any cards can be used, though aces and queens are popular choices. The ace of spades, a card favored by many, is a card often used by dealers because of its lucky connotations. Accompanying cards may also be any cards, though they are also usually face cards, and a different face than the target card.

The 'game' is performed when the dealer shows the mark the target card. It is then placed faced down on a table with the other two cards and shuffled on the table, in sight. The mark must then identify the face down target card correctly to win the game and the bet. However, through the sleight of hand, the card thought to be the target card by the mark is revealed as wrong, and the stakes are lost.

A three card monte game relies on the act of other people as well as the tricks of the inside man. The games are often performed on streets and in basements or bars by a dealer with friends. The friends pretend not to know the dealer, and act as winners or losers in the three card monte game. Winning will increase the confidence of the unsuspecting mark and losing will make the mark think he can outperform the losers in what seems to be an easy task.

The most popular type of three card monte trick used by the dealer to fool the mark is “the throw.” The throw is executed by a sleight of hand in which the selected card is revealed wrongly to the mark. When the mark picks a target card that he believes has won him the bet, the dealer picks up all three cards, two with one hand, and one card with the other hand. The hand with two cards must include the one chosen, which is generally the correct target card.

A losing card is picked up face down, and then a winning card is picked up face down with the same hand. The winning and chosen card should now be under a losing card. The dealer then flips the top losing card from his hand, face up unto the table. The trick is for the dealer to give the illusion that it was flipped from the bottom, and was therefore the card that was chosen. But the top card was a losing card, and the winning card remains in the dealer’s hand. The mark has lost the bet and is none the wiser.

This is not really a game, but a scam or swindle. Three Card Monte is the American name for it. In Britain it is usually called Find the Lady, and the equivalent French game is Bonneteau.

The appearance of the game is simple. It is played between the dealer (or tosser), who manipulates the cards and takes the bets, and the punter, a more or less gullible member of the public who places a bet on the game in the (unrealistic) hope of winning some money.

The dealer has three cards, one of which is a queen. These cards are shown to the punter and then simultaneously thrown face-down on a table. The punter is invited to bet on which card is the queen. The dealer will employ various tricks, often with the help of accomplices, to ensure that the punter loses.

Normally the operators of the game work as a team:

• The Tosser (dealer) is the sleight of hand man who mixes the cards and takes the bets
• The Shills are accomplices who pose as punters making bets, to give real punters the impression that the game can be beaten
• The Lookout watches for cops (police) and signals their approach so that the game can be 'folded up' quickly
• The Muscle Man takes care of anyone who decides to complain
• The Roper seeks out likely punters and encourages them to join the game

There are many techniques of sleight of hand that the Tosser may use to induce the punter to select the wrong card. If you do happen to bet on the right card, the Tosser may employ various tactics, such as accepting instead a wrong bet from a Shill and refusing your bet on the grounds that only one bet can be taken at a time, or swapping the cards while your attention is distracted, or simply arranging for the table to be knocked over and declaring the deal void.

Bonneteau

This description of the French version of the game was contributed by Jean-Pierre Coulon.

Bonneteau is described here as a warning to card enthusiasts visiting France, who might lose about 1000 French francs (150 Euro) within minutes if they happen to join such a game.

This game is often played in the street on a 'table' made with a stack of two packing cases. Only three cards are needed, two from a black suit, and one from a red suit (or the opposite). The cards are slightly bent around their long axis, in a way similar to Mediterranean tiles, to facilitate their picking up from the 'table'. Hence the name Bonneteau, a little cap.

The 'dealer' shows all three cards to you, lays them face-down on the 'table', and rapidly picks up one card with his left hand and the other two in his right hand, and drops them back on the table at new positions. He repeats this scheme a couple of times. Now you have to bet the position of the card which is alone in its suit. In other words this is a contest between your eyes and the 'dealer's' hands. A typical bet is 200 French francs.

How To Play 3 Card Monte

You will easily win the first few deals, but afterwards you won't win a single one, because the 'dealer' uses the following trick. There are two cards in his right hand. The upper card is held between his thumb and his forefinger, and the lower card is held between his thumb and his middle finger, with a small gap (a few millimeters) between both cards. According to common sense, the 'dealer' should drop the lower card first, but his forefinger surreptitiously ejects the upper card first, which causes you to lose track of the right card. This is especially difficult to see if the 'dealer's' hand makes a sweeping move from his left side to his right side while he drops the cards.

One variation is as follows. An accomplice diverts the dealer's attention, taps your shoulder, and bends a corner of the right card, to help you following it. But the dealer has a trick to simultaneously unbend this card, and bend the other card he is holding in the same hand.

Strategy

Don't play it! Do not think you will win because you know the trick - you would be in great danger. Do not be misled by noticing some players who quit the game after some winnings. They are accomplices of the dealer - a part of the swindle.

You may play the game with your friends provided:

3 Card Monte Gif

• no real money is involved.
• you explain the trick afterwards.