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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.

Contents 1 Rules 2 Usual card selection 3 Drawing a player in 4 How it is really done 4.1 The throw 4.2 The hype 4.3 The Mexican turnover 4.4 Capping 5 Historic 6 See also 7 External links 8 References 9 Notes

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.

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.

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. If you walk up to such a game, the chances are good that everyone there except for you is a member of the mob. This may seem far-fetched; after all, the contestants may be a single woman with a child in a stroller, a street-looking guy, an accountant-type in a suit, and an older man. The truth is that they all dress in different roles for the very reason that they wish to appear to be random people.

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, with him and the shills will disperse.

More complicated schemes will invariably involve more shills, perhaps serving as look-outs, observers, or gamblers.

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

In the throw, the dealer holds the cards lengthwise by their top and bottom edges, with the face of each card oriented away from the hand that is holding it. One card is held in his left hand, a second is held in his right hand between the thumb and the middle finger, and a third above it between thumb and forefinger (index finger). Both hands are tilted up to reveal their identities to the mark and shill(s) standing opposite the dealer, clearly showing that one of the two cards held in the right hand is the queen of hearts. All three cards are tossed face down, onto the table, one at a time, and placed side-by-side in several smooth motions. As they are dropped, the dealer moves his right hand sideways to separate the two cards. However, at this stage the sleight, called "the hype," occurs—while the mark thinks the lower card has fallen first, the top card has in fact been pushed out slightly early, swapping the positions of these two cards.

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.

After the dealer uses the throw and has the mark following the wrong card, he sometimes uses another move called the hype. While all the cards are face-down, the dealer picks up the money card and the obvious losing card in the same hand (holding the winning card on top and hiding the winning card from view). He then shows the losing card and throws the top (winning card) on to the table. Then he shows the same single losing card again and drops it down. This move is done for the mark to reassure himself that he indeed knows where the money card is.

This move only works if the dealer uses the same losing cards (e.g. queen of hearts, two of clubs and two of clubs) so the mark won't notice the dealer shown the same card twice.

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. However, this move is rarely used on the street today. There is little need for it as capping is used instead.

If the mark bets money on the winning card, the dealer can signal a shill to cap the mark's bet. The shill places a bet on the table of an amount higher than the mark. Then, the dealer can simply say "I have to take the higher bet" and the monte gang won't lose any of their money. This action also encourages the mark to get more money in his hand to bet since he must have the highest bet. Also, the mark can be forced to bet much more than he normally would on the wrong card (e.g. when the bent corner scam is being used).

• 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^{[citation needed]}.

• Shell game
• Soapy Smith

• Detailed step by step on how to perform the Three Card Monte
• Epinions review of Three Card Monte
• Video showing Three card Monte trick with cards

• Notes on Three-Card Monte by Whit Haydn
• Periquillo Sarniento by José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi (1816). Published in English as The Itching Parrot (Doubleday, 1942).

v • d • e Confidence tricks and con artists
Terminology	Confidence trick · Mark · Shill · Sucker list
Notable confidence tricks	Advance fee fraud · Badger game · Black money scam · Bogus escrow · Clip joint · Drop Swindle · Embarrassing cheque · Employment scams · Hustling · Penny-and-dime scam · Pig in a poke · Pigeon drop · Reloading scam · Shell game · Slavery reparations scam · Spanish Prisoner · Thai gem scam · Three-card Monte · White van speakers
Pyramid schemes	Ponzi scheme · Pyramid scheme · Dona Branca · Caritas · Charles Ponzi · Bernard Cornfeld · Foundation for New Era Philanthropy · High-yield investment program · Investors Overseas Service · MMM · Make money fast · Reed Slatkin
Notable con artists	Frank Abagnale · Storme Aerison · Tino De Angelis · Philip Arnold · Nicky Arnstein · Lou Blonger · Ed "Big Ed" Burns · David "Race" Bannon · Matthew Cox · Louis Enricht · Billie Sol Estes · Arthur Ferguson · Peter Foster · Oscar Hartzell · Kenny Kimes · Sante Kimes · Henri Lemoine · Victor Lustig · Gregor MacGregor · George C. Parker · Steven Jay Russell · Soapy Smith · Titanic Thompson · William Thompson · Joseph Weil · Fictional con artists