“So now you know what we do here on Saturday,” he said. An example of a simple scheme involves a dealer and two shills: Dealers employ sleight of hand and misdirection to prevent the mark from finding the queen. “You are very strong!”. As Mr. Deutsch continued to entertain the children, Sol Stone performed tricks for their parents, Jim and Leigh Logan, who were visiting from Maryland. The player is then given an opportunity to select one of the three cards. Many of the participants have been friends for decades. The dealer and shills act as if they do not know each other. The dealer will never accept a winning bid from a mark. To increase the mark's motivation to bet, they will also employ standard strategies such as having the dealer be slightly abrasive or rude, so there is even more reason to want to take their money. It has to do with the way the cards are held and tossed to the table. On another Saturday, a customer at Fantasma was learning a trick from Steve Dane, who works there. In Canada, under section 206(1) of the criminal code, it is illegal to do the following in relation to the three-card Monte: Receive bets 2008-2016 © Policy :: Contact us max@gambiter.com. The event honors the master magician John Calvert, who turns 100 in August. “That’s exasperating,” she responded, “that magicians never explain!”, Steve Cohen’s Chamber Magic® At The Magnificent Lotte New York Palace hotel, ©2020 Chambermagic.com, All Rights Reserved. At a performance in London, magician Ricky Jay demonstrates three-card monte in his one-man show, Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants, which premiered Off … Everything the Monte mob does is geared towards creating that mindset in the mark. “I still come down about 45 weeks a year. In Canada, under section 206(1) of the criminal code, it is illegal to do the following in relation to the three-card Monte: They are indictable offences, with a maximum penalty of two years in prison. The queen is often a red card, typically the queen of hearts. Newcomers may first have to show that their interest is genuine, but for an art based on secrecy, most of the magicians are generous about helping anyone who wanders in and wants to learn to amaze. Mr. Stone continued making the spots change, at one point “borrowing” a spot from the woman’s sleeve to change a four to a five and back again. At Tannen’s, the oldest local shop, aficionados pop in for magic jam sessions. He opened his hand to reveal that the quarter was now bent. The dealer will be engaged in his role, with the first shill betting money. “Are you strong?” he said to Savannah, displaying a quarter in his hand. “It’s like the medieval guild system in action, where apprentices learn from masters,” said Jack Diamond, a former mathematics professor who is a regular there. The dealer will quickly pack up the game and disperse along with the shills. This form needs Javascript to display, which your browser doesn't support. This is my recreation. Jamy Ian Swiss, a magician specializing in card tricks, demonstrated the monte dealer's sleight of hand, accompanied by a distracting, rhyming patter, and relieved Mr. Ford of his cash. You belong to a club?”, Mr. Stone replied: “Did anybody show you any magic? One of the biggest selling packet card tricks in magic based on this classic gambling plot is Color Monte, marketed by Emerson and West in 1974 with a … If the mark does not enter the game, the dealer may claim to see police and will fold up the operation and restart it elsewhere, or will wait for another mark to appear on the scene. Liu Chen, a Taiwanese sensation, will perform, as will the quick-change specialists David & Dania. It is the same as the shell game except that cards are used instead of shells. As the mark watches the game, they are likely to notice that they can follow the queen more easily than the shills seem to be able to, which sets them up to believe that they can win the game. Thus, having done so, and while mixing up the cards, the mark will be following the wrong card from the beginning. MAJOR SUPPORT FOR AMERICAN MASTERS PROVIDED BY, "I probably learned from Charlie Miller more about how to refine practice …. Fantasma is also the organizer of this weekend’s convention, Magic on Manhattan. In its full form, three-card Monte is an example of a classic "short con" in which a shill pretends to conspire with the mark to cheat the dealer, while in fact conspiring with the dealer to cheat the mark. Jay is part of the continuum of sleight-of-hand artists, whose tradition goes back more than a century. Then, holding a die firmly between his thumb and forefinger, he showed the side with one spot and said, “If I rub the one, it becomes a six.” Magically, it did. “We are intrigued,” she said. Another variation is for the dealer to look away, and while occupied, one of the shills will quickly put the crimp in the money card. During the course of tossing the cards, the dealer "accidentally" drops the cards, resulting in a corner of the money card having a slight bend in it. Mr. Deutsch gave the boy’s finger a squeeze, and it squeaked. The psychology of the con is to increase the mark's confidence until they believe they have a special ability to cheat the dealer and win easy money. NY Times article: Sleight of Hand in Midtown, Beyond Three Card Monte June 24, 2011. by Herb Scher. Mr. Dane showed the customer how, inevitably, the spectator picks the card that says, “You will make passionate love to a clown.” When the spectator looks up after reading the card, the magician is wearing a clown nose. If the mark enters the game, they may be "had" (cheated) by a number of techniques. While various moves have been devised for Monte, there is one basic move which is overwhelmingly used with virtually all Monte games. The three-card Monte is performed in card magic tricks with minor or major variations that manipulate the use of gimmick cards, and other sleight-of-hand techniques. Sol Stone, too, was there, at a table in the back covered not with plates and pizza crusts but with cards, coins, rings and other tools of legerdemain. They gather at magic stores and at a Midtown Manhattan pizza restaurant, Cafe Rustico II, the site for an informal weekly meeting that began decades ago and continues as a proving ground and social club. This is the key: although it appears that the dealer is tossing the lowermost card to the table, in actuality they can toss either the top or the bottom card at will. Since there are only three cards, the jack of spades and jack of clubs often complement the "money card", which is usually a queen. He stood up with a pair of dice and said, “If you’ve ever played board games or gambled with dice, you may have noticed that the opposite sides of the die add up to seven.” He showed various combinations to illustrate this. If the player correctly identifies the target card, the player gets the amount bet (the "stake") back, plus the same amount again; otherwise, the stake is lost. In this variation, the mark will be even more reluctant to complain about having lost money, as doing so would reveal that they intended to cheat the dealer. The dealer shows that one of the cards is the target card, e.g., the queen of hearts, and then rearranges the cards quickly to confuse the player about which card is which. “Bravo,” the woman who had inquired said. When the dealer and the shills have taken the mark, a lookout, the dealer, or a shill acting as an observer will claim to have spotted the police. In other words, the mark puts down money on the right card, at which point a shill will immediately place a double bet on top of the card, thereby winning the "right" to play that round. “You all work in the same area? Jerry Deutsch, a gregarious regular, spotted a family with two young children having lunch at Rustico’s and approached their table. This conversation is engineered to implicitly encourage the mark to play, and it is possible the second shill could resort to outright encouragement. Variation in card magic. It helps to use identical cards as losing cards, because it makes the sleight of hand harder for spectators to detect. ", Subscribe to the American Masters Newsletter, More From Ricky Jay: Deceptive Practice (11), Clip | Art Spiegelman and Ricky Jay in Conversation: Web Exclusive, Clip | Ricky Jay on Ways of Learning: Books and Teachers, Clip | Charlie Miller, Mentor to Ricky Jay, Ricky Jay’s Magician Mentors and Inspirations, Clip | Filmmaker Interview with Molly Bernstein, Art Spiegelman and Ricky Jay in Conversation: Web Exclusive, Ricky Jay on Ways of Learning: Books and Teachers. 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. “What’s on your finger?” he asked Avery Logan, 7. For those serious about mastering magic, the Rustico’s group can be an important resource. Although most earn their living through other means — Mr. Stone is a retired psychologist — the group has fostered professionals like Steve Cohen, who attended in the 1980s when he was a teenager and the group met at a deli. You’ll begin by laying out the cards. 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 they could beat the game and win money where the first shill is losing it. This presents no problem at all for the mob; if the mark picks the right card, one of the shills will simply post a higher bid, which the dealer immediately accepts, announcing that they will accept only the highest bid. Saturdays typically find conjurers getting together to talk shop and share tricks. Two losers, and one winner. The dealer will pick up one of the cards with one hand, and two with the other. When the mark arrives at the three-card Monte game, it is likely that a number of other players will be seen winning and losing money at the game. The "bent corner ploy" is one of the classic scams in three-card Monte, and is used if the mob thinks a mark can be had for more money, or needs more convincing to put some money down. Either way, the dealer pretends not to notice, this perhaps being made more plausible by having the dealer wear thick glasses. The mark will come upon a game being conducted in a seemingly clandestine manner, perhaps with somebody "looking out" for police. For this tutorial, let’s say you are using the 5 of clubs for both losing cards, and the queen of hearts for the money card. “The cards read, ‘You will meet a mysterious stranger’ or ‘You will be very happy’ or ‘You will take an exciting trip’ or ‘You will make a lot of money.’ ”. Inevitably, once in a while the mark will manage to find the correct location of the card by pure chance. In addition to talks, there will be a roster of top-flight acts, including several rarely seen locally, in two shows open to the public at the Hotel Pennsylvania. Assuming the mark bets on the card with the bent corner, the dealer will tell the mark to turn it over (so there can be no accusations of card-switching), revealing that it is not the money card after all, but one of the loser cards. It has all the hallmarks of the con; the cards are slightly curved, the corners have been bent and the dealer has the cash in hand to conceal any sleight-of-hand. For those who wish to learn some sleight of hand to perform the three card monte, Theatre Magic has you covered! Some magicians circulate among the scenes at Rustico’s and two of the city’s major magic stores, all in a Midtown magic zone, within a few blocks of Herald Square. Smith's associates grabbed the gold and ran when Stewart was reluctant to pay up. A woman leaving Rustico’s with a friend was curious about the nature of the gathering. Of course, if the mark picks the wrong card, the dealer takes the bid and the money.