Three-card Monte — also known as Find the Lady and Three-card Trick — is a confidence game in which the victim, or "mark", is tricked into betting a sum of money, on the assumption that they can find the "money card" among three face-down playing cards. It is very similar to the shell game except that cards are used instead of shells. In its full form, Three-card Monte is an example of a classic " short con " [2] 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.
The mark has no chance whatsoever of winning, at any point in the game. In fact, anyone who is observed winning anything in the game can be presumed to be a shill. This confidence trick was already in use by the turn of the 15th century. The Three-card Monte game itself is very simple.
To play, a dealer places three cards face down on a table, usually on a cardboard box which provides the ability to set up and disappear quickly. The player is then given an opportunity to select one of the three cards. 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. Since there are only three cards, the jack of spades and jack of clubs often complement the "money card", which is usually a queen.
Sometimes the ace of spades is used as the money card, since in some cultures 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, it is likely that a number of other players will be seen winning and losing money at the game. The people engaged in playing the game are often 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, 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. Eventually, if the mark enters the game, they will be cheated through any number of methods. An example of a simple scheme involves a dealer and two shills:. Dealers employ sleight of hand [7] and misdirection to prevent the mark from finding the queen.
