Guess where the red ace is...
Bartmanhomer said:
And what about Three-Card Monte and what are the rules for playing that game?
Three-card monte is just another version of the shell game
. The dealer lays out three cards in a line. Two are black aces and the remaining one is a red ace. All the cards are bent into an inverted V-shape to facilitate rapid movement, and cheating as you're about to find out.
The object of the game is to guess where the red ace is. It begins with the dealer showing how the cards are situated: the two black aces on the outside, with the red ace in the middle
. Next the dealer shuffles the order of the cards in a figure-eight configuration. As this is occuring, the bets are layed...in this case, the winner gets to tickle the loser
, with the duration being the ante. Finally, the player picks where the red ace is.
Sounds simple, right? Well, here's the rub:
it's a con game . There are actually
four cards on the table, an additional black ace is stacked on top of one of the other black aces. As the cards are being shuffled, the hand movements hide the fact that the dealer has 'dropped' a black ace and subsequently stacks the red ace atop one of the other cards. This means that no matter which card is picked, it will always turn up as a black ace
. To further distract the player is the timing of the bet, notice that it occurs during the shuffle. Unless you're conscious of the fact, you will tend to look away when making decisions about the ante
.
This con requires skill and practice with sleight of hand.