Three Card Monty

kurchatovium · Apr 30, 2003

I get on the bus today to go home and when we get into valley this guy gets on and starts a variation of the old "Three Card Monty" game. People are lining up like crazy to get swindled out of their money. For those that don't know "Three Card Monty" is played with three cards one of which is different than other two. The goal is to pick the different card. Usually they use two Kings and Queen. Of course the guy shuffling the cards always palms the different card and replaces with another card thats the same so there is no way to actually win. Its kind of the card version of the old shell game. I am posting this because I can't believe this is 21st century and people are still lining up to be swindled by this same stupid old gag. I can forsee a day where we have evolved into pure energy and have mastered interdimensional travel and there will still be a entity shuffling around three cards swindling highly evolved beings out of their money.

sole seeker · May 1, 2003

Yeah, there's a sucker born every minute. Unfortunately he's never standing next to me when his wallet is open!

I saw a television show once where a character defeated a three-card-monte artist by choosing her first card, but before she turned it over she said, "Well, I know it's not this one!". Then before she turned over the second card she said, "And I'm pretty sure it's not this one!". Since both cards matched, the con artist had to pay off because either the unshown card was the winner, or he was cheating.

I don't see why this wouldn't work in real life.