How to Run the Three-card Monte Hustle

You need twenty-five dollars, a deck of cards, and a newspaper to get started.

First, take the newspaper and cut it into strips the size of dollar bills. When there are about one hundred of these strips, dip them into tea and wait until they dry. The tea stains the edges of the strips of newspaper and makes them turn a light green, like the edges of dollar bills. Wrap a twenty-dollar bill around the outside of the wad of tea-soaked newspaper. This is the Tosser's roll. With the twenty on the outside, it looks like he's holding a large bankroll.

The Tosser? Oh, I forgot to tell you, it takes three guys to run the game. There is a Shill, a Watcher and a Tosser. The Tosser has three cards, one of which is a red queen. These cards are shown to the crowd or "tip" and then thrown face-down on a playing area in front of the Tosser. The object of the game is to "find the red queen" which is wherever the Tosser wants it to be. He either deals from the bottom of the deck: making you think the first card he throws down is the winning card when it is not, or he works the "four for three," a simple sleight-of-hand maneuver by which there appear to be only three cards in his hand when there are actually four. The Tosser plays the game, the Shill makes bets and the Watcher keeps an eye open for the law, and also steps in if there is trouble with a Mark.

You'll start as a Shill.

Here's how it works: the Tosser gives you two code phrases, let's say, "Walk right in" and "Cop center broad." When he says, "Walk right in," you place a bet and pick up the card closest to you. If he says, "Cop center broad" you pick up the card in the center of the three.

You have to listen closely, because the Tosser will say this as part of the oration he gives while running the game; "Find the lucky lady; five will get you ten, walk right in...."

We work the game with the Shill, Watcher and Tosser all hunkered around the cards like they are playing. The public thinks that the Tosser is an independent operator, and that you are just another citizen. The Watcher usually looks like some homeless guy who is observing this game because he has nothing else to do.