WEBVTT - How do big city shell and three-card monte games work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff front house, stuff works dot com where

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<v Speaker 1>smart happens. Hi. I'm Marshall Brain with today's question, how

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<v Speaker 1>do big city shell games and three card Monty games

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<v Speaker 1>actually work? If you go to any big city like

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<v Speaker 1>New York City and you walk around on the city

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<v Speaker 1>streets for a while, you are bound to come upon

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<v Speaker 1>a table where somebody is doing either shell games or

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<v Speaker 1>three card Monty games for money. These games have actually

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<v Speaker 1>been around in some form for hundreds of years, but

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<v Speaker 1>they still wrote people in today, especially tourists and big cities.

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<v Speaker 1>Both games are based on the same basic idea keep

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<v Speaker 1>your eye on the target, while the dealer, called the

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<v Speaker 1>tosser in this sort of game, mixes it up and

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<v Speaker 1>moves the cups around or the cards around to try

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<v Speaker 1>to confuse you. In three card Monty, the tosser uses

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<v Speaker 1>playing cards, typically the Red Queen and two random black cards.

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<v Speaker 1>The cards are creased down the middle so they form

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<v Speaker 1>a little tent shape. The tosser shows the player all

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<v Speaker 1>three cards face up and then drops them face down

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<v Speaker 1>on the table. He or she slides the cards around

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<v Speaker 1>on the table, switching their positions rapidly. The player tries

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<v Speaker 1>to track the position of the queen as the tosser

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<v Speaker 1>moves it around. When the tosser stops, the player makes

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<v Speaker 1>a bet and guesses the position of the queen on

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<v Speaker 1>the table. In the shell game, the tosser lays three

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<v Speaker 1>half shells or cups face down on the table and

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<v Speaker 1>slips a ball or a p or a coin or

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<v Speaker 1>something underneath one of the cups. Then here she slides

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<v Speaker 1>the shells around while the player tries to track the

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<v Speaker 1>shell with the p under it. As in three card Monty,

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<v Speaker 1>the player makes a bet, say twenty bucks, and guesses

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<v Speaker 1>where the ball is. So is there any way to

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<v Speaker 1>in these games? In most cases, no, there's not. The

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<v Speaker 1>games are riggs, so you can't win. In many shell games,

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<v Speaker 1>the ball isn't under any of the shells. There are

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<v Speaker 1>a few different ways of staging this. In one of

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<v Speaker 1>the most common approaches, the tosser covers the table with

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<v Speaker 1>pieces of newspaper. Then, when the game is in play,

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<v Speaker 1>he or she lifts the shell as it slides over

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<v Speaker 1>the edge of one newspaper sheet. The ball rolls under

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<v Speaker 1>the newspaper sheet and the tosser keeps shuffling. There is

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<v Speaker 1>no winning shell on the table In the classic three

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<v Speaker 1>card Monty scam, the red Queen does stay on the table,

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<v Speaker 1>but the tosser leads the player away from it. When

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<v Speaker 1>the tosser shows the cards, he or she holds a

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<v Speaker 1>black card in one hand and a black card and

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<v Speaker 1>the red Queen in the other hand. This black card

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<v Speaker 1>is held between the thumb and the middle finger, and

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<v Speaker 1>the queen is held in front of it between the

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<v Speaker 1>thumb and the ring finger. When the queen is in front,

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<v Speaker 1>the player a wombs that the tosser drops it first,

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<v Speaker 1>but in fact, the tosser releases the black card first

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<v Speaker 1>while moving his or her hand to the side. This

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<v Speaker 1>moves the queen out of the way so the black

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<v Speaker 1>card can fall straight down. The tosser does this so

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<v Speaker 1>quickly that spectators never noticed, so from the very beginning,

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<v Speaker 1>everybody is tracking the wrong card. In most cases, this

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<v Speaker 1>sleight of hand is actually the simplest part of this scam.

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<v Speaker 1>Most card and show games are very elaborate operations, involving

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<v Speaker 1>several crew members. In addition to the tosser. The scam

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<v Speaker 1>depends on a lookout to keep an eye out for police,

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<v Speaker 1>a roper to bring in potential players, and one or

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<v Speaker 1>more shills to get people to play, the show blends

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<v Speaker 1>in as part of the crowd. In fact, the show

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<v Speaker 1>will appear to be the opposite of the tosser. If

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<v Speaker 1>the tosser is wearing a dirty T shirt and a

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<v Speaker 1>baseball cap, the shell might be dressed in a suit,

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<v Speaker 1>carrying a briefcase or a nice dress, something like that.

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<v Speaker 1>The show's job is to act as a player or

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<v Speaker 1>as an involved spectator before others joined the game, The

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<v Speaker 1>tosser lets one of the shills win a couple of

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<v Speaker 1>times to make it look like this is an easy game.

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<v Speaker 1>The tosser doesn't switch the cards or ditch the ball

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<v Speaker 1>or anything like that, so the game looks easy to

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<v Speaker 1>anybody who's watching. When people see the show winning so

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<v Speaker 1>easily or losing by making dumb decisions, they want to

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<v Speaker 1>play themselves. But even if you're armed with all this knowledge,

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<v Speaker 1>you still can't beat this game. If you see the

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<v Speaker 1>card switch, track the right card and put money down

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<v Speaker 1>on the actual queen, one of the shills will just

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<v Speaker 1>put down a higher bet on another card, and the

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<v Speaker 1>tosser will say one bet at a time and nullify

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<v Speaker 1>your bet, or the show might bump the table and

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<v Speaker 1>that will knock everything off the table and void the game,

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<v Speaker 1>or the tosser might suddenly spot the police and pack

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<v Speaker 1>the game up. So no matter what happens, in most cases,

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<v Speaker 1>there really is no way to win these games. The

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<v Speaker 1>crew is only out to take money, never to give

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<v Speaker 1>any of it up. Obviously, the moral of this story

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<v Speaker 1>is to never play shell games or three card Monty

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<v Speaker 1>games that you see on the streets in any big

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<v Speaker 1>city for moralness and thousands of other topics. Is that

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