How street hustlers work “finding the lady”


In common parlance, street hustlers are simply known as conmen.  And because they are conmen, their job is to try to trick their marks, which is slang for victims, into entrusting them some considerable amount of money.

Street hustlers are traditionally associated with the game “Find the Lady,” which is also known as “The Three-Card Shuffle,” “The Three-Card Monte” or “Follow the Bee.”  The rules of Find the Lady, when played straight, is actually very simple.  The dealer, the role taken by street hustlers, puts three cards face down on the table.  Two of these cards are often the Jack of Spades and the Jack of Clubs.  The third card is the money card, and it is usually the Queen of Hearts, hence the name “Find the Lady.”  These three cards are rearranged on the table by the dealer and afterwards the player is allowed to pick the card which he believes is the money card or the Lady.

How do street hustlers work this game?  The principle that street hustlers use to successfully con money from marks through “Find the Lady” is summed up in this saying: “You cannot cheat an honest man.”  street hustlers play on the vanity, the gullibility and the greed of the mark to con some money out of him.

Street hustlers never operate a rigged game of “Find the Lady” on their own.  They always have at least a couple of accomplices, called shills, to helm them.  These shills pretend that they do not know the dealer and each other.  They are even dressed up to appear that they come from different backgrounds.  Some of the shills act like they are winning the game, while some make a show of losing the game.  All this is to make it seem to possible marks that the game is a straight one rather than one being run by street hustlers.

Once one such mark shows up and lingers to watch the game, the street hustlers running the show will let him see just how easy it is to guess just which card is the Lady.  This is an attempt to draw the mark in so that he would play the game.  To drive the point in, one of the shills often casually approaches the mark and engages him in conversation.  This shill will drop subtle hints on how much money the other shills have made on the game, or how the other shills cannot seem to win what is otherwise a simple game.

If the mark has taken the bait thrown at him by the street hustlers, he will be made to make his bet.  What the dealing street hustlers would do is to hold up the three cards with their faces turned towards the mark.  The dealer then throws down the cards on the surface of the table in the position he has held them.  Afterwards he shuffles them under the watchful eyes of the mark.

What the mark does not know – or is not supposed to know – that while he thought he is following where the Lady is being shuffled to, the dealer is already pulling a sleight of hand trick on him by switching the cards.  A bit of distraction and misdirection are also employed by the street hustlers to make sure that the mark does not notice the switcheroo being done.  After the shuffling is done and the mark is made to pick which card is the Lady, the mark will confidently get the card that he thought he had been watching, only to find out that it is one of the Jack cards.  And so the mark loses his bet and the street hustlers running the show wins it.  Truly skilled street hustlers never make a mark win a bet.

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