08/11/2022
Three Card Monte
Effect: The magician gives a demonstration of the well known street con Three Card Monte.
Method: There are only two moves you need to learn in order to perform three card monte: The throw, and the bent corner move.
The basic premise behind the "game" of three card monte is that you have three cards, for example, two black fours and a red ace. You shuffle the cards around on the table, and the "mark" or "sucker" tries to pick the odd card, in this case, the red ace.
The sucker bets money on whatever card they think is the money card, they lose, and you take their money. Of course, being a magician, you take great pains to neither take their money nor make them feel stupid for failing to follow the red card.
The first thing you need is a set of cards. I prefer for the two losing cards to be identical, for example, both the four of clubs.
This prevents an astute spectator from noticing that you are showing him the same card twice at a certain point in the routine.
Next, you need to bend the cards. They are bent lengthwise, so that the backs are convex. When resting on the table, the long edges should rest flat against the table, and the middle of the short edges are about half an inch above the table. You also want to prebend the outer right and inner left hand corners of all three cards..
During the routine, you will bend the winning card in order to make it seem easier to follow. You later remove the bend from the winner and bend a loser. Having the corners prebent makes the bending easier and insures that the bends will look exactly the same in all three cards. I prefer to put both bends in while all three cards are still in a packet.
Putting a lengthwise bend in the card Putting in the lengthwise bend.
Pre bending the corners of the cards . Prebending the corners.
Photo of the cards facing face up. The cards face up.
Photo of the cards face down. The cards face down.
The basic idea behind the throw is that you hold two cards in your
