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Have any of you actually tried running it as a scam? I tried to win some cash one night out: sadly only two people would bet for anything. I won a quid and a free shot, then the bouncer came and told me that gambling was illegal on licensed premises.

I left soon after.

kitaristi0 wrote:Bananafish reviewed Daryl's Monte DVD just a second ago and gave a raving 10/10 review.

I noticed It sounds very good. But so do the other two

just a quick question about three card monte. Are all versions of it gimmiked to some degree or is the one version that requires only slight of hand and no gimmick/gaffs?

Card Montes almost always rely on sleight of hand. I don't know of any that require physical gimmicks, but there might be some out there.

I have also read about gimmicked versions, but I have only seen sleight of hand in real life )

There are a gob - a great gob - of gaffed three card monte tricks. They've been around for years and years. These are the ones that are done flat (rather than with that "monte bend"), normally right in the hands of the "magician" (rather than on the table).

Then there is the real three card monte. It is done with the bend, because that's how you pick them up, right on the table. Done with any cards presented in an impromptu situation (any two reds with a black or vice versa, two faces with an ace, two aces with a two or three or four or whatever), any three cards will work as long as there is one card of the three that will be the money card - the odd card out, as it were.

Normally, the tosser offers 2 - 1 odds (3 cards, only one is right).

saxmad wrote:I think there's only ONE hype in the entire game!

There are two - the second is a proving move and particularly deceptive when both "off cards" match perfectly (as in the jokers in a Bee deck).

saxmad also wrote:One thing the School for Scoundrels DVD has is a staging of the actual street game with Gazzo, Paul Wilson, Chef Anton, Billy McComb and others...

...The other DVD's are good too, but are strictly the magic side of the game.

Precisely.

Go the Daryl route if you really want to learn a shed load of moves that can be used in conjunction with the three card monte. It is certainly a good investment.

But, if you want to learn three card monte, its history and what it is, then you go with the School for Scoundrels.

If you just want a good trick, then you go with the gaffed cards.

Mike.

Here is a performance of The Ultimate Three Card Monte. It is performed by Bill Malone. This is an example of a gaffed three card trick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kNIySf-IPg

I'm torn between Daryl's and School for Scoundrels DVDs. I would love to learn the history of the game etc as i believe it would make good patter lines. But i would like to learn various ways of performing the effect etc.

Are the hype moves taught on the School DVD? I would think they were the equivelant to the Flash Move, which is used in the three shell game. A sleight which leads the spec into thinking you've messed up? If so this would be very useful to me.

School for Scoundrels teaches you every phase of the con and gives you everything that you need to perform a three card monte, including some routines. If you want to perform the classic three card monte, you need go no further than School for Scoundrels.

In my own presentation, I give a truncated history of the game. Once I've burnt them twice, I even explain that when they think that they know where the money card is, the best thing that they can do is to choose one of the cards that they don't think it is, which will give them a 50/50 chance of getting it right. This is where I go with the corner bend. Even though I've given them solid advice, picking the bent corner card is just too overwhelming and they do it every time.

So, my presentation proves to them that if they see the game being played on a street somewhere, to stear clear of it. In my presentation, I do point out that the entire crowd is in on it (as per one spot in Chef Anton's routine) so even with this inside information, they'll still lose.

I've been doing the three card monte since I was somewhere around 14 years old. In those days, I used the scam to get money from me mates for going to the shops. It was a "fair" game, though, in that they knew I was able to put the ace anywhere that I wanted...But 2-1 odds are hard to overlook.

I learned it out of a book called, "The Secrets of the Card Sharps" (Majax) back in the '70s. As I age, though, the histories of these things become more and more important to me, which is why I personally recommend School for Scoundrels. Nevertheless, you can't go wrong with Daryl's offering.

Mike.

Mikey.666 wrote:

kitaristi0 wrote:Bananafish reviewed Daryl's Monte DVD just a second ago and gave a raving 10/10 review.

I noticed It sounds very good. But so do the other two

You seriously can't go wrong with Daryl's DVD. It explains routines and the places in which you play 3 card monte as well as all the moves. He also shows the routines infront of a audience before he explains it to you, so you can alter (or mimic) Daryl's routines when you do it yourslef)

I was having a hard choice between school for scoundrels and Dayrl's 3 card monte but choice Dary in the end. But i mean i didn't buy school for scounderls because...well i didn't need it after learning from Dayr!

I have all 3 (Piacente, Daryl, SfS). I would stay away from the Piacente DVD. It would be OK if there were no others, but with Daryl and SfS it seems poor by comparison.
Daryl's is excellent and is aimed more at magicians, but was made referring to the SfS notes that came before their DVD. It also incorporates variations that are good for the magician but useless for a con artist.
SfS is a work of art and it is pointed more towards the history and techniques of the scam. That said it also covers routines for the magician.
It is difficult to prefer Daryl's over SfS. Sorry to be indecisive, but if you are keen I would get both, but with either you are onto an excellent product.