{"id":25361,"date":"2020-11-23T13:59:28","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T19:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/?p=25361"},"modified":"2020-11-23T14:00:38","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T20:00:38","slug":"old-school-con-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/old-school-con-game\/","title":{"rendered":"R. Paul Wilson On: An Old School Con Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a favourite old-time con trick that was described in The Artful Dodges of Eddie Fields<\/a><\/em> and was performed on The Real Hustle<\/a><\/em> while hustling patrons in a Las Vegas saloon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I love about this scam is the element of\ntheatre created by the scammers to stimulate a predictable response from the\npatrons of a bar, then sucker them into taking advantage of the con artist with\na predictably disappointing outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It reminds me of the George C. Scott movie originally-titled The Flim-Flam Man<\/a><\/em> and the con games he pulled on small businesses filled with locals around America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I were a traveling con man in the 1950s, this\nwould be in my repertoire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who Loves Card Tricks?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“Do\nyou like card tricks?” <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No,\nI hate card tricks,\u201d I answered. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Well, I’ll just show you this one.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He showed me three.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

– W. Sommerset Maugham<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many years ago, I was in a car with my best friend since childhood, who had suffered through my early years of obsession with playing cards<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, he was quite done with card tricks\nhaving received a lifetime\u2019s supply during our youth so whenever we got\ntogether, magic was never to be mentioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driving to lunch, we stopped at a traffic light\nand without warning, the back door opened and someone got into the back of my\ncar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, this was another friend of mine from\nthe magic fraternity who just happened to be waiting to cross the street when\nmy car pulled up and by the time the light changed, we were all on our way to\nlunch together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, this was the collision of two very\ndifferent worlds and when my magician friend asked my other friend if he liked\nmagic, he bluntly replied: \u201cActually, no, I don\u2019t\u201d to which my magician friend\nsaid, \u201cOkay, just these two\u2014\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine my surprise when I found almost this\nexact situation described in a short story by W. Sommerset Maugham less than\nweek later!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, while the Maugham story features a\nboorish lout who somewhat redeems himself in the context of the story, my\nmagician friend was simply too enthused to take no for an answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the idea of card tricks being the reserve of\nloud know-it-alls is not unique to the pages of short fiction and in the 1940s,\nEddie Fields and his partner used this idea to concoct a devilishly simple con\ngame that they played all over Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Set Up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Eddie would set the scene by entering a bar and establishing himself as a loud, friendly character who would try to get a little (gambling) action going with a few bar bets<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of a few hours, Eddie would\nhustle free drinks by performing stunts with olives, forks, drinking glasses\nand sugar cubes until he was firmly recognised as the bar big-mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During all of this, Eddie\u2019s partner would arrive\nand settle somewhere close to Eddie while he worked the crowd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Eddie\u2019s partner felt the room was ripe, he\u2019d\ngive a signal; Eddie would produce a pack of cards and go to work regaling\nfellow drinkers with simple miracles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the crowd was ready, Eddie would pull The Circus Card Trick<\/a>, an ingenious sucker trick designed to win money in the right circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for this con, Eddie didn\u2019t pick a stranger\nto swindle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pointed to his secret partner, had him choose\na card and by the end of the trick, Eddie\u2019s partner had taken the bait and lost\na lot of cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Play<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now Eddie\u2019s partner was apparently upset and\naccused Eddie of cheating and by this point, several others joined the call to\nkick Eddie out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To calm the crowd, Eddie offers to teach how the\ntrick works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He hands the deck to an onlooker and asks them\nto take out two black aces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two
Eddie Fields used two black aces to “teach” the crowd his trick. Image: Shutterstock<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To illustrate the principle used, Eddie cuts the\ndeck, shows one black ace and places it on top of the lower half, then shows\nthe second black ace and places that onto the first ace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top half is replaced, and Eddie gives the\ndeck a single cut as he explains that no matter how many times you cut the\ndeck, those two black aces will be together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie hands the deck to someone to give a couple\nof cuts then begins dealing cards onto a face-up pile until the first black ace\nappears – then states that the next card is guaranteed to be the other black\nace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shamelessly, Eddie tries to work the crowd for\nmore bets, but no one is calling so he reveals the second black ace in his\nhand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, his partner takes control and asks Eddie to\ndemonstrate the principle one more time – pretending to be confused about how\nit works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie repeats the same actions, placing the\nfirst ace onto the face-down half and showing the second ace to the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Eddie is apparently distracted with the\nsecond ace, his secret partner reaches over and cuts a small packet from the\nupper pile and places those onto the ace pile, burying the first black ace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seemingly oblivious, Eddie now places the second\nace face down onto the first but everyone now knows that there are a few cards\nbetween the aces and as Eddie places the top half onto the lower half, losing\nthe aces in the middle, it seems obvious that he is about to get taken for a\nride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie has the deck cut several times and begins\ndealing cards face up until the first ace appears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He takes the next card and holds it out,\nrepeating his claim that no matter how many cuts you make, the next card must\nbe the other ace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now his partner stops him and asks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow much will YOU bet?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is what they have both been working\ntowards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From playing the part of a blowhard barfly to\nbetting against each other, Eddie and his partner have been working the crowd\ntoward this moment, where Eddie seems about to get his just reward for being\nsuch an asshole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie hands the card he is holding to an\nonlooker so no one can see it, then pulls a thick wad of cash from his sock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan you cover that?\u201d Eddie asks. But his\npartner backs down, unable to match Eddie\u2019s bet\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this<\/em> is where the suckers are given\nthe chance to bite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure enough, several people in the crowd offer\nto match Eddie\u2019s bankroll, certain they will win since they saw the other guy\nplace several cards between the black aces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There should be no way the next card could be a\nblack ace but once the bet is made, the card is shown. And guess what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a black ace!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the smoke clears and the bet is lost, the\ncrowd\u2019s money is gone along with Eddie and the other stranger, never to return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Secret<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The real secret is in how Eddie worked the\ncrowd, spotted the best marks and played them like a piano but the actual card\ntrick is simplicity itself (with 25 years of practice).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Eddie\u2019s book, he described a very simple card sleight called \u2018The Glide\u2019 to bring both aces back together but on The Real Hustle<\/em>, I employed a second deal<\/a> to accomplish the same effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s how a second deal works:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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