Three-card monte – also known as find the lady and three-card trick – is a confidence game in which the victims, or "marks", are tricked into betting a sum of money, on the assumption that they can find the "money card" among three face-down playing cards.

[1] In its full form, three-card monte is an example of a classic "short con"[2] in which a shill pretends to conspire with the mark to cheat the dealer, while in fact doing the reverse.

[3] To play three-card monte, a dealer places three cards face down on a table, usually on a cardboard box that provides the ability to set up and disappear quickly.

Even the shills pretending to play are often unaware of where the money card actually is without the dealer employing signals of various kinds to let them know where it is.

[citation needed] Inevitably, once in a while the mark will manage to find the right location of the card by pure chance.

[citation needed] The psychology of the con is to increase the mark's confidence until they believe they have a special ability to cheat the dealer and win easy money.

To increase the mark's motivation to bet, they will also employ standard strategies such as having the dealer be slightly abrasive or rude, so there is even more reason to want to take his money.

In this variation, the mark will be even more reluctant to complain about having lost money, as doing so would reveal that he intended to cheat the dealer.

In Canada, under section 206(1) of the Criminal Code, it is illegal to do the following in relation to three-card monte, which is mentioned by name: They are indictable offences, with a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

[8] Canada Bill Jones (1820–1877) was considered a master of three-card monte, in the middle of the 19th century in America.