Ok here goes. Please forgive me for this question but I would really like to know. I do not nor have I ever done very many card effects in my 30+ years in mage. Can someone tell me just what makes a card trick a "monte" trick? I do 1 card effect that I beleive is a monte trick but not really suer because the instructions do not call it a "monte". I hope this question makes sense.

Thank you
Steven

Three-card Monte, also known as the Three-card marney, Three-card trick, Three-Way, Three-card shuffle, Triplets, Follow the lady, Find the lady, or Follow the Bee is a confidence game in which the victim, or mark, is tricked into betting a sum of money that they can find the money card, for example the queen of spades, among three face-down playing cards. In its full form, the three-card Monte is an example of a classic short con in which the outside man pretends to conspire with the mark to cheat the inside man, while in fact conspiring with the inside man to cheat the mark.

Monte can be done with 2 cards and as many as 7 (Vernon). Gaffed and regular cards can be used. There are many variations...

Cardamagically,
Dom.
:)

Dom pretty much summed it up...

Also - Montes were originally street type con games used to pull money from those passing by.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-card_Monte gives more insight.

My simple description would be anything that requires the spectator to keep track of one card being mixed in with others(usually all the others are similar if not identical). Like the old shell game... Follow the pea...

Wow I was really close to th edescriptions that have been given here but I was not 100% sure. Thanks to all that posted. Maybe I will try and keep going by asking you to name your favorite "Monte" trick.

Steven

The original con game was the first Monte that I learned. Some others that are good...Skinner's Monte, Ultimate Monte, Bammo Monte Monster.

Cardamagically,
Dom.
:)

The plain ole classic two card monte...

Don't forget Michael Weber's one card monte (I have no idea if he is the originator of this trick, he performed it on the tvshow magiskt here in Sweden some years ago. He ripped a card in half and used the two halves as two cards, one faceup one facedown so technically it's the plain ole twocard monte...

Mikael Johansson
Sweden

I have an older 4 card mote type effect called "Carnival Cards" by Tom Ogden. I got it out of storage after I went to my local SAM meeting. The topic for Jan. is Monte effects so I got this one out and I am having a lot of fun with it. I don't really do cards because I feel, IMO, that they are overdone right now but this is a fun effect.

Steven

A great routine to help your voyage into monte madness(pun intended) is "Monte Madness" located for 10.00 at http://www.wildcolombini.com/cart/produc......s_id=136 . It goes in depth on the "move" which I now use for a lot of packet tricks that I didn't before. It's definitly one of my favorite 2 monte effects.