three-card monte

[ three-kahrd ]

noun

, Cards.

1. a gambling game in which the players are shown three cards and bet that they can identify one particular card of the three, as stipulated by the dealer, after the cards have been moved around face down by the dealer.
2. a form of three-card stud poker.

Word History and Origins

Origin of three-card monte¹

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55

Example Sentences

Of course, but after years of playing three-card monte with the Edwardses, is anybody listening?

From The Daily Beast

But the hotel-keepers and three-card-monte men are not waiting for that discovery to grow rich.

From Project Gutenberg

Two of the well-known sharpers who hung around the camps had enticed little Pete in there, and to a game of three-card monte.

From Project Gutenberg

Within another were all the appliances for three-card Monte or Faro.

From Project Gutenberg

Not a three-card monte man or a whip seller or a vendor of non-intoxicants.

From Project Gutenberg

Even a more fruitful source of income than the pulley-weights was the interesting little game known as three-card monte.

From Project Gutenberg