The Art of the Con (27 page)

There are an enormous variety of short cons, and they are extremely hard to spot until it's too late. Unlike a street game or a confidence trick, short cons like distraction steals, change raising, or the dine and dash take advantage of everyday situations and natural reactions. More involved short cons like the magic bar bet or the put and take game are hit-and-run scams that happen so quickly, the mark can barely remember what happened or even how he got caught up in the action.

I firmly believe that the more we can expose these scams, the more difficult they will become for hustlers to pull off. Training staff to follow procedures is an effective way to defeat change-raisers, but there's more than one way to “make a take.” A little time demonstrating these scams to all employees who handle cash would give them enough experience to recognize almost any variation.

Sadly, most people who have enough knowledge to suspect a short con learned the hard way, having fallen victim to a scam in the past. When I pulled the BH wallet scam for
The Real Hustle
in London, the waitress came running after me once she discovered the ruse. Even after seeing my hidden microphone, she refused to go back to the restaurant without me.

As she said to me afterward, “I've been cheated before and wasn't going to let you go without a fight!”

*
The Real Hustle
was only permitted (by the BBC) to re-enact
existing
scams, but on
Scammed
, I was challenged to invent my own versions.

T
he guy just wouldn't shut up. This was his local pool hall, he was a well-known character, and our cameras were in the open, supposedly to watch a hustler in action. He incorrectly thought that
he
was the hustler; in fact, he was playing the part so well I could barely get a word in. As he barked his way around the table, I glanced over to my “girlfriend” Melissa, who was racking balls at a nearby table. My friend Jason England stood nearby, loving every minute as the mark mocked my attempts to play while the camera crew watched every poorly aimed shot I attempted at the table. Finally, after another defeat, the loudmouth threw down a challenge. He'd play for money but would give me enough weight to make it a fair game.

This meant that I could play with a starting advantage that would even out our obvious skill difference, but I remained uncertain despite the mark's attempts to bully me into betting. Finally, as I walked back to Melissa, the mark spat the words I'd been waiting for: “I'll even play your girlfriend, if you're too scared!”

“You'd give her the same weight?” I asked, and the mark stopped in his tracks. This hustler had spent so much time and energy bad-mouthing me for the benefit of his peanut gallery, he'd paid no attention to the girl at the next table. As soon as the mark hesitated, it was my turn to drive the train. “Seriously? You don't want to play a girl?” The onlookers laughed and the “hustler” regained his composure. After a few minutes of backchat, he agreed to give Melissa a starting advantage. Not as much weight as he'd offered me, but it was more than we needed. When Melissa stepped up to the table, I could see that our mark already knew he'd been taken.

For twenty minutes I had let him showboat for the cameras and his buddies, while Melissa quietly waited in the shadows. As soon as she leaned forward for the break, it was clear Melissa knew what she was doing and the mark recognized her instantly. He had just given points away to Melissa Herndon, known on the professional pool circuit as “The Dragon Lady.”

Our hustler had been hustled and was forced to bring his A game, which turned out to be considerable; even with an advantage, Melissa barely won the game. Handing over his money, the mark suggested another round, this time starting even. Melissa agreed, and we racked the balls and stood back to watch the show. Melissa had been deliberately holding back her skills—“sandbagging”—to con the mark into a second game, but as it turned out, so had he. With the stakes now much higher, both players fought to the finish when Melissa pulled off a perfect winning shot as the mark chewed his teeth in disgust. “One more?” he asked, but I shook my head. I was pretty certain he had more in reserve and we'd already won enough to call it a day. But as we left the pool hall, Melissa was disappointed. “Why did we stop playing? We could have skimmed that guy all day,” she said. Turns out she had still been sandbagging our mark and was just getting started.

Not everyone spends enough time in pool halls to fall victim to a hustler, but you can find yourself being pressured by similar strategies in many walks of life. From a car salesroom to unwanted calls from boiler-room investment firms, the tactic used is commonplace: Someone tries to secure a commitment by making you focus on the supposedly positive aspects of a deal, without revealing (or misdirecting you from) its negative aspects.

It's worth learning how to recognize situations where one side might have an unfair (but legal) edge over the other; in the gambling world, there's a particular breed of player who can make a great deal of money identifying flaws in the system.

The short man in the peaked hat moved around the table, taking shots without hesitation, each finding its mark with disturbing accuracy. Like a cat prowling for mice in the shadows, “Moves” leaned and turned until he had the perfect line, then quickly fired at the cue ball.

“I just want to know if they've got gamble,” he told me, “otherwise I'm wasting everyone's time, you know?”

I sat on a stool nearby as he easily cleared the table, examining a pair of flip-flops that looked perfectly ordinary on top but when turned over, revealed a remarkable contraption. Its purpose was to allow a hustler to control the flip of a coin with 100 percent accuracy.

This cheap-looking plastic footwear allowed Moves to slide a switch to either the right or left, releasing a quarter onto the floor from underneath his feet. The device was inlaid into a well he had cut into the sole with another cut-out, which was filled with sticky wax. With a flick of his wrist and a snap of his fingers, Moves would spin a coin on the floor, and while it was still spinning, he would stamp his foot onto the coin, trapping it underneath. “If they're going to bet on a coin toss, they'll bet on a game,” he explained, and depending on their answer, Moves could reveal the coin to be either heads-up or tails-up since the original coin was now stuck to the sticky wax and the toe switch could dictate which coin was released before lifting his foot. Whichever side of the coin Moves revealed depended on much more than whether the sucker called heads or tails. This was not just a trick to win easy money, it was the opening gambit in a game of hustle.

Moves is a fascinating character, smart as a whip, charming, funny, and accustomed to making people feel comfortable around him. His personality and demeanor is so disarming that it's easy to assume you could beat him at anything. The first time I saw him play, I thought that maybe he was all talk and had very little skill at the table. Of course, that was his intention. Anyone can hold back or conceal their real skill, but the hustle is all about making people believe what they're seeing. The slightest suspicion that a player is sandbagging will send a sucker to the door. As I got to know him better, he started to open up, to reveal more about his approach to the game and to show just how much skill he really had.

For Moves and other hustlers like him, it's not about who has the most skill at the table; it's about who has the most
game
. His coin-toss device was a fascinating piece of work, but how he used it was of more interest to me. One-on-one, he might score a one-off bet, depending on how much the sucker threw down. In other situations he might bookie the bet for a large group and use the device to make sure he came out with a healthy profit. If more people bet on heads, he'd release tails, and so on.

The interesting part was how he would use it to hook someone into playing for money at the pool table. If the mark wants to bet, Moves would push him to see how much he was willing to risk. This told him everything he needed to know about the person as a potential mark and if there was money to be made, Moves would use his tricked-out shoe to
lose
the bet! Then he would suggest a few games for the same amount as the coin toss and the real hustle would begin. Once his foot was on the coin, some bettors have tried to bully him into a huge wager, but he was prepared for that and ready to take on any amount, since he was certain to win.

Hustling is all about keeping the mark in the game, generating false hope, manipulating expectations, and twisting the victim's perspective about the situation they're in. A one-off bet or proposition might make any amount of money, but a smart operator keeps his mark engaged so he comes back for more. Gamblers are addicted to action; some argue that whether they win or lose is irrelevant, but the
prospect
of winning is what keeps most people playing; this is the bait that a good con artist needs to keep their mark chasing. It's a mistake to believe that hustling, whether it be at pool, golf, or even tennis, is based entirely on skill. Expert grifters can turn players with much greater skill into suckers with empty pockets. Hustling is about finding the right angle and developing the optimum strategy to beat the mark and keep them coming back for more.

My friend Dean Dill is one of the kindest and most generous people I know. From his charming barbershop in Glendale, California, he runs a small business supplying props to magicians while ministering to fellow Christians and occasionally cutting hair. His shop is a hangout for hundreds of people, many of whom travel thousands of miles to meet one of the nicest guys in the magic community. At one time, Dean included Johnny Carson among his friends and magic students and was even a guest on
The Tonight Show
. But in another life, Dean was a talented tennis hustler.

Dean's proposition was to offer to play anyone without using a racket, catching the ball and throwing it with the same hand. To regular players, even pros, this sounded like a tough challenge and a good bet, but Dean had a simple advantage. Once he caught the ball he could throw it anywhere he liked—always to the most difficult place for the sucker to reach. He could throw it low and fast to the other side of the court or lob it gently so it just cleared the edge of the net. Catching it was the hard part, but Dean already played a decent game of straight tennis and was used to getting to the ball in time. According to Dean, getting to the ball and catching it was easier than returning it with a decent swing. After a few minutes, the sucker would be exhausted, having run all over the court to return the ball.

Dean taught me a similar scam for golf, where the hustler plays with only a putter and must throw the ball from the tee until it gets to the green. This immediately puts the sucker at an advantage since most golfers can hit a ball much farther than it can be thrown. The scam is in how much of a handicap the hustler can negotiate. Personally, I'd play for three free throws per hole, but one is probably enough to get the money if you have a decent arm (I don't). The secret is in developing strong putting skills on the green and reasonable accuracy when throwing a ball hard, but the most important skill is in the hustler's “short game.” The objective is to get the ball as close to the green as possible without touching the velvet. This means that the hustler gets to throw the ball from very close to the pin and ensure it lands within an easy putting distance to the hole. The bunkers are a huge help because all I need to do is aim for those and I'm assured that the ball won't accidentally roll onto the green.