Felon47's Three-Card Monty

To the con artist in the White House, everyone is either a mark or a shill.

In the years that the current occupant of the White House was a fixture at Studio 54 and a running joke on the front page of the city’s tabloids, I was a naive young sprout living in New York City, and I was broke or nearly broke nearly all of the time. As a struggling singer/actor/writer/whatever, I often had to make tough choices in order to save money. I could either walk everywhere and save my subway fare so I’d have enough money for a slice of pizza or a street hot dog, or I could spring for a subway token to spare my legs a few miles of walking and live with the resulting hunger.

So when I spotted some guys playing three-card monty one afternoon in Times Square, I naively thought it looked like a way I could both eat and ride the subways. Uncharacteristically that day, I had $20 in my pocket. So I watched and waited for the right opportunity. I…