"Canada Bill" Jones

William "Canada Bill" Jones (18??-1880) - One of the greatest card sharps in history, “Canada Bill” Jones was actually born in Yorkshire, England in the early 1800s. At some point, he immigrated to Canada, where he first learned three-card monte from a veteran layer named Dick Cady. The con game occurs when the “dealer” shows three cards to the player then throws the cards face down on the table, rearranges them and then asks the “mark” to find one of the cards he showed him. Many times, the dealer is “working” with an accomplice who appears to be a bystander, who tries to ensure that the player chooses the wrong card.
Jones soon took his game “on the road” playing primarily on the Mississippi River. One of his greatest “assets” in making a profit was his ability to play the “fool.” With a squeaky voice and appearing as a klutz and a simpleton, Jones easily his “marks” that he was harmless.
Of Canada Bill, fellow gambler George Devol said of him:

"Canada Bill was a character one might travel the length and breadth of the land and never see his match, or run across his equal. Imagine a medium-sized, chicken-headed, tow-haired sort of a man with mild blue eyes, and a mouth nearly from ear to ear, who walked with a shuffling, half-apologetic sort of a gait, and who, when his countenance was in repose, resembled an idiot. For hours he would sit in his chair, twisting his hair in little ringlets. His clothes were always several sizes too large, and his face was as smooth as a woman's and never had a particle of hair on it. Canada was a slick one. He had a squeaking, boyish voice, and awkward, gawky manners, and a way of asking fool questions and putting on a good natured sort of a grin, that led everybody to believe that he was the rankest kind of a sucker-the greenest sort of a country jake. Woe to the man who picked him up, though."

When the action on the riverboats dried up, Jones began to work the railroads. At one point, Jones even wrote the general superintendent of the Union Pacific Railroad, offering $25,000 a year for the exclusive rights to run a three-card monte game on the trains. The railroad official politely declined the offer.

For decades, Jones made money swindling people, not only in three-card monte, but also as a card sharp at poker and other games. However, he too, was a gambler, who loved the game of Faro, generally re-circulating his profits rather than holding on to them. When he died in 1880 in Reading, Pennsylvania, he was penniless and was buried at public expense. However, when many of his fellow gamblers heard of his death, a group from Chicago raised some money, repaid the City of Reading and erected a marker for “Canada Bill.”
James "Umbrella Jim" Miner - One of best known shell game men on the Mississippi, James Miner was called "Umbrella Jim" for his habit of beginning his con game under an umbrella, whether indoors or outside, in rain or shine. He also utilized a little gimmick of introducing his game with a song, earning him the additional moniker of the "Poet Gambler." The shell game, also known as Thimblerig, Three Shells, and Pea, is portrayed as a gambling game, but it is really nothing more than a fraudulent slight of hand trick.

he wasnt very great if he died with no money, lawl.

QFYayYorkshire

So that's where zach got the umbrella idea from - rigged!!

nice little bit of trivia ...but are you planning on following in their footsteps?

This really bugs me. I posted the link to that information in one of the forums a week or two ago, and not saying he got to it via my link, but at least by linking I wasn't stealing anyone else's writing. It really looks like a copy and paste from http://www.chefanton.com/scoundrelss...ls_gallery.htm and that strikes me as wrong. If the OP is really desperate to get up to the required posting quota to play in freerolls it's my opinion that they're getting off to a craptastic start.

I really like the old school scoundrels and cardsharps. Not a big fan of modern cheaters(though their minds are fascinating), but the ones from back in the day are just way too interesting to ignore. If the OP was really into this stuff and wanted to discuss, that would be way cool. I mean their stories are the sort of stuff great works of fiction are built on, and it's fun. But unfortunately I get the feeling they're just trying to fill a quota and that's way uncool.

I like Umbrella Jim because he'd tell people they couldn't win but they'd play anyway. But I like Canada Bill even more because I swear people still use his dumb rube ruse regularly and it's fun to watch.