On BART tonight I witnessed, for the first time outside the movies, a shell game in action. It was awesome.→[More:]

The con man sat down next to two young, clean cut guys, maybe they were even high school kids, and he busts out this little black board and three bottle caps, and the little soft ball thing. He starts zipping the lids around and taking bets. Someone across from him bets and loses. He lets the guy bet again, and win back his money. Only then does he turn to his two marks, who at this point are falling over themselves to get their wallets and count their cash. I couldn't see exactly, but they handed him a lot of it.

A crowd of dudes has formed, everyone sure they are going to win. He puts on his little show, talks a lot, when he stops, they point to a cap and BAM, it's empty. He pockets the money, packs up his stuff, stops for a a second by where I'm sitting but none of us want a taste and he zips out the door to the next car. I was so damned impressed with his skills. The boys, as you can imagine, were heartbroken and sulked all the way to SF.