abstract
| - The grift-speak name for a person that runs a psychic game is 'Reader'. And it ain't about Tarot cards. They are the profilers of the grift world. A reader learns more about where a mark's buttons are with a single side-long glance than most people will ever figure out about him. Certainly more than the mark does, anyway. Phony psychics have a specialized set of tools available for exploring those buttons; Tarot cards, Ouija boards, convincing trance-states, cold-reads, and so forth. These are used to refine the reader's understanding of how best to operate the buttons. Once they are clearly understood, the mark is moved into one of a number of specialized tales. Some of those tales:
* Bury The Guilt -- The button is guilt. The mark needs to go somewhere ooky and bury some money to mollify the spirit of someone they have wronged. That's the classic form. It takes many, many others. The main play is convincing the mark that coughing up bucks equals making atonement. The exact method of dispersing the money really makes no difference at all, as long as the reader can grab it after the mark blows off.
* Rope Out -- The button is greed. Best play here? Get your Con Man buddy in on it. He has tales for that. Boy, howdy, does he have tales for that. The reader's main concern here is to assure that it is clear to the Con Man that they have a split coming.
* Pimp -- The button is loneliness or horniness. Best of, all ... both. Steer the mark toward a prostitute/gigolo that understands the play. See Fortune Teller for more "legitimate" psychics, and Not So Phony Psychic for legitimate psychics who think they're phony. No Real Life Examples, Please. Examples of Phony Psychic include:
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