Fascinating. I've long been interested in con artists and yet I don't recall ever hearing about "cooling the mark".

Funny story - years ago, we had a manager for our band who was a fairly marginal character. One day we were walking together in Manhattan, and he saw a guy playing three card monte. The guy running the game ("the springer") notice my friend and said, "Hey, John, still playing the game?" and then some doubletalk.

John walks into the game, doesn't even show any money, and points to a card, and it's the right one! The springer says, "We have a winner!" and hands him a "ten" which I noted was really a one carefully folded.

John then does another round of the game, loses, and hands the money right back, being careful not to reveal it's a one, and then says, "See ya!" and walks away.

It was so slick that I knew they had practiced it many times before. Quite the surprise!