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shell game

Confidence game involving three small, identical containers — traditionally thimbles or walnut shells — and a small ball, pea or other marker.[1]

Also know as thimblerig, the basic game dates to ancient Greece.[3]

In the play of the game, a marker is placed beneath one of the containers by the operator, known as the tosser, in plain view of the player. A wager is made between the player and the tosser that the player can deduce which container the marker is under after being shuffled. The tosser then rapidly shuffles the containers, adeptly passing the marker from one container to another using sleight of hand, unseen by the player. When the player indicates which container thought to hide the marker, the tosser reveals the marker under a different container and the player loses.[1]

Stampede: In April of 1877,[3] Battling Kreuger lost a shell game aboard the Dakota Queen traveling up the Missouri River[4] to Fort Pierre.[3]

Battling Kreuger tries his luck in a shell game aboard the Dakota Queen,[4] 1877.[3]