You Come at the King, You Best Not Miss

The Wire is, according to 99% of guys you get stuck talking to at a party, the best TV show ever made—what do you mean you haven't watched all seven seasons at least twice?

But right now we're talking about another 100% genius work of art: the long con set up by Henry Gondorff & Co. in The Sting.

"The wire" is as follows: a bunch of men set up a fake bookies shop where people can bet on horse races. The conmen already know the results to the races, but their targets don't, and that's how the cons get the targets to lose a ton of money on races that have already been run. But when Henry Gondorff decides to use the wire scheme to beat Lonnegan, one of his buddies remarks,

The wire's been out of date for ten years.

In other words, conmen work in something that resembles the current start-up industry—they need to constantly innovate to stay ahead of the curve. However, Henry is confident "the wire" will work because it's so out of date that Lonnegan won't recognize it. Henry also has an ace in the hole: he's layered a separate con (faking his and Johnny's deaths) on top of "the wire." And, of course, Lonnegan falls for it hook, line, and sinker

As Omar Little would say, "It's all in the game."