kansas city shuffle

A type of con which depends on the mark realizing they're being conned, but incorrectly guessing how it's being done. When they try to foil the fake con they think they've uncovered, they fall into the real con. This con is most effective against marks who are "too smart for their own good", and will try to beat the conman at his own game instead of backing off when they discover he's trying to con them.

Named after the song by J Ralph. There are two Kansas Cities, and while one is in Kansas, the larger, more well-known one is actually just across the river in Missouri. Somebody unfamiliar with the region might go to the smaller one when they really wanted to go to the larger one, because they made the assumption that "Kansas City is obviously in Kansas". The song uses this confusion as an analogy for the way a mark thinks when they're being conned by a Kansas City Shuffle-type con.

Can be used in relation to anything involving distraction and misdirection by which you get everyone to look one way, while whatever you're doing involves going the other way.

When you look left and Bruce Willis snaps your neck

The Kansas City Shuffle: a "Kansas City Shuffle" is a most clever deception, one that requires thought on the part of the inciter and great ignorance on the part of the deceived. The primary goal of the Kansas City Shuffle is to catch one completely off-guard and unaware so that trickery can take place.

The storyline of the 2006 film Lucky Number Slevin uses a "Kansas City Shuffle" as the primary plot device. As Mr. Goodkat mentions, "A Kansas City Shuffle is when everybody looks left, you go right." The origin of its name is revealed when a cover version of the song, performed by J. Ralph, plays at the end of the film. An item of interest regarding the Kansas City Shuffle is that while you've been reading this I've been fucking your mom.

As taken from Wikipedia, and which I checked out elsewhere, the first instance of this term is the title of a Jazz song from 1926 by Bennie Moten. Beyond that, it's a term that's only been given real meaning by the movie Lucky Number Slevin, in which it's used to refer to a kind of con game. Specifically a con in which a combination of distraction and subterfuge cause the mark to turn their attention away from the plot which proceeds in the opposite direction. The term itself is weighted with football, gambling, and other innuendo but since it didn't exist as a phrase until that movie was released, you could read that subtext into it or not. At it's simplest, a good head fake in sports is a Kansas City Shuffle. At a more complex level an army massing battalions of tanks on one front to occupy enemy attention and draw them out of fortified positions while in reality a naval attack ensues instead would also be a Kansas City Shuffle. In short, it's a cute name for a kind of misdirection.

Definition 1. "When they look left and you move right." make them look to the left as a distraction and while they are distracted you move to the right.

Definition 2. A sort of slide of hand or trick in getting someones attention by getting them to look one way while something else is going on in another direction.