This is one of my true loves,
Gambling scams and bar bets.
Ok so how many can we name?

here are a few.

3 shell game
Endless chain
3 card monty
The royal cut
Nims

just a few to start us off.

Royal cut? That doesn't ring a bell.

Bye for now

Harold

The Australian gambling game of "31".

PSIncerely Yours,
Paul Alberstat

One of my favorites has always been a Harry Andeson bit that I saw him do on Cheers years ago.

I think Cliffy was his patsy. CLiff has a shot in front of him that he just ordered. Harry walks in and tosses his chapeau over it and bets Cliff a buck he can drink the shot without touching the hat. Cliff accepts.

Harry pushes his head under the bar, makes a glug glug, and comes up wiping the corner of his mouth. "It's gone."

"Noooooo."

"Check for yourself."

Cliff lifts the hat, smiling as he sees the shot still there, Harry grabs the shot and quickly downs it.

Cliff says, "Well that's easy, I can do that too," and he orders another shot and covers it with Harry's hat and bets Harry another $1. As Cliff goes under the bar Harry lifts the hat, downs the shot and covers the empty glass with the hat. Cliff reappears stating, It's gone."

"Noooooo," says Harry sarcastically.

"Check for yourself, "says Cliff.

Harry lifts the hat and Cliff is floored as he sees the glass is actually empty.

"Wow that was amazing Cliff. Here's your dollar back. I sure would like to try that again, is there a hole in this bar or something?"

Coach pours Cliff another shot and covers it with Harrys hat. "You know you're a pretty sharp guy," Harry continues. "I better only bet you a dime this time."

As Cliff accepts, Harry lifts his hat and quickly downs the shot.

"Hey, you touched the hat," Cliff protests.

"You are exactly right Cliff. I guess I owe you that dime." Harry pays up and quickly scoots out of the bar.

Cliff is sitting triumphantly staring at his shiny new dime as Coach says, "That'll be twelve bucks for the drinks Cliffy."



And I just noticed that this bit is in Harry's book Games You Can't Lose: A Guide For Suckers. He calls it Hook, Line, and Sinker. There is a lot of other great bar bets in there.

Oh, and this one is great too. I don't know how popular American College football is abroad but this is a sure fire winner here in the States and everyone's a taker because they ALWAYS think they're right (it's the strangest thing). (I posted this elsewhere but it was a total tangent so I cut and pasted it here.) Ready?

Strike the Heisman Trophy pose.

Are you sure that's it? You're sure? Alright. See for yourself.

<expired link removed by staff>

I'll take a Guinness please.

Print out the picture and carry it in your wallet for instant payup. The pose you did is what EVERYONE does.

American football? What's that?

Like the hat thing, but don't get many wearing hats in pubs over here.
Paul.

Another gambling scam that magicians use is the ten card poker deal. The routine I would suggest learning is Darwin Ortiz's Mexican Poker from Darwin Ortiz at the Card Table.

Hey Matt, it's a fantastic poker deal, I already use it, it gets a great reaction

There is also "The Purse Swindle" mentioned in a few places.

Hi Magicman
I do a neat bar challenge that goes like this:-
Produce a prepared block of wood with a flat headed nail about 4" long stuck in it vertically and challenge those present to balance 6 other nails on the head of the one stuck in the wood! The rules are that the loose nails cannot touch anything other than the nail fixed in the wood or another loose nail.
They'll try all sorts of methods but are doomed to failure unless they know the incredibly clever method.
It's good fun and will amaze.
Bill

Dan Harlan has four videos of almost nothing but this kind of thing. Lots of good stunts, swindless and bar bets on these. If you are interested in that sort of thing, I recommend these. Eddie Fields had a great sucker bet that he used to use. He describes it on the A Day with Eddie Fields video.

Jim

I have found that Scotch and Soda can be nice for winning bets and/or drinks.

Are you going to share the incredibly clever method with the class?


My favorite bar bet is that I can drink three beers before you can drink 3 shots. The only rule is you can't touch my glasses and I can't touch yours. (You can see where this goes)

Another one I like is eating 2 saltine crackers or 1 slice of sandwich bread in 30 seconds.

The 6 nail balance is a favorite of mine, but I usually do it for friends not as a bet... and I dont usually carry a block of wood and nails into a bar *L* I absolutely love the hat and shot bet.. going to have to try that sometime... I have one that a topless dancer showed me one time ..
she took an empty beer bottle and balanced it upside down on a dollar bill lying flat on a table... she challenged me to remove the dollar without touching the bottle and without knocking the bottle over..I thought..
hmm that seems easy enough, and after 3 or 4 trys of yanking that dollar out and tipping the bottle, she showed me how to do it.
she simply started rolling the dollar bill from the endin a tight roll.... when the roll reached the bottle, she kept rolling the bill and slowly pushed the bottle off of it... she never touched the bottle and she didnt knock it over.. pretty clever, it got me
Cheers
Tom Defrange

One of my favourites involves a bit of exercise. Make a bet with someone that you can do a lot of push-ups. In fact, you can do between two and three hundred push-ups in under 90 seconds!

This sounds preposterours but once you have secured the bet, and enough witnesses) get down and do three or four. This would be between two and three hundred, n'est-ce pas?

Collect your bet.

Magnus. I love it!!!

I'm doing that one tomorrow, Better check that I can still do 4 though LOL


Andy

This bit was also featured on Harry Anderson's "Hello Sucker" special he taped for Showtime. The patsy in that video was his friend Turk Pipkin.

If you look closely you can also find Mike Caveny (sp?) in the audience with his wife Tina Lenert.

Also on the video: Harry's silent "shell game" routine set to a musical piece by Scott Joplin is a true work of art.

David

Thanks for the Bets guys, I never rely thought of putting things like this in my shows

Shenaniganz wants to know how to do the 7 nail trick. It's difficult to describe without pictures but I'll give it a go.

Take seven flat headed 4" nails which we'll say are numbered 1 to 7 for identification purposes. Drive nail 1 into a block of wood so that it stands up vertically with the head on top.Place this to one side until you have prepared the other 6 nails. Lie nail 2 down on the table horizontally with the head on your left hand side.Lie nail 3 down at right angles to nail 2 lying on top of nail 2 with the heads just about touching and the point towards you. Lie nail 4 similarly but with the point going away from you.

In plain view you now have a letter 'T' on its side with the heads of the nails together in the centre. Now do the same at the pointed end of nail 2 by lying nails 5 & 6 at right angles to nail 2 with their heads touching each other on top of the shaft of nail 2. In plan view it should now look like a letter 'H' with nail 2 forming the cross-bar of the 'H'.

Are you with me so far? Then comes the clever bit! Place the last nail, No. 7 on top of Nail 2 but with the head of nail 7 to your right hand side. This nail will rest on nails 3 & 4 on the left and nails 5 & 6 on the right and will rest between the heads of these nails. Now, using the tip of your right thumb and first finger grip nail 2 at its centre and gently lift it up vertically. The other 5 nails will all engage themselves naturally in a configuration which prevents them from falling apart and you can now gently place nail 2 on the head of nail 1 and the whole assembly will balance beautifully!

You have fulfilled the conditions of the challenge by balancing 6 nails on the head of one nail without them touching anything other than another nail. Magic it ain't but it's very clever and can be a lot of fun. Hope I've explained it clearly enough. Let me know if you could follow these instructions.
Bill

Bill.

I love this trick. I've been down to my local "Do it all" built it, and it works brilliantly.

From your post I assume you won't mind sharing the answer, so I've photographed it and put it in the "Secret Sessions" Section.

Any problems and of course I will remove it immediately.

Cheers

Andy

Dan Harlan's videos on scams are worthwhile viewing.