10 Fun Bets You Can Always Win and Trick Your Friends With

It’s important to unplug from work.

When it’s time to unwind and relax after work, do you find yourself kicking back and playing betting games with your friends? Wouldn’t it be cool if every bet were a sure bet?

Yeah, some of the thrills of placing bets is knowing that luck is on your side when you win. But when you lose, it’s another story.

We’ve got some betting tricks that’ll make it look like luck is almost always on your side.

With enough practice and a little trickery, you’ll win every time. (Gullible friends help too.)

Impress Your Friends with These Betting Tricks

Even if you’re into serious betting and know all about the greatest betting exchanges, you can still have fun with some betting tricks.

So once you’ve finished doing your “betting homework,” perhaps studying the latest review of Matchbook and placing your bets, head on out to the bar and dazzle your friends with these simple tricks.

1. The Missing Coin

Take two glasses. Place a penny under one of them, and a penny at the bottom of the other.

Show your friend the two glasses so they think there’s a penny at the bottom of each one. Bet him or her that you can make one of those pennies disappear.

When you fill the glass with the penny on the bottom, it’ll remain. But filling the glass with the penny underneath will give the illusion that the penny has disappeared.

2. Pulling Names from a Hat

You’ll need a hat for this one.

Grab a sheet of paper and fold it into thirds. Write your friend’s name on the top third, your name on the middle third and your friend’s name on the bottom third.

Tear the paper into three equal strips, fold them and put them in the hat. Then tell your friend that every time you pull out their name, you’ll buy them a drink. S/he will likely see this as a sure bet because your name is only in there once.

But the piece with your name will have rough edges on both sides because it was torn from the middle. So when you shake up the pieces, feel around for the piece with rough edges on both sides.

It’ll be yours.

3. Floating Paper Clips

Before you head out, slip two paper clips into your pocket or bag.

Get a glass of water and slide it toward the center of the table or bar. Casually remove the clips from your pocket or bag and ponder aloud to your friends whether there’s a way to get one of them to float in the water.

They’ll try and fail. Then bet that you can do it.

Once they take the bet, just bend one of the clips at an angle of 90?, and put the second one on top of it. Put this configuration on the water, then remove the lower folded clip under the water.

The first clip will remain afloat.

4. Keeping the Match in Place

Be sure you have a box of small wood matches on you.

Then take two upturned glasses and place a $20 bill under one of them. Place the wood match between the two glasses – about halfway up. Then announce that whoever can remove the $20 without moving the match can have it.

Seems impossible.

When it comes to your turn, use one of the other matches to light the match between the two glasses. The heat exchange will cause the head of the match to stick to the one glass while you remove the other and take your $20 back.

5. The Blow Hard

Grab an empty shot glass and put a dime right in the middle.

Wonder aloud if it’s possible to get the dime out without touching the glass or the dime. Challenge others to try. When they can’t, bet them you can.

Then lean near the edge of the glass and blow into it with as much force as possible. Unless you have weak lungs, the dime will blast out and drop onto the bar.

If you’re really cool, you might even catch it.

6. The Balancing Act

Take an empty glass.

Put a credit card on it so that one of its edges protrudes. Ask your friends to put a quarter on that protruding edge without it falling. After they fail, bet them you can do it.

Then remove the card, pour water in the glass to the rim, and repeat the trick. The coin will remain where it is.

7. Picking Pennies

Take precisely 17 pennies and then make it look as though you’re just randomly dumping a bunch of pennies on the table. Then ask your friend if s/he wants to play a game.

Tell your friend that you each get to draw 1, 2 or 3 pennies for each turn, and assure him or her that no matter how many pennies he or she picks up, you will always be able to draw last.

As long as your friend always goes first and the total draw for each turn is 4 pennies, you’ll always be left with the last penny.

8. The Bottle and the Buck

First, empty a beer bottle. That’s the easy part.

Then place it upside down in the middle of a $20 bill. Tell your friends if they can remove it without touching or moving the bottle, they can have it.

Once they all fail, begin rolling the $20 bill toward the bottle. Continue to gently roll the bill, being careful to not touch the bottle with your hands. The rolling motion will push the bottle off the bill and you’ll be awesome.

9. Alternating Glasses

You’ll need either six shot glasses or six small water glasses.

Take three of the glasses and fill them with water. Leave the other three empty.

Arrange them in a line, starting with the three empty ones.

Then bet your friends they can’t change the arrangement to alternating glasses (one full, one empty, one full, etc.) while moving only one glass. After they’ve thought it over and unsuccessfully moved one shot glass around, you show them how it’s done.

Simply lift the second filled shot glass, pour the water into the second empty shot glass, and put it back down. Done.

10. Make An Egg Stand

This is one of the most difficult betting tricks on the list.

But only because it’ll be difficult to convince your friends that you just happened to “by chance” have a hard-boiled egg with you.

If you can get past that part, the rest is easy.

Just bet your friends that you can make that egg stand vertically on the table. After they all try – with no success – take a small handful of salt and pour it onto the table. Then simply put the egg upright on the salt.

Have Fun!

You’ve probably noticed there’s a little cheating involved sometimes. And there will always be those times when these betting tricks don’t work. They depend on a lot of factors.

But the ultimate goal is to have a good time and enjoy yourself. After all, you’ve worked hard all day. It’s time to unwind and have some fun.

You can always detox tomorrow!

And be sure to keep checking in with us to get some more great tips on living life outside of work.