Here is an old story that typifies such a bet:

An elderly man had been sitting quietly in a bar, sipping a beer. He looks up at the bartender and says, "I can do some strange things, like licking my right eye."

The bartender says that he would like to see that and the man responds that he will do it for a pitcher of beer; the bartender agrees. The man removes his right prosthetic eye and licks it, gaining a free pitcher of beer. The bartender thought, "I should have seen that coming."

After he finishes the pitcher he tells the bartender, "I'll bet you $10 can bite my left eye."

The bartender thinking, "He couldn't have two glass eyes because I saw him walk in here on your own," says, "I'll take that bet."

The man removes his upper and lower dentures from his mouth and gently closes them on his left eye. The bartender, starting to feel really stupid, pays him, thinking, "If I had thought that through I could have figured it out."

The man goes into the bar's poolroom and has a great time buying drinks with his $10, talking to the other patrons and shooting a couple of games. He comes back to the bar and offers to the bartender, "Tell you what, I'll bet you $200 that I stand on the bar at this end and piss into a shot glass at the other end without spilling a drop on the bar."

The bartender, estimating a distance of almost twenty feet between the two ends of the bar, knows it can't be done. He agrees to the bet but naturally becomes increasingly suspicious. He tells the man, "Ok, but you can't use any tubes, people to catch your piss in a bucket and carry it to the shot glass or anything else, just you pissing from this end into a shot glass at the other end. If any lands anywhere but in the shot glass, you lose."

The man agrees to the bartender's conditions, stands on the bar at one end and pisses all over the bar and floor, not coming within fifteen feet of the shot glass. The man got down from the bar, went back into the pool room and returned to the bar about five minutes later, paying the bartender the $200. The bartender, ecstatic that he had finally bested the man, collected the $200 from the man and asked, "Those other tricks were very clever so I can't understand why you'd make a bet you couldn't win."

The man responded, "I did win. I bet several fellows in the pool room $1000 that I could piss on your bar and you'd smile while you cleaned it up."

Here are some examples of bar bets

Which weighs more, a pound of lead or pound of feathers? We all know that a pound is a pound whether it is a pound of lead, feathers or water. This question is used as a set up for another question asked later to the same group for a big enough bet to recoup the loss and make a profit. This question sounds about the same but is not, "Which has more ounces, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?"

Now, is a pound a pound? Feathers, lead, water, etc., are typically weighed in Avoirdupois Weight (16 ounces to the pound). Precious metals (e.g. gold) and gemstones are weighed in TROY WEIGHT (12 ounces to the pound).

Tell your drinking buddy, "If you give me a quarter, place it in my hand behind my back, I will bet you ten cents I can feel the date on it and tell you what it is." After giving a date, which will most always be incorrect, say, "Ok, I guess I lost," and give the bettor a dime. When he asks for the quarter back remind of the part of the bet, "If you GIVE me a quarter…"

A variation on this is, "If you give me a quarter…I'll bet you ten cents I can tell you the date," and then give the current date to win the bet.

Offer to play a game with your buddy, "I'll bet you can't come up with a word that contains all the vowels (a, e, i, o, u) in order." Offer to give your victim a word to start the game. Tell him that to make it harder on yourself you will come up with a word with all the vowels in order along with a sometime vowel "y" at the end of your word. The other condition is that the players can only use the same root word once. The first person that misses loses the bet.

When the victim agrees to the bet tell him, "You can start the game with the word "abstemious", and have him write it down. You write down the word "facetiously". That will be the end of the game. There are many words in English that contain all the vowels but only these two that contain them in order.

What do all these bets have in common? Typically, they all seem impossible to win but the person who proposes them always seems to win; this should tell you something. Before rushing headlong into accepting these bets, ask yourself why would someone offer such a bet without knowing they are going to win? If you still take the bet it should be with the understanding that you will be paying to see the person do the seemingly impossible. Again, why else would he offer the bet in the first place?

Anyone can make these bets. The real talent is knowing when and with whom. It is not a good idea to go into a bar full of strangers and make them look foolish in the eyes of their friends, especially when money is involved. Hustlers are not usually well received in saloons and the reaction to these bets can be painful, to say the least. If you pull off a few of these bar bets in a friendly and familiar place, among people you know, there should not be any problems. Besides, your friends will be too busy think of whom they can pull the same gag on to get upset with you.

Good luck on all your bets but watch out for those, "There's no way I can lose this bet," sure things.

Oh, by the way, did you know that people used to live in the state of Franklin right here in the United States of America? What! You don't think that is correct. Want to bet?

Mystery Dealer
I like your money management system.
Do you have any other methods.
Thanks.
Jeff

Jeff,
Thanks for the kind words. First, you have to understand that any method of money management, strictly speaking, is not a system. It is a consistent way to bet that takes advantage of trends and has worked well for me over the years. Consistency in most gaming is better than hunch or arbitrary betting even with a lack of winning trends.

The only other "method" I have employed over the years in the casinos is one of knowledge, common sense and restraint.

Learn as much as you can about your game of choice. Learn the mechanics of the game, how the game is played. There are probably bets you can make of which you were not aware, not that all of these are good bets. There are not many recreational craps players who know what a "hop" or "skip" bet is, for example. Know the best bets for the money, that is the bets that pay off closest to the real odds. Like anything else in life, the more you know the better you will do. This "method" will serve you well.

Sorry, but I do not have any magic solutions or "guarantee you'll win" systems for casino gaming. If I did I would not be here, writing this.

Thanks for writing and good luck,
The Mystery Dealer

THE AWESOME 1