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When I was a kid I learned how to reliably cheat at a coin toss. The trick was to use the popular method where you flip the coin into the air, catch it in the p

When I was a kid I learned how to reliably cheat at a coin toss. The trick was to use the popular method where you flip the coin into the air, catch it in the palm of the same hand, then flip it over on top of your opposite wrist. And you would have the other person call heads or tails during the toss. Normally if the coin landed heads-up in your palm, it would then be tails-up on your other wrist. But with a little practice it was easy to sneak in a half-flip during that last maneuver, so heads-up in your palm would also be heads-up on your wrist. If you did all this fast enough, the other person wouldn't notice that you got a peek at the coin as it landed in your palm, so you could decide whether to do the expected final flip or the sneaky one. I got away with this for quite some time before anyone figured out what I was doing!

ta1771 7y ago
Gross.
thaumasiotes 7y ago
There's a great scene at the beginning of American Gods where the protagonist ("Shadow") is talking to a guy in a bar ("Wednesday") who wants to hire him for miscellaneous purposes. The protagonist doesn't really want to take the offer, but he humors Wednesday by flipping a coin for it. (Wednesday has already identified himself pretty unambiguously as Odin, but Shadow is quite unintelligent.) You see this sequence: > Shadow took a quarter from his pocket, tails up. He flicked it up in the air, knocking it against his finger as it left his hand to give it a wobble that made it look as if it were turning, caught it, slapped it down on the back of his hand. > "Call," he said. > "Why?" asked Wednesday. > "I don't want to work for anyone with worse luck than me. Call." > "Heads," said Mr. Wednesday. > "Sorry," said Shadow, revealing the coin without even bothering to glance at it. "It was tails. I rigged the toss." > "Rigged games are the easiest ones to beat," said Wednesday, wagging a square finger at Shadow. "Take another look at the quarter." > Shadow glanced down at it. The head was face-up. > "I must have fumbled the toss," he said, puzzled. > "You do yourself a disservice," said Wednesday, and he grinned. "I'm just a lucky, lucky guy."

ta1771 7y ago

Gross.

thaumasiotes 7y ago

There's a great scene at the beginning of American Gods where the protagonist ("Shadow") is talking to a guy in a bar ("Wednesday") who wants to hire him for miscellaneous purposes. The protagonist doesn't really want to take the offer, but he humors Wednesday by flipping a coin for it. (Wednesday has already identified himself pretty unambiguously as Odin, but Shadow is quite unintelligent.) You see this sequence: > Shadow took a quarter from his pocket, tails up. He flicked it up in the air, knocking it against his finger as it left his hand to give it a wobble that made it look as if it were turning, caught it, slapped it down on the back of his hand. > "Call," he said. > "Why?" asked Wednesday. > "I don't want to work for anyone with worse luck than me. Call." > "Heads," said Mr. Wednesday. > "Sorry," said Shadow, revealing the coin without even bothering to glance at it. "It was tails. I rigged the toss." > "Rigged games are the easiest ones to beat," said Wednesday, wagging a square finger at Shadow. "Take another look at the quarter." > Shadow glanced down at it. The head was face-up. > "I must have fumbled the toss," he said, puzzled. > "You do yourself a disservice," said Wednesday, and he grinned. "I'm just a lucky, lucky guy."