Absurdly High Stakes Game: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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[[The Bet|Gambling]] is entertaining.
After all, it has to be entertaining and suspenseful, or else no one would want to do it. Unfortunately, as anyone who's watched [[Poker]] on television knows, the same things that are fun to play can be painfully boring to watch.
But luckily, storytellers have come up with a way of making gambling interesting. They do this by raising the stakes to incredibly high levels, thus making this [[Serious Business]]. For example, watching someone bet $20 at blackjack will probably not be very exciting. But if the main character is going to win millions of dollars if he wins and die if he loses, then the audience may be more interested.
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** And when the game being played IS based on luck, [[Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty|cheating]] and [[Loophole Abuse]] is to be expected.
Make note: This includes some versions of [[Russian Roulette]]. [[Deal with the Devil|Deals with devils]] are also common. May lead to being [[Trapped by Gambling Debts]]. If the game is televised, it is probably a [[Deadly Game]]. If you actually wager ownership of a ''person'', then you may end up [[Lost Him in a Card Game|Losing Him in a Card Game]] or gaining a [[Wager Slave]]. Related to [[The Bet]].
{{examples}}
* The entire premise of ''[[Kaiji]]''
▲== Anime & Manga ==
*
▲* ''[[Kaiji]]'' - The entire premise of the show revolves around this. Over the course of the show the main character bets his freedom, his life, and various body parts, in order to win money. [[media:kaiji-25.jpg|These fingers]] are being bet on a game of {{spoiler|drawing lots from a tissue box!}}
*
▲* ''[[Akagi]]'' - In the final story arc for the anime, the hero plays an unusual version of [[Mahjong]] that uses clear tiles and where he bets his own blood instead of money.
* Throughout ''[[Liar Game]]''
▲* ''[[Spiral]]'' - There are a few Absurdly High Stakes Games throughout the series, but the most obvious example would be when the hero wagers that he can guess which card his opponent is holding. If he wins, he will receive crucial information, but if he loses, he will have a swarm of deadly bees released on him.
▲* ''[[Liar Game]]'' - Throughout the story, the stakes have never been more than money. However, the money involved ranges from hundreds of millions to billions of yen, and the losers are expected to pay back ''every'' yen they lose, with the Liar Game officials promising they will do "whatever is necessary" to collect on those debts.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' - In the [[4Kids! Entertainment|4Kids]] dub, almost every card game ends with the loser going to [[Never Say "Die"|The Shadow Realm.]] Even one-time characters like Panik will give you a flamer-thrower blast to the face.▼
** And it's little better in the original anime and the manga, especially the Battle City arc where every duel initiated by the [[Big Bad]] was on pain of death or maiming.<ref>which would probably kill you anyway via blood loss</ref>▼
▲** The "zero" season did this with every game, most of which were [[Fate Worse Than Death|fates worse than death,]] ranging from losing your soul and being beaten up by toy monsters, to going blind.
** During the Duelist Kingdom tournament, Yugi made up for a deficit in Star Chips by betting his life. He did this ''twice''. Panik even alluded to the idea that [[Serious Business|he considered Yugi's life to be worth only 1 Star Chip.]]
▲**
* In one episode of ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'', Jin sees a man playing shogi against himself, and comments on the best strategy for the next move. The man then offers to play Jin- if Jin wins, he gets a large pouch of gold; if he loses, the man wins his life- the phrasing is ambiguous as to whether that means slavery or immediate death. [[Perpetual Poverty|Since he needs the money]], Jin accepts.▼
▲**
▲* In one episode of ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'', Jin sees a man playing shogi against himself, and comments on the best strategy for the next move. The man then offers to play Jin - if Jin wins, he gets a large pouch of gold; if he loses, the man wins his life
* ''[[The Legend of Koizumi]]'' stakes natural resources, a fleet of F-15s, lives, and the fate of nations on [[Mahjong]].
* ''[[Gamble Fish]]'' quite often
* ''[[Mirai Nikki]]'' has characters betting their diaries and lives on a simple coin game with even odds. The game gets complicated because the diaries involved can tell the
* ''[[
** The poker game Jotaro Kujo plays with Daniel J. D'arby in Part 3 ramps up the stakes to the souls of Jotaro's friends. Jotaro even puts his own on the line. {{spoiler|Jotaro wins only through magnificent bluffing, betting ''every'' soul in play on a dud hand.}} This scene appeared in the OVA adaptation.
** Later he bets souls against Terrence D'arby, ''a video gamer''. {{spoiler|He has to cheat to win that one.}}
* When Yuusuke's gang in ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' broke into Tarukani's mansion to save Yukina, Tarukani invited his friends from the Black Black Club to place bets on the outcome of the eventual fights. When Yuusuke and Kuwabara were about to fight the Toguro brothers, Sakyo waged so much on the heroes' victory Tarukani had to risk practically everything he owned in order to accept the bet. Too bad for him the Toguro brothers were actually working for Sakyo. When Toguro Team and Urameshi Team later became the finalists of a tournament, Sakyo and Koenma waged their lives in the fight that decided the tournament. It was not the first time Sakyo bets his life, but became the first time he lost. Also, during other stages of the tournament, some other people waged their wealth and lost.▼
▲* When Yuusuke's gang in ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' broke into Tarukani's mansion to save Yukina, Tarukani invited his friends from the Black Black Club to place bets on the outcome of the eventual fights. When Yuusuke and Kuwabara were about to fight the Toguro brothers, Sakyo waged so much on the heroes' victory Tarukani had to risk practically everything he owned in order to accept the bet. Too bad for him the Toguro brothers were actually working for Sakyo. When Toguro Team and Urameshi Team later became the finalists of a tournament, Sakyo and Koenma waged their lives in the fight that decided the tournament. It was not the first time Sakyo bets his life but became the first time he lost. Also, during other stages of the tournament, some other people waged their wealth and lost.
* In the exhibition match in ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' between the Deimon Devilbats and the NASA Aliens, Aliens' coach Apollo in response to an embarassing viral video sent by Devilbats captain Hiruma, furiously announced that if the Aliens doesn't win more than 10 points, they will never return to America. Hiruma in turn responded that if the Devilbats doesn't win more than 10 points, they will leave Japan. Of course, [[Loophole Abuse]] was in play when the NASA Aliens won but not by a 10 point difference. Apollo changed the name of the team to NASA Shuttles so the NASA ''Aliens'' won't be returning to America. And the Devilbats do leave Japan but Hiruma never specified that they wouldn't be returning.
* ''[[Ranma ½]]''
* The game in ''[[One Outs]]'' is technically just baseball. However, the main character is a pitcher with a bizarre contract that grants him money for every strike, and penalized him hugely for every run he lets through. This leads to some intricate and convoluted ways of 'winning'.
* [[Badass|Kenshiro]] enters into an arm-wrestling contest in ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' that cuts the loser's arm off with a table saw. Though Kenshiro wins, he [[Take a Third Option|takes a third option]] by not cutting off the [[Mook]]'s arm... just snapping it in half.
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', the Davy Back Fights is a game consisting of various athletic events where pirates actually wager members of their crews. Foxy (the antagonist of the arc where this is introduced) has won these games 920 times, gaining an enormous crew of just under 500 as a result, but they tend to cheat at them a ''lot'' - even more so in the anime's [[Adaptation Expansion]].
* In episode 7 of ''[[Bakuon!!]]'', when the principal sees that Raimu's odds in the motorcycle race are 11-to-1, she immediately slams down a 3,000,000-yen bet (roughly $30,000).
{{quote|"Oh, look, I had some loose change in my pocket."}}
* ''[[Debby the Corsifa is Emulous]]''; the protagonist is your standard demon queen succubus who wants to enslave mortal souls and drag them to Hell, and claims to be unmatched among demons. Thus, she comes to the mortal world, encounters a youth named [[Guile Hero| Sugo Rokurou]], and demands a game (he picks the venue), saying she will kill him if he loses. Unfortunately for Debbie, she is unkilled or unlucky (or both) at any game that does not involve actual combat. The first time, Rokuro chose [[Old Maid]], and Debbie forgot that her second pair of eyes gave away her game face. After losing three times, she was [[Dragged Off to Hell]], but being a [[Sore Loser]] she comes back every chapter, only to lose at ''[[The Game of Life]]'', volleyball, ''[[Go]]''... pretty much anything Rokuro chooses, and is humiliated each time.
== Comic Books ==
* The [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]] Contest of Champions must apply.
* An issue of Spider-Man had a somewhat lighter hearted version of this. The New York super heroes have a yearly poker game with twenty dollar stakes whith the winner sending their winnings to charity. Then along comes Kingpin with a rediculous amount of money. There's nothing really at stake more than pride and a good cause, but that doesn't mean it's any less entertaining to watch Spider-Man and Kingpin play out the final round with ludicris piles of chips each. (Spidy won.)
* Batman in the Silver age once played Russian Roulette to catch a criminal. The criminal had been playing with millionaires in the area, and the two participants each had to write out a will that left everything to the winner of the game. The gun had an extra safety catch so the criminal never lost. Batman discovered this with the aid of a mirror and won.
* The government in ''[[Decks Fall, Everyone Dies|Decks Fall Everyone Dies]]'' is based around dice games. The characters plan a coup d'état to bring back the old card-based government.▼
== Fan Works ==
▲* The government in ''[[Decks Fall,
== Film ==
* ''[[Thirteen Tzameti]]'' - A group of men play a modified version of [[Russian Roulette]] while gamblers bet huge stakes on the outcome. The film received an [[Foreign Remake|American remake]] called ''13''.
* ''[[Three... Extremes]]'' - In the segment "Cut," a man is forced to follow a madman's directions or else one of his wife's fingers will be cut off every five minutes.
* The [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] movie ''[[Casino Royale]]'' features an ''extremely'' high stakes poker game, both in dollar figures and global security.
** Averting the "skill-based game" bit of the trope, this was originally Baccarat in the novel. Since then, however, poker has become ridiculously popular and Baccarat has fallen into obscurity. So they changed it.
* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: Dead Man's Chest'', the crew of the Flying Dutchman play liar's dice with the only thing they have left to wager - the years of service they owe to the ship. Will wagers his soul, meaning an eternity of service, against Jones to goad ''him'' into wagering the key to the chest containing his [[Soul Jar]]. {{spoiler|Will's father takes the hit for him, only for Will to reveal he just wanted to see where Jones kept the key.}}
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* In ''Intacto'', the characters play strange gambling games, with the winner's taking the losers' luck, which is a tangible resource.
* Tarantino's short in ''[[Four Rooms]]'' involves his character betting he can light his Zippo 10 times in a row. The stakes? His thumb for a car.
** See note below re: Roald Dahl's excellent short story ''The Man From the South''[https://web.archive.org/web/20180731222657/http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/south.html
* The ''[[Saw]]'' series of films is based entirely around extremely dangerous, torturous games.
* ''[[Titanic]]'': [[The Protagonist|Jack]] wins his ticket on board in a poker game. The gamblers know it's a valuable thing to be betting, but only the audience knows how high the stakes really are.
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* In ''[[In Time]]'', people can literally gamble away portions of their lifespan. Also, people who lose arm wrestling matches will automatically drop dead.
* In the 2008 movie ''The Controller'', a businessman's wife is kidnapped, and her captors order him to play and win at a video game with her life forfeit if he loses. The problem is that he's never played a video game in his life.
== Literature ==
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** The actual stakes are ambiguous, because every player wants something different and thinks the "Piggy" ''does'' something different. It's implied that there ''is'' no real stake, and the Piggy started the whole thing itself because it wanted to travel the universe.
* ''[[Philip K. Dick|The Game-Players of Titan]]'' is concerned with the fictional game "Bluff" where players wager spouses and entire cities among other things.
* Colin Kapp's ''The Survival Game'' describes how a pair of Star Kings wager on the capabilities of two individuals, who are sent to a [[Death World]]. One of the individuals is a volunteer (he used to live there and is confident he can survive) and the other is a human who is kidnapped along with some other people. This is an [[Absurdly High Stakes Game]] not only for the individuals, who face death as failure, but also for the Star Kings who are wagering 10-50 worlds for the winner.
* In ''[[Star Wars]] Episode I: [[The Phantom Menace]]'', a dice game is used to decide whether Anakin Skywalker or his mother will go free. Qui-Gon Jinn cheats and uses the Force to flip the dice such that Anakin gets to go free.
** Star Wars characters, particularly space pirates, traders and bounty hunters, are especially fond of betting. Han Solo won the Millennium Falcon from Lando after winning a bit, and in turn Lando won the appropriately named "Lady Luck" from an opponent he was betting against.
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Retief shook his head. "Flith lost," he said.}}
▲== Live Action TV ==
* In season 5 of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', the boys come across a traveling gambler that plays for years of peoples lives instead of money.
** It should be noted that the witch doesn't cheat. He has simply gotten that good over the centuries. In fact, he will sometimes feel pity for his opponent and intentionally fold a good hand, as was in the case of an old man just wanting a few more years to see his grandkids grow up.
* ''[[Angel]]'' season 4, early on, featured a casino that would scan customers for destinies, and (in a bit of a subversion) direct those with important ones into a no-win game to have their destiny auctioned off to the highest bidder.
* Henry Coleman From ''[[As the World Turns]]'' tends to get himself in these sorts of situations.
* In episode 1.06 of ''[[White Collar]]'', "All In," Neal bets hundreds of thousands of dollars in a high-stakes Pai Gow game against a Chinese money-launderer.
** Especially considering he barely knows how to play, with Mozzie teaching him by watching Chinese movies centered on the game but with few artistic additions, such as the dreaded "Death Tile".
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** When our heroine joins the game, she is dealt a deck of cards... and a white rabbit.
** The game ends when a player builds a five-foot-tall house of cards with his hand, but is caught with a glue stick.
== Music ==
* "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"
== Tabletop Games ==
* A planet of [[The Empire]] in the ''[[Rifts|Phase World]]'' setting is run by a dictator with an obsession with games of chance. Every few years, he holds a big gambling festival, culminating with a challenge to one of the best players. If the guest wins the game, they get control of the planet. If they lose, they are summarily executed.
* In ''[[Deadlands]]'', the character type called the Huckster plays hands of poker to cast their spells, where they need to get a good enough hand..or else a demon might fry a chunk of their brain, drive them insane, or just tear their body asunder. The interesting part here being that the PLAYER is the one who plays this Absurdly High Stakes Game with his character's life.
** A similar situation exists in ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' and several of its descendants; with the Deck of Many Things, you declare how many cards you are going to draw from it first, and then your character has to draw the cards. If he doesn't draw his next card, it flips out of the deck on its own an hour after the last draw. Each card has some very permanent effect on the character, world, and sometimes even setting, so allowing a Deck of Many Things into your campaign is one of the easiest ways to break the story, if you have one.
* The first set in the Star Trek CCG had a card called Raise the Stakes. The opponent of the player either had to forfeit or agree that the eventual winner would permanently get a card from the loser's deck. It was the first card banned from tournament play.
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' had an Ante rule, whereby after shuffling but before drawing hands, the first card in each player's deck would become an Ante card. The winner of the game gets both cards. Adding to this, [http://magiccards.info/query?q=o%3Anot+o%3Aplaying+o%3Afor+o%3Aante&v=card&s=cname a few cards] manipulated the ante. This was eventually dropped, since 1) nobody wanted to risk losing their cards and 2) Wizards didn't want ''Magic'' to be classified as a form of gambling in markets where such things would be frowned upon.
== Theatre ==
* ''[[Guys and Dolls]]''{{'}}s Sky Masterson got his name from his love for this trope. He's infamous for his "crazy" bets, and in the climax of the show ([[Crowning Music of Awesome|"Luck Be]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|A Lady"]]), bets every man at the craps game $1,000 against their souls - if he wins, they have to show up at the Save-a-Soul Mission.
== Video Games ==
* Lord Alden, undefeated [[Chessmaster]] of the continent in [[Vanguard Bandits]], is more than willing to wager his powerful [[Super Prototype|Altagrave]] [[A Mech by Any Other Name|ATAC]] against a completely new chess player.
* In ''[[Arcanum]]'', at one point, you need a ship. One of the options is to win one in a game of dice.
* In ''[[
* The slots-o-death machine in [[Space Quest]]. You can win a relatively paltry sum, but roll three skulls and you are toast. The only way for Roger to earn enough cash for a ticket out of Ulence Flats is by [[Save Scumming]] or (in the remake) a magnet on the bottom of the machine.
* ''Return to Zork'' has a board game called "Survivor" with really simple rules: One player controls the Wizard and the other a common peasant. The peasant can move wherever he wants, the Wizard can only move in L-formations and leaves pits when he vacates a space. The goal of the game is for the other player to be forced to move into a pit (and thus lose). You play this game twice, and the second time is ''the final boss of the game,'' with the fate of all Zork riding on the outcome.
* The very first appearance of Rottytops in ''[[Shantae]]'' has the heroine challenged to what seems to be this type of wager. Rotty challenges Shantae to a race; if Shantae wins, she'll unlock the dungeon where the Shimmerstone is located. If Rotty wins, she gets to eat Shantae's brain. However, if you lose the race [[That One Level|(and you likely will, at least once)]] Rottytops is willing to give Shantae a second chance, or even as many as she needs. And as fans of the series knows, this will be [[Running Gag|far from the last time]] Rotty makes jokes about wanting to eat Shantae but never going through with it.
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[Last Res0rt]]'' pits several contestants against each other, and heavily encouraged to kill each other off in other to ensure their own survival until the end... most of the players are hardened criminals eager to use the show as a way to get out, but not all. ▼
▲* ''[[Last Res0rt]]'' pits several contestants against each other, and heavily encouraged to kill each other off in other to ensure their own survival until the end... most of the players are hardened criminals eager to use the show as a way to get out, but not all.
** [[Word of God]] has stated that the contestants are NOT required to kill anyone during the show. But, the stakes up for grabs are either death, going back to jail or freedom with a full pardon. The producers are waiting for the contestants to take advantage of the payoff of a full pardon of all their crimes.
* ''[[Collar 6]]'' -- Sixx makes a bet to {{spoiler|become a slave if she doesn't win a spanking contest}}.
* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', whenever you play Sburb, your planet and entire species are ''the initial wage'', the quarter in the arcade cabinet, to be lost forever whether you win or lose. The prize is {{spoiler|creating a whole new universe}}.
== Western Animation ==
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** "Over the Top" has {{spoiler|Skips arm wrestling Death for Rigby's soul}}.
** In "Slam Dunk", Mordecai eventually bets his computer privileges for life on a basketball game just so he can help Margaret make a website in hopes of impressing her.
* In the ''[[Thundercats 2011|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' episode "The Duelist and the Drifter," [[Professional Gambler]] and [[Master Swordsman]] the Duelist makes a habit of [[The Bet|betting]] swordsmen they can't defeat him and offering up his own best blade as incentive, taking theirs as trophies when they inevitably lose. When young hero Lion-O [[Throwing Down the Gauntlet|challenges]] him and tries to raise the stakes so he can win the Duelist's entire sword collection, the Duelist insists that since Lion-O has only ''one'' to offer in return, the boy should agree to give up his ''life'' if he loses. Lion-O agrees to the terms.
== Real Life ==
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[[Category:Bargain Tropes]]
[[Category:Absurdly High Stakes Game]]
[[Category:Gambling and Games of Chance]]
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