Top 10 Bar Trick Bets You Will Always Win!

Bar tricks are great fun. They allow you to impress friends, and keep the night cheap as you'll always win. Here are the most amazing bar trick bets.

September 15, 2022・

9 min read

Nothing beats a good night out at the pub with friends! Whether you’re playing pool, or just laughing and knocking back a few pints, it pays to have a few bar betting games up your sleeve to keep things interesting and cheap, given the wagers you'd win. So here are 10 amazing bar tricks you should know to impress others and get free drinks.

10. The Bottle and Coin Trick

This is one of the simplest and easiest tricks to prepare for. All you need is an empty bottle, some small coins, and a banknote, all of which you should already have on you. To set this up, simply place the banknote on top of the mouth of the bottle, and hold it there by piling a few quarters on top of it.

Now ask your friends (or whomever you’re attempting to get a free drink out of) to remove the banknote without touching the coins or making the coins drop to the floor. Usually, they will just try to tug it and inevitably fail continuously.

That's because they don't know the trick. When you feel like it’s time to show them how to do it, simply lick your finger, and quickly snap it down across the bill. The moisture on your finger will grab the bill and pull it out from under the change, leaving it right where it was.

This will take some practice on your part, so put some time in before you try it out in public. The same trick can also be done with a business card and a single penny positioned on top of it, above the hole of the bottle. All you gotta do is flick the business card. It will fly away from the bottle, and drop the penny directly down the mouth and neck of the bottle.

9. Balancing Trick

Grab an empty glass and challenge your friend to place a credit card on the rim of a glass while balancing a coin on one end of the card.

It's impossible, and they'll fail every time unless you know this trick. All you need to do is place as much liquid in the glass as possible and then place the card on the rim. This time the water tension will be enough to prevent the card from topping over as you place the coin on the other end.

8. Note under the Bottle Trick

This one is almost always guaranteed to confuse someone, so grab a bottle and a bill! To set up, lay a bill down on the table, and then place a bottle upside down on top of the bill.

Now the challenge is to get the bill out from under the bottle, without touching the bottle, or knocking it over. Try as they might, they aren’t going to be able to get it out from under there. Unless they know what you know; which is that pulling the bill is always going to knock it over, but rolling it won’t.

Careful and steady hands are needed, so practice this one at home a bit first. If you start from the sides of the bill and roll it forwards until you reach the neck, when you slowly pull the bill towards you to continue rolling, the bill should easily slide right out from under it. Likewise, practice makes perfect with this one.

7. Pickup Glass Trick

This is a relatively simple trick to perform and only needs a glass of any sort, and two coins, quarters preferred. After balancing the coins on opposite sides of the rim; challenge your friends to lift the glass by only using two fingers, and to not drop the coins.

Most people won't be able to do this, so here's how it's done. All you have to do is quickly bring your fingers down on the coins, flattening them to the sides of the glass. You can then lift up the glass by holding the coins.

Another version of this trick involves you asking your friends to remove the coins from the glass without dropping them in the glass or on the floor, using only your thumb and index finger. Again, most people will not be able to think of a solution.

Proceed the same way as if you were to pick the glass up as described previously, but then pinch your fingers together and slide both coins to one side of the glass. Once the coins are almost touching, bring them to the rim of the glass.

Now you’ll have to flip one over the edge and inside the glass to complete this trick, so be careful not to drop it. But once you’ve got one coin inside, and the other on the outside, it’s just a simple matter of pulling up, and you’ve completed the trick!

6. Shot Glass Switch

For this, you need two shot glasses and a playing card or business card. One shot glass filled to the brim with water, and another with Whiskey or Rum, that also works. Challenge your friends to move the whiskey into the water glass, and vice versa without spilling any.

They cannot pour it into another glass, or take it into their mouth and spit it back into the empty glass. After thinking it over for some time, they will inevitably give up. This is when you produce the card and place it on top of the water glass. Now turn it upside down and place it on top of the whiskey.

Now, ever so slightly, move the card until it just barely reaches the edge of the two glasses, which should be directly on top of one another. Moving the card just a bit more creates a minor break in the seal.

However, since water is heavier than whiskey, the water will slowly drain into the bottom glass and in turn push the whiskey into the top glass. It will take a few moments so you’ve got time to take the bet from your friend and watch their stunned expressions.

5. The Race

This trick is designed to score you free drinks. It’s also sneaky rather than fancy, but here’s what you’ll need. Grab Two Pints of beer, two shots and someone to race with.

You can proceed to tell your opponent how much you love beer and that you’re really quick at drinking beer. So quick, in fact, that you are sure you can drink two pints before they can drink two shots.

They’ll likely laugh at you and take that bet. This is the first step, you’ve got them interested, and they’re sure you’re going to lose. Then you hit them with the rules. You want to lay out the rules slowly and naturally so they don’t realize you’re tricking them.

First: no touching the other person. Second: no touching the other's glasses. Third: no double fisting; you have to use one hand. Your opponent should easily agree to these rules; they are fairly reasonable.

Then you ask them for a bit of a head start. Ask them if you can start drinking your first beer, and that they can start their first shot once your glass hits the table. They should take the bait.

This is when you drink your pint. You don’t have to race through it, but get it down fairly quickly. They should be watching you and maybe even laughing at how long it’s taking. They won’t see this coming however.

When you’re just about done, remind them that they have to wait for the glass to come down, and then the real race starts. That’s when you turn your glass upside down and place it over one of your opponent’s shots.

Then tell them: ‘You can’t touch my glasses, and I can’t touch yours.” You can take all the time you want on that other beer now, because they can’t get at the second shot. It’s sneaky, but it’s funny when you can pull it off.

4. Cutting Limes with Cigarettes

For this trick, you’re going to need a lighter or matches, an everyday lime, and a cigarette. However you go about explaining the situation to your friends, just explain that they need to cut this lime with a cigarette.

Surely they aren’t going to have any idea at all about how to do this. It’s quite simple actually, so here's how it's done. First, you need to take a cigarette and light its filter on fire.

Let it burn for a few seconds, then squeeze it out; pinching the end down. Squeeze it tightly as possible and get it as flat as you can.

If you’ve done it right, the fiberglass filter will now be quite sharp and pointed. Give the cigarette filter a swing at the lime and you should be able to cut right through the skin.

3. Alternating Shots

For this trick, you need six shot glasses, three of them full. You will arrange three empty shots in a line followed by three full shots.

And then tell your friend that they can only move one shot, and that it needs to make the whole thing alternate (empty-full-empty-full). They’ll think about it, but ultimately they shouldn’t be able to figure it out.

When they ask you how it’s done, simply grab the second full shot glass, and pour it into the second empty glass. You’ve only moved one shot glass, and now everything alternates.

2. Have a Drink Out of a Closed Bottle

This cleverly worded trick only requires a closed wine bottle and a nearby shot of alcohol. All you have to do is tell someone that you can drink out of this bottle without opening it. That means without removing the cork or breaking the glass.

Thinking conventionally, it is impossible, but if you think outside the box it's not. Sure enough, they’ll call you a complete fool for even trying. And when they laugh and you go ahead and try it.

You simply turn the bottle upside down, where you should find the punt. Pour some liquid into the punt and drink it. You’ve just drank a shot from a still-closed bottle.

1. Beer into Glass Trick

You’ll need a fresh beer, a glass and a bendy straw for this one. Tell your friend that you can move the beer from the bottle and into the glass without pouring it.

Confused, they’ll ask you how that’s even possible. That’s when you put the straw into the bottle, then put your mouth around the top and blow. Make sure you’ve got the glass under the bendy part of the straw because the beer is going to fountain from there.

You’ve just transferred your beer into a glass without pouring it!

Some of these take a little more practice and effort than others, but one thing this guarantees is that you’ll have a new trick up your sleeve for the next night out you have. These are definitely fun games to play at a bar with friends! Have fun, and thanks for reading.