or..How to beat the bottle game!
Wish you could win one of those BIG prizes on the midway?Wouldn't you love to impress your girlfriend by winning her a big, stuffed animal? (thus, assuring that you'll get laid that night) Well here's how spunky!Just follow the directions and take my advice, (it just takes a little practice and patience) and you'll be getting schtupped indefinately! |
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I wrote this book/pamplet more than 7 years ago. (I'm typing this up on September 10, 1997) I had actually gone to the trouble of printing up copies of my little precious self-help book and tried marketing it in the back of Rolling Stone and a couple of cheapy tabloid papers. It was my first business adventure in marketing, and I basically lost money on the deal. (the numbers seemed too good to be true...if only ONE PERCENT of the possible millions who will POSSIBLY see my ad, then I'll be doin' OK! ....nope.) I think I musta sold about 50 copies of the stupid books. I guess there AREN'T a legion of idiots out there who will buy anything!
I wanted an excuse to see how Adobe Acrobat worked..so I OCR'ed the thing in and posted it online at my website. (www.biksco.com/eric/) Hopefully someone will go to the trouble of doing what I did to win a lousy stuffed animal. All I can say is...yes, what you are about to read actually works and you too will end up with dozens of stupid fake animals strewn about your house which you will eventually trip over.
It was a hell of a learning experience to put the original manuscript together and try to market the thing. Since no one will send me any more money, I figure I'd just give the data away. Take a look at it, hopefully someone will try it and benefit from it. (getting laid from your girlfriend cause you won her a stupid animal is one option.) If you do have some success with this, or just found it pretty silly, give me a shout e-mail, I'd love to hear what others have done with it!
Eric Bickernicks
eric@altsexmovie.com
Alright, you're now holding my book that you've sent away and waited for and have probably already peeked ahead and saw all my drawings with bottles and rings and things and you're now saying, ñO.K., what gives?î I'm gonna tell you.
First, my name is Eric Bickernicks and I've spent a lot of my time thinking of ways to take advantage of assorted opportunities when I find them. Did you know that you can rig a Pac-Man game to give you free games with a coat hanger? Sorry, I'm not going to tell that one to you, that's for another book, but this is how my mind works.
I've come up with a method of teaching yourself a skill that will be beneficial to you when you go to state fairs and carnivals. Namely, how to win at the "Stand the beer bottle up with a ring on a string" game every time. I'm assuming that most of you have already been to a large state fair or carnival that has had this game, so most of you should know what game I'm referring to. I'm also assuming most of you have already tried the various other games that you find there and haven't walked away without much more than a cheap, two inch stuffed "thingy". You're probably thinking, you can never win at those stupid games anyway. Well, I'm going to try and show you how to win at one particular game every time, and explain some of the pitfalls that many of the other games have to "trick" you into thinking they're easier than they seem.
Let me tell you a little about my success story on winning at what I call "the bottle game". Since I started to practice at home, as long as a carnival or fair has had one, I have never failed to walk out with one of their large prizes. Most of my prizes have been won for under five dollars, a lot were won on the first try, for one dollar! My girlfriend and my mother both refuse to take any more of these large, stuffed animals because they have no place to put them. I've started to sell off my collection at flea markets for $75 to $100 each. The important thing about my whole set-up is that it's FUN being a winner.
I came up with the idea of practicing at home when I was at a carnival with an ex-girlfriend. She insisted that I win her something, but I said that I didn't know how. She took this as an insult, the fact that I didn't want to blow about ten bucks on a futile attempt at something I'd never do. As you know, every male is obligated to win a stuffed animal for his girlfriend or date. If you don't accomplish this, you tend to think that she might take this as a sign of a weakness in your virility. In my case, if I didn't at least try, there was gonna be no nookie that night. Of course I then made an honest attempt at standing up the bottle, I thought I "almost" did it, but failed miserably. I noticed that the guy who worked the game could stand the bottle up every time. I thought, the lucky guy, I bet when he goes to other carnivals he'll win something for his girlfriend for sure. Then I thought, well why not just practice what he does, then I would be set for life! I went home that night and tried to recreate the game for myself. As you can now guess, I've become rather successful at doing this. I've decided that since I'm not going to make a huge financial profit at winning stuffed animals for the rest of my life, I'll write this book to teach other people what I've learned from years of winning at carnivals instead.
Let me now go over some of the other carnival games you might run into or have already tried. I no longer bother with trying to play these games. When I know a prize is waiting for me at the bottle game, I just save my money and blow it on the fried dough.
The object of this game is to throw a small plastic ring onto rows of coke bottles, trying to get a ring to land around the neck of one of the bottles. Usually you get about a dozen rings to throw for a buck. This game usually has some large prizes. This game is very difficult, it's basically luck if you get one of the rings to land around the neck of a bottle just right. I've heard that if you spin the rings very quickly, like a Frisbee, the spin will give the ring some stability in landing horizontally onto the neck of a bottle. I haven't tried this, but if you collect a bunch of those rings, you can practice at home on your own bunch of coke bottles. It seems like it would take a lot of time to learn how to do this with any consistency, but it might be worth trying. I'll have to let you know.
This game is pretty rare at carnivals, but it is one of the few games where there is no luck involved, just skill. The object of this game is to cover a circle about 6 inches in diameter which is painted on a board with five gray metal disks that are about four inches in diameter. You've got to completely cover the painted area or else you won't win. The person in the booth usually shows you how it's done. There is only one way that it can be done and that's the way the person shows you. You'll have to see this game to get a better understanding of what I'm trying to explain. If you watch carefully, the trick is to have the inner edge of the metal disks just cover the center point of the large circle. It's not too hard to learn if you spend some time watching the demonstration, but this is where the scam part comes in. Even if you do manage to cover the circle with your disks the way they showed you, they'll come up with all sorts of "technicalities" that you didn't meet when laying down the circles! One example is that I had my palm resting on the board when I started, so I didn't win. I said, "I didn't know that!" Their reply was that they said in their demo, "Do exactly as I do".
After I did it a second time they noticed a paint fleck showing from under one disk. Of course if they did the exact same arrangement in their demo, it would have been a winner. I would stay away from this game unless you are prepared to argue with the person.
There are usually two variations to this one. The first one is for a smaller prize, where the hoop is pretty close to you, about four feet, and the game is usually set up inside a booth. It's not too hard but you don't win anything great. The second one is set up with the hoop back about eight to ten feet and it's up pretty high. (Higher than where a regulation hoop should be.) This one is set up outdoors with large nets to keep the ball from rolling into the "sky diver" ride. I talked to a guy who was running one of these games and he said that a professional basketball player from the Boston Celtics had come by that day with his girlfriend and had tried to win a prize. He couldn't do it. Need I say more?
The object of this game i. to get a softball through the mouth of a large milk can. There's usually about three of these cans and they are always off the ground a few feet so you can't really see right into the opening very clearly. If you do, you will notice that the actual opening of the can is smaller than the outer rim at the top. This is great if you want to keep a lid on your milk can but not good if you want to toss a softball into it.
The object of this one is to get two out of your three softballs to stay in a wooden basket. Let me show you how they get you to blow lots of money on this one. You buy three softballs and you stand there with a look on your face like "this is easy!" You throw the first one in and it bounces out. From where you're standing, it's nearly impossible to get one in because of the angle of the basket. You throw the next one and it bounces out again. This is where the guy who took your money steps in and says something like, "No, no, you gotta toss it in gently...like this!" Of course he's standing next to the basket off to the side, so it's much easier to have one stay in. At this point there is now one softball in there so when you toss your last ball, it hits the one already in there. This deadens the bounce, and it stays in. Now the guy who took your money says, "See! What did I tell you? You gotta throw more gently! You got one in!" He doesn't mention that it was his ball that caused yours to stay in, out comes the balls from the basket and more money from your wallet. You can see how futile this is unless you can be lucky enough to get a softball to stay in on one of your first two tries.
If you feel sneaky and are ready for an argument, you can try this. You and a friend each buy a set of softballs. The first person tries until the person who took your money throws one in from the side and stays. At this point the other person who was watching quickly steps up and says, "Let me try that!" and tosses two of his softballs onto the one that's now in there. Get ready with a look of "What'd I do wrong?"
Don't expect to win anything, but it is fun shooting that air-powered machine gun. Here you try to completely remove or "shoot-out" a red star on a piece of paper with an air-powered B.B. machine gun. I used to have fantasies about owning one of these when I was a kid, but it was a good thing I didn't or else the bird population in my neighborhood would have drastically gone down. The game can be won, you'll notice they display all the winning cards starting from the day they opened in 1952. The hard part about this game is knowing if you've completely shot out the red star before it's brought back up to you from their mini firing range. Any bit of paint that's still on any thread will make you a loser. You can't see this from your firing distance. I've been tempted to accept the fact that I'm gonna lose and try to shoot a stuffed animal in half.
All these games require you to throw a ball and hit something exactly to win anything. I always wanted to know how Roger Clemens does with these games. They always have a metal sheet behind the smash the bottles game which makes a loud sound when you miss. The only point I can see for this is to cover the obscenities people yell when they fail. The rows of furry animal/pins are very deceptive because the fur makes the targets look a lot bigger than they actually are. If you're a good shot, good luck, but I can't even throw a football right.
All these games require that you can throw a dart very well. I've played darts with some really good dart throwers in assorted pubs and all of them pretty much agreed that they wouldn't win anything at those carnivals because they couldn't use their own "professional" darts. What they make you throw are darts that are in pretty poor shape and they feel nothing like good darts. You'll eventually win something if you throw enough of them but the prizes for these games usually aren't that great. Who wants another mirror with a rock group on it anyway?
The first variation of this game i5 to throw a dime onto a plate or in a glass to win that item. It's pretty easy to win a glass cup because the dime will stay in most of the time. The really interesting prizes like an oil lamp are covered with a tiny glass plate. Trying to get a dime to land on a tiny plate and stay there after you've thrown it is next to impossible. The forward momentum just skids it right off. If you were able to drop a dime straight onto the plate you might have a chance, but from where your standing you usually don't have enough space above you to arc the dime that high.
The second variation is to throw a dime onto a red spot about the size of a half dollar. A large playing field is usually covered with these. The dime must be completely in the red to win. You can also win if you can knock another dime into a red area. Your chances of winning are greater if there are already lots of dimes on the board, this gives you more things to knock around. From time to time the person who takes your money "sweeps" the board clean of dimes. The more they clean off the board, the harder it is for you to win. The trick here is to wait for a lot of dimes to accumulate in one area, then throw into that area. This is still not a guarantee that you'll win.
The object of this game is throw a plastic ball towards an almost vertical board, have it bounce off and then drop into a basket below. It looks easy but that's not the case. Like the softball into the basket game, there's usually a person there who is so "helpful" in showing you how it's done. Of course they're standing next to the board, so when they throw, it barely brushes by the board and lands in the basket. It's much easier from where they're standing. When you throw the ball, it hits the board straight on and bounces straight back at you, overshooting the basket below. A lot also has to do with how far out the basket is from the board. If the basket is farther away from the board, it's easier to get one to drop in, if it's closer, they've probably lost too many animals that night and don't want to give too many more away. The only way of winning is to have the ball just glance off the board so it drops straight down. I've seen people win by tossing very gently, but not often. I haven't done allot with this game, but it seems to me that if you either try spinning the ball very quickly to get it to drop off the board at a steeper angle, or getting down on one knee and throwing the ball in a higher arc so it hits the board with more of a downward motion, you might have some more luck. You could easily set this game up yourself and try a lot of different things to see which works best. The prizes they give out are usually pretty large so it would be worth the effort. If you figure it out then you can write that book.
With this game a row of people play and each gets a water pistol. The object is to be the first one to fill their balloon with air that's mounted on top of their clown head. You do this by firing a stream of water into it's mouth. O.K., I haven't decided yet and there seems to be no universal agreement. Does a new or old balloon break any quicker? I've noticed that I rarely win twice in a row. One thing that I've always done is to get ready before the starting bell sounds. Squeeze the trigger early, line up your shot, and then wait for the bell.
I've talked with a bunch of these people who work at these games and sometimes they'll tell you which guns work better than others. Or you can hang back for a while and try to see if one gun wins more often.
As you've probably have noticed, most of these games require you to throw something to win. I think the second you have to toss an object, you lose a lot of control over your outcome. Flying objects are much too random to have your money attached to them. People do win at these other games, but I think a lot has to do with just luck.
Other than the metal disk game that I mentioned, which is purely skill except your outcome is "judged" by the person who took your money, most carnival games cannot be beat with any consistency, except one. That is the stand-up the beer bottle game.
The object of this game is to stand up a beer bottle that is placed on a small platform. You do this with a wooden cowl that has a long string and a plastic ring tied to the end of it. By hooking the ring around the neck of the bottle, you must stand the bottle up while only holding the cowl, and have it remain standing upright on the platform when you're done. The game usually costs one dollar for each attempt. When business is slow, they'll sometimes offer three tries for two dollars. As you can see, missing often can start to add up to a lot of money, with nothing to show for it.
The person working the booth will always demonstrate how it's done. He will do it in front of you from where your standing. He makes it look easy. He can do it because he works there and he's had time to practice this technique. The important point here is that once you know how to do it, it requires no luck to repeat it. Once you've stood that bottle up just like the person who showed you, the whole carnival would have seen it and they cannot "disqualify" you in any way and refuse to give you your prize.
Once you've learned how to do this, you will be able to walk into any carnival that has a "bottle game" and be a winner. Now the really fun part is that some carnivals have more than one "bottle game"! I went to one state fair and they had FIVE. I won a prize at every one of them. I had a hard time driving home because my car was filled with stuffed animals.
The prizes they give out are always quite large. They figure that it'll just be pure luck if anybody does stand the bottle up. Nobody would bother to practice the technique of doing it, just to win a couple of hundred dollars worth of stuffed animals. They think everyone would rather throw a dart and win a stuffed four inch banana. Let me tell you now, the best part of winning one of the largest prizes at a carnival is the look on everyones face when you walk past them holding this huge teddy bear. Anybody can learn how to do this with a - little practice and patience, but then most people wouldn't bother. Another point is when you've LOST a lot of money to a person who looks like one of the family members in the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", winning something from them makes you feel a whole lot better.
I've noticed over time that there are a lot of subtle variations to the game that I didn't realize when I first started, but with practice, I've had no problem mastering them. There are also a lot of other tricks and tips you should know so you can win the most prizes for your efforts. I'm now gonna show you how to set up your own bottle game at home and how you should practice.
What you're going to need are the items listed and shown on the next page. I've tried to make my set up as close as possible to what you would usually encounter at a fair. The important part here is that you should strive to make everything so it has the same "feel" as an original carnival game. You don't want to be putting money down on your attempts and end up not feeling too confident because it's just "not the same".
Take a careful look at the photograph on the first page. It shows an actual bottle game. You should refer to this image if you get confused on how I set things up. You are trying to recreate this scenario for yourself.
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| (A) 1/2" diameter wooden dowl (36" in length) (B) Eye ring screw (C) 58" length string (when tied to dowl and ring) (D) 2 3/4" diameter plastic ring (same one used in the ring toss game!) (E) Bar bottle/long neck (Budweiser or Miller) (F) 35" (33" +2") "Fake" railing (made out of 2x4's) (G) 10" x 12" Formica board (or very smooth wood) (H) Wooden frame (made out of 2x4's or 1x4's) (I) Plastic cassette case (or 5/8" thick wood |
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(A) Approx. 10" distance (but try it from 1" to 15")
(1) Lift the bottle up and have it stabilize. Don't go any further
(2) From this point on you should have a feeling that the ring is
(3) Make sure the ring does not slip off at this point.
(4) You should quickly let the ring slide to the base of the neck. |
One of the first things I had problems with is the plastic ring. When I first started, I didn't realize that it was plastic. I thought it was made out of rubber. I ended up using a rubber dog toy ring. This never felt right because the rubber didn't slide on the neck of the bottle like a plastic one does, and besides, my dog was pissed. I soon discovered that they use the exact same plastic rings used in the ring toss onto the coke bottles game. (Take a guess where you can find them.)
Another important aspect is the bottle. Make sure you get an official "bar bottle", do not use a regular throw away kind. They're not the right shape. Bar bottles might take some looking for but they shouldn't be that hard to find.
The square platform that the bottle will be resting on should be made of very smooth material. The carnivals usually use a small piece of Formica. The game will be too easy if you use something that the bottle can "hold" onto. When you first start practicing, you should notice that the bottle may sometimes slide right off the platform if you lift it incorrectly.
The "fake railing" that you will have is also important. It gives you something to work over. If you've tried the real game, you may have noticed that if you stand a certain way, the top beam will block your view of the bottle. You must learn how to deal with that stupid beam because it will be there when you actually try. It teaches you where to position yourself in relation to the platform. When I first started doing this, the end of the cowl would keep hitting the beam, making me lose control of the bottle. You will also be moving the "fake railing" closer and farther from the platform to recreate different set ups that you may encounter.
The platform is almost never set up perfectly horizontal to the ground. A slight tilt is applied to the wooden frame and platform which makes it possible to stand a bottle upright on it. This is done by putting a thin piece of wood or a plastic cassette tape box under one side. This seems to give the frame just the right tilt.
Make sure you use a wooden cowl that is close as possible to 1/2" in diameter. This also helps in getting the right "feel" in using the "bottle fishing rod". You don't want to use something like a broom handle, nor do you want to use something that's too thin. The cowl that you use should not bend when you lift up the neck of the bottle.
Assemble the "fake railing" and wooden frame for the platform as shown in the drawing. Place the Formica platform onto the middle of the wooden frame. The cassette box should be placed under the side of the frame farthest from you so the frame and platform very slightly tilts towards you. The bottle should be placed on the Formica platform with the neck pointing towards you, there should be about 4 inches of space in between the base of the bottle and the top of the platform. It should have enough room to stand up without falling off the far edge.
Set the "fake railing" about 10" from the tip of the bottle. Later you'll be moving this railing closer and farther away to simulate different variations. Hold the dowel in one hand about 3/4 of the way down. I've seen some people do this game while holding the very end of the dowel, so your going to have to experiment to feel what's right. Do not hold the dowel with both hands to steady it, you'll be extending your arm forward to complete the motion of standing the bottle up. You will need all the reach you can get to have the bottle to stay up.
Stand behind your "fake railing" so you can see the tip of the bottle over the top bar. I like to stand with the same foot forward that matches my hand in which I'm holding the dowel. Carefully hook the ring around the neck of the bottle just past the two bumps where the bottle cap is placed. The ring must be lined up perpendicular to the rest of the bottle, it should not have a slight turn to it. If you have to, put the bottle down and try lifting it again. Do not try to lift the bottle with the ring in the middle of the neck or at it's base. When you try to lift it, the ring will just slip from it's position and you'll lose control.
Lift the bottle up about an inch. You may notice the bottle will start to sway a little from side to side. Do not try to lift any farther until you get the bottle to stabilize. The bottle must be pointing directly at you, perpendicular to the fake rail and parallel with the sides of the platform. By giving the dowel a very slight up and down jiggle, you should be able to get the bottle to settle into a tiny groove in the ring and at it's base. My feeling is that the very tiny grit on the base of the bottle keeps the bottle from rolling ever so slightly.
I hope this makes sense, because it's important that you start the lifting motion in this proper position. If you start to lift the bottle when it's crooked, you'll never get it. It will just start to roll on you once you've reached a certain height.
The entire motion of standing up the bottle is done in an arc. You don't lift the dowel straight up like you just hooked a fish. If you watch the person who works at one of these games, they will never let the ring leave the bottle. Let me explain how the whole ploy works.
When an unskilled person tries to do this game, they always hook the ring around the neck and lift straight up. Once they get the bottle almost all the way up, the ring slides off and the bottle keeps on going. The bottle might come up to an upright position, but the momentum pushes it forward. The bottle twirls around and drops off the platform. "Oh, you almost got it!" screams the guy who took your money. They figure, "he's right! I almost did!", so out comes another buck.
The entire trick to this game is once you've stood the bottle up, you have to keep it standing! Don't forget, you're trying to stand a bottle up on a slightly tilted surface. There's a reason for this. If you did this on a perfectly horizontal surface, once you've lifted the bottle upright, the forward momentum pushes the bottle forward, knocking the bottle over. On the slightly tilted surface, once you've lifted the bottle upright, the downwards tilt of the platform cancels out the forward momentum of the bottle. What happens next is when the bottle stops going forward, it sort of recoils and starts to fall back downhill. This is where you use the ring and string to keep it from falling back downhill. After a few seconds of holding it there to steady it, the bottle stays put.
Boy! I sound like Mr. Wizard! If you have a tattoo machine you can burn this into your skin: THE RING BUST NEVER LEAVE THE BOTTLE! (I've left space so you can write in more of your own exclamation marks.) If the ring slides off, you've failed, don't even think you were close. It's amazing how many people think that just because the bottle was upright for a second, they almost had it.
The entire lifting motion should be done in a smooth manner. If you do it too quickly, the bottle will just flop forward, too slowly and the bottle will start rolling around. What I like to do is to keep my arm pretty stiff, I don't start the lifting motion from my wrist. I lift my whole arm ever so slightly. Once I've got the bottle starting to come up, I don't just push it forward, I lift my back heel up so my whole body slowly rocks forward. From there I keep going forward with my body and adding a little lift with my arm until my waist reaches the rail. Once you can't go any farther, then start to extend your arm forward to get the bottle all the way up. This whole movement has a feeling of an arc, you don't just shoot the dowel straight out from you like a sword thrust, the bottle will swing left or right on you. If you try to lift straight up, the ring will slip off. About 3/4 of the way up, you should have a feeling that the ring is just about to let go on you. This will keep the bottle from wanting to sway left or right as your lifting it.
Next is probably the hardest part of the maneuver to time. As the bottle starts to come to an upright position and it's about to rock flat on it's base, you've got to let the ring slide down the neck to the base of the neck. This should happen pretty much at the same time. The bottle has now "landed" upright, but because it's on a slightly tilted surface and it still has some kinetic energy from the lift, it still wants to go someplace, like back over on it's side. This is where you keep the bottle upright and in place with the ring at that instant. Once the bottle stops it's slight wobbling, it will remain in it's upright position. It's important that you don't pull too much on the ring just as you've stood the bottle up, or else you'll pull the bottle over.
If you find this whole procedure difficult at first, well, it should be. The first night I started practicing, I probably got the bottle to remain standing about a total of three times. It takes a while, but you'll get it. If I can do it, so can you. I'm certainly no circus acrobat.
Something I've recently figured out is to put two large books on either side of the bottle on the platform. This is like putting training wheels on to help you learn how to do it. They keep the bottle from swaying as your standing it up. I would use these to help you first get the timing right, then as you get better, use thinner books until you can do it without them.
You've now gone to your first real game and have won. You could start jumping around and making a big scene and attracting attention to yourself, but don't forget, not too many people win at this game so you don't want to be remembered as the person who easily "took" one of their prizes that they paid for. Even though there is a limit of only one prize per carnival that they impose on everyone, the same carnival might be back in your area later that year. You don't want them to refuse to let you play again some time in the future. I've been asked many times if I've ever worked at another carnival and if I'm just taking advantage of them. They just don't like to be outsmarted.
The hard part now is once you've won about a dozen of these prizes, it's hard to put on an act that you're really surprised and excited that you actually did it. I usually let my girlfriend pick out the prize and then I hide behind her. I'm stressing the part about being humble and going unnoticed, because at some point you may get greedy and want to come back for more. If you win the first time, they have to give you your prize. Since I usually win within three dollars (a lot of times I can do it on the first try) they always make sure to tell me to beat it and don't come back. You may notice sometime there are different people working the afternoon shift and evening shifts. At this one state fair, I had come earlier in the week and won a large prize at their bottle game. Later that week I came back and played at the same game in a crowd of people. I won and everybody was watching. They might've noticed who I was but it would have looked bad for their business if they refused to give me a prize. Everybody would have wondered what had happened. How come that guy didn't get his prize? I'm sure everyone would not have played too long after that.
I usually don't do that too often. I've basically run out of space to put any more animals in my house. But I've noticed that a few people do. I once showed up at a state fair ten minutes after it opened. Hardly anyone was there so I shot right up to one of their bottle games. I won on the first try and took their biggest prize. I must say the looks on their faces was not pleasant. I took one of their best animals for a buck. Nobody had even had a chance to see it! The guy who worked the booth was pissed. He started accusing me of being the guy who came back twice in one day at their last set up. This wasn't true, I had never even seen him before. If I was running one of these games, I would be miffed too. Since nobody else was around, he practically threw the prize at me and told me to beat it. This was a good lesson, don't make the people who work these games feel like they were robbed. If you win when a lot of other people are around, they get to make a big production out of you being a winner. The bells go off and they announce that you've won to everyone within megaphone range. It's sometimes fun to wave your arms and yell along with them. This attracts more business for them and you feel pretty good. Of course afterwards they'll tell you very quietly to never come back.
Another point that you should know about how to win is that a lot of carnivals, especially the larger state fairs, have more than one bottle game! With the state fairs, they usually get a couple of different carnivals to join together for the event. The most bottle games I saw at one state fair was FIVE! Usually you find two or three.
Now what you must realize, is that everyone who works the midway knows about each other. They'll always separate the games so one doesn't receive more business. They also know what prizes are given out at each game. One bottle game might give out large white panda bears, while the other might have those stupid cheap horses. If you win the white panda bear first, and then go strolling up to the second game with it under your arm, THEY WILL NOT LET YOU PLAY! They will know that you got the panda bear at the other bottle game because that's the prize they give out. Don't bother trying to tell them that you won it at the ring toss game, they're up on these things. They'll tell you that you can only win one prize per fair, their animals or the other games.
How do you get around this? Simple, make a plan of attack. Find out where all the bottle games are located. Next, find a way of going around one game without being seen. If you've watched Monty Python, you should know the importance of "not being seen". (It's my book, I can make any dumb jokes I want!) I like to stake out the fair first. I'll have a good time, stuff my face, and then go on the rides. (Sometimes it's a better idea to go on the rides first, then stuff your face. Another thing, don't you hate it when you're on the Ferris wheel and some little punk starts to spit out of his car when he's above you? It makes me want to put him on the "zipper" ride and leave the door open.) It's a pain to have to lug those stuffed creatures around all night. Once I know I'm about ready to leave, I win a prize at the booth that's closest to the exit. I take that prize and bring it back to my car, making sure that I'm not seen carrying the prize by the other booth. That's number one. Next, I go back in and win the second one. Now I'm safe, I can stay a while little longer, show off, or I can take it back to my car and leave.
You can see that when I found the state fair with five bottle games, I had to take long hikes to be able to win at all five games. I did it and my car was stuffed. I had to keep walking past the person who worked the gate five times with a different animal each time. You should have seen the look on that persons face! I won all the stuffed animals in a span of thirty minutes. He must have thought they were giving the damn things out!
I've encountered a bunch of slight variations of the game that you should be aware of. These shouldn't be that difficult to master once you've got the hang of it. You should practice these just to make sure you feel confident and possibly to save you a few dollars on you attempts.
There are some distractions that you'll find when you are actually at a carnival that you can't get used to at home. These include wind, noise, and other people that might get in your way. Wind is something that can't be helped. If it's very windy, you should try to come back on another day when it's calmer. I've seen gusts of wind come by and blow half the bottles off their platforms. If that's the only time you can play, you're going to have to wait for a calm spot and go for it. I've noticed it's generally calmer at night.
Many state fairs and carnivals are set up on large parking lots. Not too many of these are perfectly level. I've seen some bottle games that have a definite slant to them. One side is facing uphill, the other down. When you're playing on a tilted surface, the bottle tends to roll or fall downhill. This makes your life that much harder, so it's a good idea to play either facing up or down hill.
The people who work the game are sometimes a distraction too. They're not trying to be, but they have to keep walking in front of you to take the money of other players. You don't want to poke anyone with your cowl just at the critical moment when you've got your arm extended all the way. This is just a nuisance that screws you up physiologically.
An important variation that you should practice is how far the bottle neck is from the railing. I've seen some games where the tip of the neck is almost directly below the railing. This makes it very hard to look over the railing and lift the bottle while holding the cowl steady. You have to start your lift while looking under the railing. This causes you to lose sight of the bottle behind the railing for a moment when you lean forward and extend your arm. As long as you started the lift on center, this is not too much of a problem but it takes some time getting used to.
Practice with as many different distances from the bottle to the railing as possible. You should learn how to be able to do it when the tip of bottle is just below the railing to about fifteen inches out. When the whole platform is out farther, you have to hold the cowl closer to the end. This makes it a little trickier to keep the bottle steady but you shouldn't run into this type of set up too often.
You also might want to try different railing heights and string lengths. Put books under the legs of your fake railing to give yourself more height. The higher you go, the more likely you'll hit the railing with the end of the cowl. Some games have longer strings on the end of their cowls than others. I've given you my estimated average length that I've always practiced with.
Try putting more of a slant to the platform by using something a little thicker than a cassette case. You shouldn't try to add too much or else it becomes nearly impossible to do. I won one of my biggest prizes at a state fair that had a bottle game with no tilt what so ever to the platform, it was completely horizontal to the ground. Then how did they stand the bottle up themselves, you may ask. They had the hugest prizes I've ever seen, and they knew they weren't going to be giving too many away. Because the platform was level, if you did get the bottle upright, it would just keep going forward and fall over. How they managed to do it was the guy would start to stand the bottle up as usual, but just as he got the bottle upright, in one motion he would let the ring drop down to the base of the neck, twirl the string and ring in a circular motion so it faced him and gave the bottle a slight pull towards him so it would not fall forward. He was the only guy who could do it at this game. I got lucky and managed to pull it off by lifting the bottle up VERY slowly and keeping the string taunt to steady it when the bottle settled upright.
I have only seen this type of set up once, so I'm not sure how important it would be for you to put in too much practice for this very tricky maneuver. I remember that they were charging two dollars a try for the bigger prizes so you better feel pretty confident if you find one and should give it a shot.
The other major variation to the game is that sometimes they set it up backwards! The photo on page one was taken next to one of these "backwards" game! The bottle is set up facing away from you so you have to lift it towards you. I guess they figure that if too many people start to get good at doing it one way, they just set it up the other way and try to trip up everyone. This is not too common because they also have to learn how to do it themselves if they want to keep attracting people by showing you how the game is done.
What you want to do is first place the platform and bottle about 27 inches from the bottom of the railing. Put the cassette case under the side of the frame that's facing you, so the platform tilts away. Place the bottle on the platform with the neck pointing away from you. The string length that you will be using should be about 48 inches in length when tied to the dowel and ring.
With one foot slightly forward, stand with your waist up against the railing and your back straight. Choke up just enough on the cowl so when you extend your arm, the ring will hang in front of the opening of the bottle. Basically the movements are the same as you have practiced in the other method, just reversed. If you need a little more reach you should try lifting your back heel slightly, this will push your body forward a little more. First you lift the bottle up slightly and get it to stabilize. You will be making the same arcing motion when you lift the bottle, but you'll be pulling the cowl to you this time. Don't just yank the string towards you, lift the whole cowl and bottle up from your shoulder. Start by lowering your back heel and slightly rock your body away from the railing. You should have the same feeling that the lip of the bottle is about to let go of the ring when the bottle is half way up. Once the bottle is about to tip upright, you should be lowering the dowel to complete the motion. As the bottle comes upright, you should now drop your arm, let the ring slide down the neck and keep the string slightly taunt. In this position you should be holding the cowl down by your waist with the string near or slightly touching the railing in front of you. Keep the string slightly taunt until the bottle comes to a complete rest.
There, it's up. This variation of the game takes a broader motion to complete. I don't think one way is any harder than the other to do. I originally learned this way first because of this one certain carnival that always came to my area. Once you've learned how to do it this "backwards" way, you should then give yourself some variations to try. The same variations that you practiced with the first method apply to this set up. Try moving the whole platform closer and away from you. Change the length of the string, etc. You should master both ways of standing the bottle up so you will never be in for a surprise.
Guess what? I think I'm done. I can't think of anything else that I can tell you on what I've learned. A couple of last thoughts. When you do finally learn how to win at this game and you think your going to get greedy and will want to go back and win a second prize, you might want to try wearing a disguise. I once tried wearing glasses and talked in an English accent. The guy knew who I was immediately. It was pretty embarrassing. He wanted to know why I was talking in this funny accent. Like I said, not too many people win at this game so they tend to remember who has won. If you are wacky enough to try this approach, make sure you come up with something better than I did.
Here's another late breaking story. I just recently talked with a friend of mine who is an excellent dart thrower. His life is basically spent in a pub. He told me that he was able to win pretty consistently at the dart games. Once he does manage to win a pile of those cheap, painted mirrors they give out, they shut him down! Boy, what a lucky guy. I don't know what I would do with all those mirrors.
Well, that's it, I would say "good luck", but now you don't need it.