Australian Two-Up
Two up is a gambling game, which is an institution in Australia, simply based on the tossing of two coins.
The player tossing the two coins, “The Spinner”, bet’s on themselves to toss Two Heads three times before they toss Two Tails once or a mis-matched pair 5 times in a row. Players around the ring make side bets on the outcome of each toss.
People who walk into an Australian Casino for the first time are often shocked by the loud roar and regular riotous cheers coming from the Two-Up pit.
Two-Up is an old game played by the working class of England and Ireland, and in the early days of the Antipodean colonies was called Chuck-Farthing. But grew to legendary status after Australian and New Zealand soldiers spent much time playing it in the trenches during World War I.
Now days every April 25th, on the day Australian and New Zealand service men and women are remembered (ANZAC Day), it has been declared legal for anyone to run a “Two Up School” (game) or play the game, in memory of the diggers (soldiers) that played during the wars.
To give you an idea how much of a crowd participation game this is, watch this video of an aging veteran digger taking his turn as the Spinner during ANZAC day celebrations 2006. (he throws a pair of tails, leaving the crowd mostly dissapointed by the looks)
The group playing the game are called a two up “school”. The stick used to toss the coins is called a “kip”. The man in charge of the ring is called the “boxer”, and when he decides that all bets have been taken he calls for the spinner to take the kip and toss the coins with the words “come in spinner” – at which point the school generally erupts into much shouting and cheering for the toss they want to see come up next.
Also check out the wikipeadia article on Two-Up for a little more on the game’s history.
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