The other day while watching Rafferty's Card Sharks, during the Money Cards, the contestant wagered $225 going lower than a King, IIRC. I thought you could only bet your money in $50 increments except for the big bet where you had to risk at least half of the money, so if I had $1550 going into the Money Cards, $775 was acceptable?

Half the money means half the money for the Big Bet. If you had $1550 going into the Big Bet, you were allowed to bet $775 (of course, you could bet more).

My guess (and it's only a guess, but it's common sense) is that $25 increments weren't allowed prior to the Big Bet so that you wouldn't have to potentially go into cents for the Big Bet (someone has $725 with an 8--you think they wanted a potential $362.50 payout?).

Doug -- and the countdown to 1200 continues

Odd thing is, in the Perry CS GS hosts tourney, Bill Cullen wanted to risk $75 of his $100 at one point on the bottom row. Perry said he couldn't, but Bill acknowledged it and changed his bet before Perry had a chance to explain the exact problem with the bet.

Either there was a rule change, or the problem with Cullen's bet is that if wrong, it would've left him with less than the minimum bet. Personally, I don't see the problem in someone going into the Big Bet with, say, $1625 --- "you must bet at least $813..."

Weren't minimum bets $50 the whole series? If he would have lost that wager; it would have left him with $25...

Hence the problem with Cullen's wager.

Remember, for the original question: "Minimum bet is $50 -- UNTIL you reach the top card, The Big Bet, where you must risk at least half the money."

Funny, so did I. How she got away with that bet on the low row, I'll never know.

'Til I saw that episode, the only money card wagers I ever saw than ended in "-25" or "-75" were at the big bet and the player's score ended in "-50". At that point, the player would "bet half" -- and the wager ending in "-25/-75" was accepted.

Bill probably didn't know the rule and the offstage advisor was asleep at the switch before the die was cast.
I wonder how that would've been resolved had the contestant scored an amount ending in 25 or 75 at the time of The Big Bet. We shall never know. Never.

I think later in the Eubanks run, Eubanks mentioned $50 increments for the first 6 cards.

I would have LOVED to give those scoreboard operators a REAL nightmare by betting really weird. Like $72 higher than a 5, $498 lower than a jack, etc.

Here's a question...... If you had $8000 going into the big bet, were you allowed to bet $7999?

Is $7999 an increment of $50?

No. What's your point?

No, but once you hit the Big Bet, it doesn't matter--as you can wind up betting $625 if you have $1250 with a lousy card. Theoretically, it doesn't matter what the final bet as long as it's at least half.

Doug -- and the countdown to 7343 continues :)

My point was--that I thought all bets had to be in increments of $50; save for someone who had $xx50 in their pot at the big best, and could be half. Doug has since proved me wrong.

I wouldn't say that, Mark. It doesn't mean that someone could bet $7,999 on an $8,000 pot, but that there'd be nothing theoretically wrong with it since it was the final bet. Whether a hard and fast rule governing the increment of the Big Bet was actually in place is not for me to say.

Doug -- and the countdown to 1200 continues

While we're on the topic, I remember the clip on JRJ's site, where that lady had $550, and she tried to bet $225. Bob mentioned she had to bet in $50 increments.

Who came up with that kind of rule, anyway?

Someone who didn't wanna get to the Big Bet and have Bob have to say "You have $3725, you must bet at least....um......$1863."