Wits And Wagers
Wits And Wagers
- Wits&Wagers is a fast-paced party game with a unique combination of trivia, gambling, and social interaction
- You’re always involved in the action because everyone answers every question
- MENSA Best Mind Game 2006
- Players: 3 – 7
- Ages: 10 and up
Wits and Wagers, the game of guts and “guesstimates”, is a fast-paced game that combines the most interesting elements of trivia with the excitement of gambling. Players can win by making educated guesses or by having the guts to bet on the high-payout answers of their friends. Whether it’s the dramatic “all-in” question or the thrill of winning more chips, Wits and Wagers makes any gathering a party!
Rating: 
(out of 92 reviews)
List Price: $ 29.99
Price: $ 16.99
September 1st, 2010 at 9:29 am
Review by Daniel L Edelen for Wits And Wagers
Rating:
Wits & Wagers is the trivia game that levels the playing field for those who can’t abide trivia games. Even a child can play this and win. The skill comes more from making smart bets than answering correctly.
COMPONENTS
The game comes with a set of question cards that ask questions that even Jeopardy! players would find hard to know. (Such as “How many elevators operate within the Empire State Building?”) The cards are nicely designed and sturdy. The answers come printed on the backs and include extra details to flesh out the interesting nature of the questions.
The players bet on a betting table board (fabric over a rubberized back in the first edition, felt in the second). The betting board contains a series of odds that run from the middle at 1:1 to the ends at 4:1. Each players selects one of seven colors and receives two wooden bet markers painted in their color. Players then receive a dry-erase marker and a small dry-erase board framed in their color. They also receive ten red chips (worth 5 pts each) and three blue (10 pts). A 30-second sand timer limits stalling on answering questions or betting.
PLAY
A game consists of seven questions. A question with a numerical answer is read from the card and the timer set. Each player writes his answer on his dry-erase board. When time is called, the player’s answers are placed on the betting board according to their spread; the response in the middle of all answers is placed at the center of the betting board at 1:1 with the rest spread in numerical order across the betting positions (with increasing odds against) on each side.
Players are then given 30 more seconds to bet once the answers are in place. They can bet on two answers up to 10 point chips total, tracking their bets with the bet markers. The answer is then read. The response on the betting board closest without going over is declared the winner. Chips are then doled out according to the odds to the players who won on that bet. All other bets are cleared form the table and go into the bank. The player who provided the winning response gets one additional blue chip.
The final question allows players to go all-in. After that final solution is read and chips doled out, the person with the most points in chips wins.
PROS:
* A unique approach to trivia games. The dual nature of the play (answering, betting) mixes things up.
* Anyone can win, even if he doesn’t know all the answers. Good betting can compensate for bad responses.
* The questions are intriguing.
* Though the instruction booklet is daunting, the game play is simple.
* Up to seven people can play.
* A complete game can be played in only twenty minutes, allowing for multiple rounds.
* The game components are well-made.
* Plenty of question cards help maintain question freshness.
* Because the answers are all numerical, it makes it harder to remember answers in later game play should a familiar question arise (especially since many of the answers are minutia).
* Because of the betting aspect of the game, even responding with the correct answer from time to time may not guarantee a final win.
* When played at large parties, even non-players can get involved in the fun.
* Easy to learn and explain.
CONS:
* Can be slow the first time it’s played (though familiarity brings the speed up considerably).
* The rules for spreading the answers across the board, especially if a couple players give the same response, can be tricky at first.
* The game does involve a Las Vegas style of wagering, and not every crowd may feel comfortable with the “gambling” aspect.
* The all-in final question has the tendency to negate good play on previous questions. (You may wish to alter this rule to set a limit on how much players can bet on the last question.)
People who have played this game with us enjoy it a great deal. Many people like trivia questions and some of these are just outlandishly hard. But that’s the point. Most people aren’t going to know these answers, and that’s where the betting aspect heightens the fun.
While Wits & Wagers may not be the ultimate party game, it’s got a lot going for it. Because of its two-pronged play, the game enables a wide variety of people to enjoy it. What more could one desire in a game?
September 1st, 2010 at 9:47 am
Review by J. Shields for Wits And Wagers
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I received Wits & Wagers as a gift last year and have since given it to four different friends. People love this game. It’s fast (everyone answers each question), fun (lots of interaction – you’re betting on your friend’s guesses) and easy to play (the rules sound complicated, but they are not). Besides a few date/year questions, it’s pretty hard to embarrass yourself and the gambling levels the playing field. The way the game is structured (with a no limit final round), almost everyone is in it until the end too. Unlike some other trivia games, this one lends itself to mixed crowds of trivia buffs and children. Knowing lots of trivia really won’t help you all that much, as smart bets are the key. I highly recommend this award winning game!
September 1st, 2010 at 10:15 am
Review by F. Widjaya for Wits And Wagers
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This review will be a bit unusual. Instead of reviewing the game normally I’m going to tell you the story of how our first game of Wits & Wagers went.
If you simply want to read the summary of what I think about Wits & Wagers, here it is: It’s one of the best party games your money can buy. It’s got all the hallmarks of a great party game: Fun & Exciting, light, family friendly, easy to learn, and short gametime to allow for multiple playings.
So that’s it. But if you want to know how our first game of Wits & Wagers went, read on.
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I had not been into the gaming scene for a long time, and in my small collection I had zero party games. This led me to do some searching around for the ONE party game that will make it to my tiny collection.
I had come across Wits & Wagers in my searches and found the premise of the game to be very interesting. However, being a value (read: cheap) gamer that I am, I wanted to wait to place my order as a bulk to save on shipping cost. When North Star Games graciously offered a 2nd edition copy to be reviewed, I immediately jumped on the opportunity. After a few days the game arrived.
I then waited and waited, and waited for the right opportunity to introduce the game to our group. Having read the rules and learning about the overall sense of the gameplay I have a feeling that the game will do better with more people than it would with less. Our group consisted of some casual gamers and many who are non-gamers. When we finally had our Christmas gathering, I did a headcount and there were twenty-three people left after dinner. There were 4 simultaneous games going on and one group just finished a game. perfect.
I walked to my game shelf and pulled Wits & Wagers out. As I began to lay the game board on the table people saw the poker chips and began to wonder: “What kind of game is this? Gambling?” One guy commented on the nice glossy feel of the board. Some other dude started to get excited and exclaimed “Wooo, I’m going to whoop everyone’s butt if this is a gambling game!!” I just smiled and carried on.
There were 7 people so we had enough for 7 teams. I handed out the starting betting chips to everyone. I handed out the answer sheets and the markers. At this point some people starting to wonder about what kind of game it really is.
Then I started my introduction with my best Drew Carrey impersonation (as best as an Asian Drew Carrey could do): “Welcomeeeeeeeee to Wits & Wagers!!! Where teams will compete, some will rise and some will fall, to answer corrrrrectly. Wits & Wagers is a game of trivia, and a hint for all of you, the answers will always be a positive number. After I read the question, you may write your answer in the pad I gave you, and put your pad on the board face down!!.”
At this point someone wondered: “But we only have 1 pad.. how many questions do we have to answer? Ohh.. wait… you can easily erase the answer! Cool!!”
“Alrighttttt… everyone ready??? Here’s yourrrrr first question.” I started reading some question about the fastest speed of a fish ever recorded. Everyone immediately groaned because they never heard of such trivia. The same dude who said he’s going to whoop everyone’s butt already mumbled “Oh man, I’m going to lose so bad..”
And that’s exactly the point of Wits & Wagers, some of the trivias are so out-of-this-world that you WONT know the answer… but knowing the answer is NOT the ONLY way to win this game.. which these guys will soon find out.
“Alllrightttt… time’s up! [gasp in the crowd] Put down your answers, and lets reveal them together on the count of one… two… three!!” Everyone flipped their answers and immediately they made fun of each other’s answer. Much Laughter ensued when one MATH teacher put down “415 mph” as her answer.
I sorted out the answer, and I told them. “OKKKK…. now you may put down your bets! Bet on which answer is the closest without going over! The payouts are shown at the bottom of the column!” At this point everyone understood how the game works. I didn’t even explain the rule beforehand. This is one of the hallmark of a great party game: Anyone can just start playing the game and immediately have fun.
“Annnd… the answer to the fastest speed of a fish ever recorded iiiiiiissss…..” (dramatic pause) I blurted out the answer which was on the 60s.. and everyone’s expression was priceless. More laughter. More teasing. There’s one person who reaped the prize in the form of more betting chips.
Then someone asked me: “Hey, how many questions did the game come with? At this pace we’re going to run out of questions really soon.” I showed them the stack of cards with 7 questions each (700 total), and how NorthStar Games give additional question to be used from time to time. He nodded.. “Ahh yeah, this way we wont get to the same question until many, many games in the future.”
Then something happened. On question 3 one person exclaimed: “Oh, I know this!! I read it somewhere before!” and started writing down her answer confidently. When the betting time came, 3 or 4 teams put their bets on her answer. Her answer was wrong. More hilarity ensued.
By question 4 the other 2 games that were going on was also finished and they all gathered around our table. After our first game which only took 20 minutes or so everyone else wanted to play too, so we ended up having 7 teams of 2 people each, many of them couples. It was hilarious seeing couples argued on the answers, and many “I told you so!!” comments after the answers were revealed.
By the third game, EVERYONE gathered around our table. The laughter got louder. The bets got more furious. The questions didn’t get any less ridiculous.
As we said our goodbyes that night, one girl asked me “hey, what was the answer of the fastest fish question again?”
And that’s how our first game of Wits & Wagers went.
September 1st, 2010 at 11:04 am
Review by Dominic Crapuchettes for Wits And Wagers
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This is not your typical trivia game. In fact, all of the useless information that trivia nuts memorize won’t help them with these questions! Instead, players are asked to make good estimates. Imagine that, you have to use your brain with this game to come up with smart judgements. So it is not even a trivia game: it’s an estimation game! But that is not even correct, because it is a betting game more than either of these. The crux of this game is in betting on the range that the correct answer will fall in. You can do this by having a good idea of the answer, by having a good idea of who else at the table might know the answer, or by simply playing the odds and hoping!
This is the most fun party game to have come out in many years. I’m not surprised that it has won all of the major awards this year including Party Game of the Year from Games Magazine and the Mensa Mind Games award. It is very simple to teach people so you can break it out at the next holiday gathering and have a great time!
[disclaimer] I am the designer of this game. Even so, everything I wrote is 100% true!
September 1st, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Review by mathmom for Wits And Wagers
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Wits & Wagers is hands down the best trivia game I’ve played. My friends and family spent years playing Trivial Pursuit games, Tribond, Scene It, Oodles, Split Second, even Smarty Party (32 best game), but once we found Wits & Wagers the rest just collect dust. The clever twist that allows anyone to score after guessing what they think the answer is, is pure genius! Accessible to any age over 7 and up past 100. If you like trivia games and you don’t own this, add it to your cart now!