Don’t ‘copper’ a bet unless you know all the rules

Clay Thompson is off today. Here’s a “Classic Clay” column first published Jan. 9, 2009:

Today’s question:

I was watching a Western movie on TV, and they used the phrase, “He is coppering his bet,” a couple of times. What does that phrase refer to?

“Coppering your bet” is one of many phrases that come from faro, which in the 19th century was just about the most popular gambling game around. On the surface, faro was a seemingly simple game. The dealer spread a cloth with spaces marked for the 13 cards of a suit, usually spades. You placed your bets on the cards on the cloth and waited to see what cards came off the deck or out of a spring-loaded dealer’s box, sometimes called “the coffin.” The trick was there were something like 130 ways to bet. You could bet on a single card or on a bewildering array of splits, combinations or other mixtures too complicated to go into here. (That means I don’t understand them.)

Anyway, one thing a player could do was “copper” his bet.

If you coppered your bet, you were betting that the opposite of what you were betting would happen. Got that?

For instance, if you coppered a bet on 10 you were really betting that 10 would be a losing card. You indicated your intention by putting down a copper penny or copper marker provided just for that purpose.

Carried over to real life, “coppering your bet” may mean you are picking the other side to win or betting against a choice you might otherwise be expected to make.