Stakehouse

Stakehouse is a betting game where nothing is hidden except the order of the draws. Four jars each hold twelve tokens — somewhere between three and nine of them gems, the rest duds — and the exact count left in every jar is printed right on it. The bottom token of every jar sits face-up, and the payout ignores it. You start with 100 chips and need 150 after twelve rounds to beat the house. Each round you spread chips across the jars in steps of five, or shove everything onto one, then commit, and all four jars give up one token at the same moment whether you bet on them or not. A gem returns your stake times that jar's multiplier; a dud swallows it. The multiplier comes straight from the remaining odds, then is trimmed slightly below a fair payout, so on the counts alone there is no free money on the table — a jar offering ×5 offers it because it will probably miss, and the floor token is where the edge hides. And the odds move under your feet: a jar that keeps coughing up duds grows richer and riskier at once, while one that drains its gems early goes dead and can no longer take a bet. Newer players chase whichever jar glows hot; seasoned ones size each stake to the real gem ratio, back the jars sitting on a dud floor, and remember that a bankroll of zero ends the run outright.