The Bet:

Place ten quarters in a row (Fig.1). Challenge someone to move the coins in such a way that one coin must jump two coins to make five piles with two coins each (Fig. 6)—and it must be done in five moves only.

The Secret:

Follow the pictures provided. Be sure to enforce the rule that two coins and two coins only must be jumped. With the two-coin rule the puzzle is very challenging.

Obviously this could be done with any type of coin. You could even use buttons if you wanted to. But the point is to get as much money on the table as possible. If your friend accepts your challenge, then tell them that they can keep the money if they can solve the puzzle within a reasonable time frame. Should they fail then they owe you the same amount of money or must buy you a drink. Regardless, even if they lose the challenge they will learn a betcha that they too can now use to win money.

I don’t know about you but when I first learned to play quarters there was a lot less thinking involved.