History Main / LostHimInACardGame

This happens a lot with employers betting employees for whatever reason, yet the [[JustifiedTrope Justification]]- betting their employment contract rather than the employees themselves- is almost never used.

* Yudhisthira bet ''himself'', his brothers, and their wife in the ''Literature/{{Mahabharata}}''. OlderThanFeudalism.

[[folder:Mythology]]

[[folder: Puppet Shows]]
* In ''ThirtyOneMinutos'', a comedy show about a news program run by puppets, it's commented that a member of the crew, who has a gambling problem, bet his own aunt. [[RuleOfFunny Hilariously, the character in question defends himself saying that he won the game, so now he has two aunts.]]
[[/folder]]

** This is approaching OnceAnEpisode for the series, as the heroes will almost always run into a person with a Stand power that depends on gambling. Said person will also always say "GOOD!" when confirming the agreement to gamble, as if there were a family of compulsive gamblers out there...
*** Well, there ''was'' one in the third arc. Daniel had a brother, Terrence Trent Darby, who had the same power, but with video games.

** "Mastercard, proud owner of 90% of New England [*OW*] and 50% of Denis Leary's nuts" [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUJ-8R4ghXU here]].

* In ''Film/BennyAndJoon'', Joon wins Sam in a poker game.
** A bit of an inversion. She lost. Sam's cousin had been trying to get rid of him by betting the responsibility of taking care of him.

** In true pirate fashion, Davy binds the father to the Flying Dutchman for eternity, and tell Will he can depart the ship, "the next time [[they]] make port".

* Happened to American slaves before 1865 or to Russian serfs.
** Really, as slaves are the legal property of their master, there was nothing preventing slave-owners from betting their slaves wherever slavery was legalized.

* In ''IronCouncil'', Judah had to go on the run after his employer lost him in a card game. His flight was justified, as his boss hadn't actually ''owned'' Judah in the first place.

* In the RichardPryor/Jackie Gleason movie ''The Toy'', one of the sordid stories about U.S. Bates (Gleason) was that he won his servant Barkley in a game of pool.

* Bryony House in Jacqueline Carey's Terre d'Ange books is the only one whose adepts will gamble for their favours. It is said they very rarely lose. Hyacinthe's mother, a virgin at the time, was wagered by her cousin. Three guesses how that turned out.

* In ''S-Club 7 in Miami'', their boss at the hotel where they work loses them in a poker game to a rival hotel owner.

* In ''The Beiderbecke Affair'', Jill Swinburne loses her boyfriend, Trevor Chaplain, to his former fiancee, Helen of Tadcaster, in a coin-toss after a night of heavy drinking. Mrs Swinburne honours her agreement with Helen, but Mr Chaplain goes back to her anyway because "nobody wins me at the toss of a coin." It is strongly suggested that this is a new development in Trevor's persona since the time when he and Helen were engaged.

* In ''31 Minutos'', a comedy show about a news program run by puppets, it's commented that a member of the crew, who has a gambling problem, bet his own aunt. [[RuleOfFunny Hilariously, the character in question defends himself saying that he won the game, so now he has two aunts.]]

[[quoteright:346:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cardgame_8527.png]]

* ''{{Collar 6}}'': Sixx bet herself ([[spoiler: She wins]]).

* In an episode of ''SpongebobSquarepants'', Mr. Krabs bets Spongebob in a poker match with Plankton. Plankton tries forcing SpongeBob to make a Krabby Patty, but only becomes frustrated when he refuses. When Plankton finally gives up and gives SpongeBob back to Mr. Krabs, he admits he cheated.
** More plausible in that he didn't bet the sponge himself, but Spongebob's ''contract of employment.''
** Also, Spongebob didn't refuse, but was suc ha difficulty and a nuisance to work with (he had to have his work environment perfect), that Plankton becomes frustrated and returns him.

* In ''BennyAndJoon'', Joon wins Sam in a poker game.

* In ''{{Pirates of the Caribbean}}: Dead Man's Chest'', Will Turner bets his soul against Davy Jones' key on a game of Liar's Dice. His father intentionally loses, to spare Will the forfeit.

* One of RoaldDahl's short stories concerns a man who bets his daughter's hand in marriage that a wine-taster cannot figure out exactly where a wine came from. As the story goes on the wine taster only gets closer and closer to the truth, much to the daughter's horror. [[spoiler: At the end it turns out the reason he was getting so close was that he had peeked at the label before, and though the resolution isn't shown, one can presume this means the bet is off.]]

* ''Last Call'' by TimPowers is about a poker player who ''thought'' he won a huge pot in a game years ago... only to discover that he traded away his body and soul to the guy organizing the game. And now he's got to win it back before the guy comes to collect...

* In one arc of ''YamiNoMatsuei'', Tsuzuki loses his own body to Muraki in a game of poker. Hisoka deigns to save him by winning him back from Muraki.

* After the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, after an almost 90-year drought, a fake ad was aired for MasterCard that showed various Red Sox fans saying things like, "Oh, I'd trade my car," "I'd trade my house," "I'd trade my firstborn son for the Red Sox to win the World Series!," followed by a montage of these people's pledged items being ruthlessly confiscated - right up to the toddler who delightedly squeals, "[[CrowningMomentOfFunny Go Sox!]]" as he's carried away... It ended with the logo of two interlocking circles... followed by one circle falling away with a "snip" noise while someone voiced-over, "OW." Denis Leary had pledged his left nut.

* The whole point of the Shirley Temple film ''Little Miss Marker''.

** A bit of an inversion. She lost. Sam's cousin had been trying to get rid of him by betting the responsibility of taking care of him.

* ''Last Call'' by TimPowers is about a poker player who ''thought'' he won a huge pot in a game years ago... only to discover that he traded away his body and soul to the guy organizing the game. And now he's got to win it back before the guy comes to collect...
* On more than one occasion, PGWodehouse's writing featured an UpperClassTwit who includes his or her domestic servant as stakes in some sort of harebrained wager.

* Happens to Ruti in ''TheRedTent''; Laban gambles her away. Knowing she'll be mistreated (not that she was being treated well before), she appeals to Leah for help. Leah and Jacob meet the men who were coming to pick up Ruti and with some effort get them to agree to take a bunch of their possessions instead of Ruti. Unfortunately for Ruti, this results in Laban treating her even worse than before.

* ''PushingDaisies'' does this with a man bargaining his daughter off for marriage.
* In ''S-Club 7 in Miami'', their boss at the hotel where they work loses them in a poker game to a rival hotel owner.
* In an episode of ''SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'', Salem bet and lost the Spellmans in a game of poker.

-->'''Felix''': No you won't. You'll lose double or nothing and I'll have to bring in my brother from Buffalo!

* This is the driving feature behind the Pandavas' exile in the ''Literature/{{Mahabharata}}''. Yudishtra, the Crown Prince, has but one fault - a propensity to gamble. His evil Uncle Shakuni invites him to gamble with his cousin who craves the throne. However, Shakuni has cheating dice. Yudisthra bets and loses everything he owns and then begins to wager his brothers, then himself, then his wife, Draupadi. She is dragged, shrieking, by her hair, into the assembly, and is ordered to be stripped. As they do it, she cries out to Lord Krishna, who transforms her sari into a neverending sari. When they fall down from exhaustion from pulling at the folds, she delivers such an impassioned and resentful speech at Yudisthra's family - her in-laws after all - about her vile treatment, that they agree to give the brothers back their lives and change it to exile from the kingdom instead.

* Subverted in ''TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack''. K'nuckles bets Flapjack in a card game, and wins, getting another cabin boy as the prize. However, Flapjack is so insulted about this that he leaves and becomes a banker.

* In an episode of HeyArnold the freeloader Oscar bets the baby he's supposed to be looking after in a high-stakes poker game after he realizes he's out of chips. The other players refuse to accept this and storm out. Turns out Oscar had a royal flush, so it's not ''as'' bad as it looks.

* Not too long after WaltDisney left UniversalStudios--orphaning his proto-[[MickeyMouse Mickey]] character OswaldTheLuckyRabbit--WalterLantz won the rights to Oswald in a poker game with company founder Carl Laemmle.

* Happened to American slaves before 1865 or to Russian serfs.

* This almost happens to {{Empowered}}, except the others playing refuse to accept her as a bet due to the 'unwritten rules'- they don't want a superhero team after them just 'cause one idiot tried to use a heroine in a poker game, thanks.

* Done entirely seriously in the (Daniel J.) Darby the Gambler battle of ''[[JojosBizarreAdventure Jojo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' with souls and various forms of gambling.

* In the course of a long night of dice, Athos of ''TheThreeMusketeers'' stakes horses, a diamond that does not belong to him, and his servant Grimaud. After several losses, he retrieves the diamond, Grimaud, and the horse's harness— but not the horse.

'''Andy''': I know that legally Ann is now mine, but it weirdly doesn't feel that way.

* Subverted on ''ParksAndRecreation''. At this point in the series, there was a LoveTriangle in which Andy wanted to be with Ann, but she was dating Mark. While playing pool, Andy told Mark to bet Ann and he sarcastically agreed. Andy played the whole game [[SarcasmBlind thinking the bet was serious]] and won.

''[they leave, cut to ConfessionCam]''

* Subverted on ''ParksAndRecreation''. At this point in the series, there was a LoveTriangle in which Andy wanted to be with Ann, but she was dating Mark. While playing pool, Andy told Mark to bet Ann and he sarcastically agreed. Andy played the whole game [[SarcasmBlind thinking the bet was serious]] and won. After Ann left with Mark anyway, Andy commented that, "I know that legally Ann is now mine, but it weirdly doesn't feel that way." The next day:
-->'''Ann''': I hope I'm not going to have to explain to you that you don't actually own me.\\
'''Andy''': [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial Of course not. I never for one second thought that that was for real.]]

* This happens to the protagonist in one of AngelaCarter's retellings of "Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast". Her father loses her to the "beast" (she notes that it's not that he cared more about gambling than his daughter, just equally much). And then [[spoiler: he turns out to be a tiger in human's clothes and she turns into one too and willingly stays with him while sending back to her father a clockwork version of herself because clearly that's all he wants.]] This must be symbolic of ''something''...

* A variation of this in ''{{Kuroshitsuji}}'' when Ciel and Sebastian meet the spirit of a dead prince in a castle Ciel recently purchased. The prince and Ciel play a game of chess to pass the time, and Ciel reluctantly bets Sebastian, because the prince's [[CuteShotaroBoy dead little brother]] took a liking to him. [[spoiler: Ciel loses. Although he gets Sebastian back, [[StatusQuoIsGod of course.]]]]

* The RobertAsprin novel ''Little Myth Marker'', part of his MythAdventures series. The title is a reference to ''Little Miss Marker''. [[spoiler: Subverted in that is later revealed that this was done deliberately on the orders of the "kid" bet so as to infiltrate the hero's household.]]

* Yudhisthira bet ''himself'', his brothers, and their wife in the ''Mahabharatha''. OlderThanFeudalism.

* This happens to the protagonist in one of Angela Carter's retellings of "BeautyAndTheBeast". Her father loses her to the "beast" (she notes that it's not that he cared more about gambling than his daughter, just equally much). And then [[spoiler: he turns out to be a tiger in human's clothes and she turns into one too and willingly stays with him while sending back to her father a clockwork version of herself because clearly that's all he wants.]] This must be symbolic of ''something''...

This is the driving feature behind the Pandavs' exile in the Mahabharata. Yudishtra, the Crown Prince, has but one fault - a propensity to gamble. His evil Uncle Shakuni invites him to gamble with his cousin who craves the throne. However, Shakuni has cheating dice. Yudisthra bets and loses everything he owns and then begins to wager his brothers, then himself, then his wife, Draupadi. She is dragged, shrieking, by her hair, into the assembly, and is ordered to be stripped. As they do it, she cries out to Lord Krishna, who transforms her sari into a neverending sari. When they fall down from exhaustion from pulling at the folds, she delivers such an impassioned and resentful speech at Yudisthra's family - her in-laws after all - about her vile treatment, that they agree to give the brothers back their lives and change it to exile from the kingdom instead.

* On the season 12 ''[[TheSimpsons Simpsons]]'' episode "Children of a Lesser Clod" (the episode where Homer starts a home day care center after breaking his knee in a basketball accident), one of the video clips of how much of a horrible father Homer is to Bart, Lisa, and Maggie shows Homer betting Maggie in a poker game -- and losing her to Moe Szyslak.