I’m a sucker for carnival games. I know they charge outrageous prices to play and usually the prize isn’t that great. In fact, most of the time I end up throwing them away. I hate stuffed animals! hehe. But it’s just fun trying to win these almost impossible games! And now that I’ve discovered all of these neat tricks to beat carnival games…maybe I’ll have a better chance at winning. My favorite tips:

Rope Ladder

The trick to climbing carnival rope ladders is to completely ignore the “rungs” and only use the outside ropes to climb on.

While applying equal pressure with your right foot and left arm, move your left foot and right arm at the same time. Then do the same thing with the opposite limbs — shimmying yourself up the ladder.

Do not move both hands or both feet at the same time – you will lose your balance.

Guess your weight, age or birth month:

Unless you very over-weight or really don’t look your age, it’s best to go with the birth month. Some carnies still use an old scam for guessing your birth month.

If the carny uses this trick (not all do) they will scribble down something like the image on the right (click on the link to see the image). Does it say Jun, Jul, or Jan? The guesser could claim it be whichever one is closest to your birth month. That wide spread allows the carny to be within 2 months of any month, except one: October.

So if you think you are dealing with a shady operator, always say “October” is your birth month.

BasketBall Free-Throw

You have a lot going against you in this game. The ball is over-inflated, the hoop is smaller than regulation size and often an oval shape rather than circular. The backboard is plywood making it extra bouncy. So forget about throwing a normal free-throw shot.

The key is to use a high arc. Do not try to rebound the shot off the backboard — the ball will always bounce too much. To win this game you must make a perfect swish, no backboard.