The Fairest Game You Can Always Win

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[rosscarsplanes]

I've pissed off so many unsuspecting victims with this game. One person actually figured it out but that's because I played with him for 2+ hours straight.

[jimseevers]

I began my Scam School experience with this video (the first one) about 2 years ago. I researched the game of nim, the theory behind it, and the concept of the nim-sum. By doing so, I'm now able to play both greedy (winner takes last token) and misere (loser takes last token). It takes some serious time, but the ability to play the same game with a different goal more than doubles your mark's frustration. Spend 20 minutes never losing, pretend to throw them a bone by changing the goal to exactly what they've been doing for 20 minutes, spend 10 more minutes never losing, laugh as they ragequit.
Right up until you play against a statistician at a college bar. That is a night I regret.

[Tahlorn]

That's me at @ 3:10, with the purple shirt being tall with fire. I'll be signing autographs between the Hot Topic and Orange Julius this Friday at your local mall.

[EMorner]

This is my favorite trick in the entire history of ScamSchool, I've used it so many times. A little tip: A backgammon set is perfect for this game since there's exactly 15 pieces of each color. =)

[JM-rzux]

I really love Scam School! I have tricked my friends so many times with many of the scams! Keep doing what you are doing!

[hawkes]

I love this scam.  Awesome.  Taught by Opie from Austin.  One good point made by Bryan.  Don't get cocky or sloppy at the end or you can easily mess up and take the wrong number of coins and end up losing.  Voice of experience!

[Nonsanity]

Yet another Nim variant that I like even better for this sort of always-win scam is Tactix by Piet Hein. It feels more like a game than a logic puzzle, so your opponent will feel less like they are being tricked and more like they are being beaten repeatedly.

It does require learning a few more "winning" patterns, but because of the grid nature of the game, they are easier to recognize visually. They key is to identify "islands" of coins that don't touch. For example, any arrangement on the board of three islands of size 1, 2, and 3 is a move you should try to make. And there are many, many ways that that pattern exist. To the player that knows this secret, you can make short work of any opponent.

Note that with a 4x4 game, the first player to move will ALWAYS lose if both players move perfectly. This is because the full board is itself a "winning" pattern.

[g-joemarquis]

Just saw you on Penn and Teller's fool us and it was awesome! Great to see your real uninhibited!

[IFGchannel]

Scamschool remix is like scamschool without the fillers and adds. In other words, it's what every episode should be.

[cravenit]

I know it's a horrible question to ask, but I NEED to know that song at the end off all of these new videos! I love it! Also. Great NIM trick Brian! That most definately would have had me fooled XD

[joeljose]

Hey Brian, I love your channel.My trickery life started from your videos so thanks so much, I would like to recommend a card trick called twisting the ace's. Its pretty easy and an actual skill.

[BCGCAW]

good stuff as always, I always plan on hearing hearthstone at some point- I DIDN'T HEAR IT THIS TIME!

[MsHojat]

The best way is to not memorize anything and understand the theory/math behind the game itself so that you can win for _ANY_ configuration at all! That's what I do. When you get multiple piles and/or large stacks it can take a bit of time to do the calculation though.

[EricSmythChrist]

I guess checkers is a scam too, since you can just out-calculate your opponent...

[Naty_smol_bean]

thats awesome :D will do to one of my friends at school :D

[fartmuffin]

Brian, the featured episode is the wrong link I believe

[everythingawesome]

nice I like this one
but my favourite one is the mind reading with the 3 paper

[GhostHunted]

Did something like this with 15 straws.

[jeffmaesar]

interesting nim game version :) need to learn it ^^

[aussienerd]

Brian she could of won!

"You can take as many coins as you like from any 1 pile"

She takes the whole pile and your screwed