Get Lucky with Benjamin: 17 Everyday English Phrases about Luck & Chance

Hi, guys. Welcome back. So, today we're going to be looking at idioms connected with gambling

and betting and cards. Now, why would we do that? Because I want you to have a rich bank

of English to draw upon when you're speaking. Okay? Because, you know, you can probably

speak and hold a conversation with someone pretty well, but your enjoyment of the English

language is just going to go up and up and up if you can start using some of these phrases

I'm going to teach you today. Let's get cracking.

First one, "The odds are stacked against us." So, that means it's not likely that we're

going to win. The origin of this phrase came from... It's like a pack of cards, and it's

like someone has fixed it, someone has decided what is going to happen in advance. So, the

pack of cards, the odds have been stacked, have been arranged so that we have no chance

of winning. Okay? The odds are stacked against us, we can't win this game.

"Hedge our bets." Now, this is about damage limitation. So, if we want to hedge our bets,

we are protecting our money, protecting our bet, and not losing any more. If you think

about a garden, my nice red garden, this thing around it is a hedge, you know, like a big

bush. So, if we hedge our bets, very small bets, yeah, it means we are not making the

bet any bigger. We are keeping it like that. Okay?

So, there's a big sports game going on tomorrow. England are playing New Zealand in the semi-final

of the World Cup Rugby in Japan. If I thought that actually New Zealand were going to win,

then I might hedge my bets and not put any more on.

"To play the percentages." So, again, this is to do with being safe. So, in that game

tomorrow, the England fly half, the guy who does the kicking, might play the percentages

and kick the ball a long way into the New Zealand territory, and make choices that protect

his team. Okay? So, if you play the percentages, you're playing a safe game.

And how it's connected with betting is perhaps you choose the favorite. So, last week I was

thinking about who was going to win the quarter-finals, and I went with the percentages. I chose the

teams that had the best odds of winning. I'm not saying I'm a gambling man. I'm not. It's

a good way of losing money. Okay, if you're going to up the ante, then you are increasing

the amount of money, the risk, the commitment to do with what you are saying is going to

win. So, if you up the ante, more money in. Yep, you're feeling confident.

So, let's put that into a context for you. If I said to my friend, "I'll give you £10

if you jump into that river naked", and he was like, "No, no, no, no. I'm not going to

do that, Benjamin." I was like, "Right. Well, let's up the ante. I'll give you £20 if you

jump in." Okay? I'm increasing. To put your money where your mouth is. So, where your

mouth is, so what you're speaking about. If you're saying, "England are going to win.

England are going to win." And I've got a friend from New Zealand, and he's like, "Go

on, then, Benjamin. Put your money where your mouth is. Let's have a bet. £10." So, it's

a challenge to risk your money when you've been saying you think you know what's going

to happen. To break the bank. So, if something breaks the bank, then it completely destroys.

It takes everything out of the bank. So, let's think of a New Zealand friend I have. Okay?

Yep. Slade. So, if I had my bet with Slade, and he was like, "Come on, Benjamin. It's

not going to break the bank. It's not going to break the bank. He's trying to persuade

me to put the bet on." All bets are off. So, this means we don't know what's going to happen.

So, imagine you've got the... You know, the bookie, the person who takes the bets. The

bookie. Yeah? The man who keeps the books and writes everything down. If he's like,

"Right. All bets are off." It's because he doesn't want to accept any more bets because

he doesn't know what's going to happen. Okay? Hit the jackpot. The jackpot is a large cash

prize. So, often lotteries have jackpot, and the jackpot number today is number 43. So,

it's like a... It's like an extra big cash prize. And we can use this if something really

good has happened to you. It doesn't have to be to do with a bet. You can say, "Yes,

I've hit the jackpot. I've met a really nice person. I've hit the jackpot. I'm going to

be very happy."

When the chips are down. So, for this one, imagine you're in some kind of Las Vegas,

you know, sort of poker room, and you've decided that the ball is going to land on, I don't

know, red 43. I don't know about this stuff. And everyone's put their... Their kind of

counters out. Yep. The chips are down, and we're waiting to see what's going to happen.

Oh, no. Something really bad has happened. Okay? So, when the chips are down, it's like

everything has gone totally wrong. Okay?

Over the odds. This is a little bit different. This is a British English expression that

means when you pay more than you should do for something. So, if someone said to me,

"Oh, I like your new Chelsea top, Benjamin." I might say, "Yeah. I was really happy to

find it in Toronto, but I did pay slightly over the odds for it. I paid a little bit

too much. I didn't actually. It was fine."

Okay. Cards. You a good card player? It's nice to play the cards. I actually played...

I don't know why I brought this pack of cards with me, but on the airplane I was playing

Patience with myself. I was like... Wasn't very much room. Most people play it on a screen

now.

Oh, well. Okay. "To come up trumps". So, "trumps", this actually refers to a very old game of

cards that means something like "triumph". So, if you come up trumps, it means unexpectedly

something great has happened. So, when I get back home... I'm away from home at the moment

for 10 days, and my wife might say to me, "How did it go?" I might say, "It was great.

I came up trumps. Like, this happened, and this happened, and this happened."

Play your cards right. So, this is about strategy and thinking carefully about the way you're

going to do something. Maybe you have to negotiate a delicate situation at work or in a relationship,

and your friend might say to you, "Yeah, good luck with that." You're going to need to play

your cards right. You're going to have to be careful. Okay?

"To have an ace up your sleeve". So, playing a game of cards, I've got... Oh, I just saw

an ace. Where's my ace? Ace is the A. Can we see one? Can we see an ace? Come on, ace.

Ace, ace. Maybe you can see an ace. Anyway, let's pretend that that's an ace. It's a king.

Where's my ace? It's up my sleeve. Okay, we're having a game. Oh, if only I had an ace and

then I would win. Oh, gosh, I wish I hadn't... Oh, there's the ace. Oh, great. Yeah, I won.

Thanks.

So, if you have an ace up your sleeve, it means you have a kind of a secret resource

or knowledge or skill that you kind of haven't told people about, but then you can take it

out and suddenly everything happens. So, "to have an ace up your sleeve" is like a secret

commodity. "To hold all the aces", this is about having power. We're playing cards here.

Yeah, all the cards have been dealt out. Sorry, I'm not quite sure why they're so muddled.

Yeah, yeah, for you, there for you, there for you. I look at my deck. Ah, very interesting.

Ace, ace, ace, ace. Mm-hmm. I know that I'm going to win. So, if I'm holding all the aces,

I have the power.

So, used in a sentence context, you might be talking about a situation at work where

you just have that power over the person. The person is asking you for a favor, and

it's up to you whether you're going to grant that favor or not. You are holding the aces.

You call a spade a spade. There we are, that's a spade, yep, because it looks like a spade

for digging in the garden. If you call a spade a spade, you're being honest. It's about sort

of real honesty with people. There's a place in the UK up north in Yorkshire where they

have a real reputation for being completely honest. They say what they think up there,

whereas people in the south of the UK sometimes don't say what they actually think, which

can be confusing.

To keep your cards close to your chest. So, if we're playing cards, and let's just put

these down. What game are we playing here? I don't know, Black Mariah or something. If

I don't keep my cards close to my chest, then everyone can see, and they're like, "All right,

he's got that. Okay, so I know what to do." But if I keep them close to my chest, people

don't... Can't see. They can't see what I'm thinking. Okay? If you keep your cards close

to your chest, you're being secretive. So, I might say to my friend, if I don't know

what he's doing, I might say, "Oh, you're keeping your cards quite close to your chest,

aren't you? What's going on there?" Yeah, if I want him to tell me a bit more. I might

say, "Show your cards." This isn't used as much, but it means, like, come on, what's

going on here? So, bets. Yeah? Some great expressions, idioms to use. Why don't you

just pick out a couple that you are going to start trying to use quite regularly? Yeah?

Couple from here, couple from there. Which ones are your favourites? Which do you think

are going to be most useful? Remember to do the quiz now, because that will reinforce

your learning. And it's always great if you can revisit something you've been studying

about three days after, just to, you know, remind yourself so it doesn't go in one ear

and out the other.

Hope you have subscribed to my channel. If you found this useful, why not send it to

someone else who would enjoy the video? Until the next time, goodbye.