The Cups Game (コイン当て; Koin Ate) is a minigame in Suikoden.
Description
A gambling game where a coin is placed under one of three cups, shuffled, and the player must guess its final location.
During the Gate Rune War, Marco, a member of the Liberation Army, ran a casino within the headquarters, using this game for profitable betting.
How to play
Before the start of the game, the player has to place a bet of 100, 1,000 or 10,000 potch. If you bet 100 potch, the game will be slow. The dealer places the coin on the table under one of the cups, showing its location to the player. Then he starts shifting the cups, changing their position for a while. When he stops, the player has to guess under which cup the coin is now. If the guess is correct, the player wins twice his initial bet and can choose to continue or not. If he fails, he loses his bet. The gains are not cumulative. If you bet 100 potch, the cups will be moved slowly, making it easy to follow the cup hiding the coin. For 1,000 potch, the speed will be medium, and for 10,000 potch, it will become very difficult to keep the eyes on the good cup.
Cups game players
Marco was the cups game dealer in Suikoden I. He first played his game with Tir McDohl in Rockland, and then moved his gambling joint to Warrior's Village where he can be recruited.
Gameplay info
When playing the cups game before recruiting Marco, he uses some defined patterns for the place of the coin. Once you start (with a low bet), write down the position of the coin for a certain number of games --- ten is a good choice. It doesn't matter if you win or lose. After that, enter a house, save your game and talk to Marco to start the game anew, with the maximum bet this time. The coin will then follow the same pattern and it guarantees an easy win, even at full speed. This trick won't work after Marco joins the Toran Liberation Army.
Notes
This is also Coin Guessing in Japanese. It is a shell game (sometimes called "guess the cup" or "where is the ball.")
References
Genso Suikoden Kiwami Daijiten
page 53