You up for some Two-up?

Two–up, the gambling game you are only able to partake in once a year. This ANZAC Day, I wanted to take my chances on the coin toss. With the tradition taking place across several venues in Wollongong for the day, I decided to check it out. Armed with five dollars (that’s right, a whole fiver!) I decided to dip my toe into the betting pool of the heads-tails crowd at The Illawarra Hotel and see what the hype was all about. 

For those who are unfamiliar with the game, two-up is essentially heads or tails with some different lingo and a whole lot more stakes. The game takes place in an area called the ring and while traditionally played with two coins, three can be used to prevent odds and ensure a result each round. The hosts, otherwise known as ringkeepers or boxers, are there to maintain a fair game, select the spinner and call out the results. The spinner is an audience participant who gives their bet to the hosts and throws the coins from a wooden kip. This task isn’t merely your regular ol’ coin flip but instead comes with considerable crowd pressure, so don’t be too surprised if a bad throw elicits some passionate booing. A throw is considered invalid if it lands outside the ring, has been thrown less than two metres in the air, or has been declared invalid by the ringkeeper. If the coins land on the side the spinner betted, they win, double their money from a matching bet, and get to throw again. If not, the spinner loses their money and stops throwing. 

Keeping up so far? Good, because it’s the side bets that happen around the ring where the real chaos lies. 

Same as within the ring, players choose heads or tails with those betting heads holding the money they’re betting to their heads and tails to their, well, tails (or just to your hip if you prefer.) In a big crowd, tails can be hard to identify, so often a person betting tails will just seek out and signal a heads-better they want to play against. Once bets have been organised, it becomes a real trust exercise as the person betting heads typically holds the money while the coins are being thrown. This is likely the one time of the year you can hand your money over to a total stranger and have any chance of actually getting it back. If heads is called, the head-better keeps the money, and if tails is called, it’s handed over to the tails-better. That’s the gist of it, maybe you’ll win big or maybe you’re wiped out in the first few rounds. That’s the beauty of the 50/50 and as I overheard one player say, “it’s the best chance to win all year.” Doesn’t that just sound so promising?

Now if this were the article of some luckier journalist I’m sure this would be a spectacular rags-to-riches story of unbelievable chances and a wallet full of wads of cash won. To be completely honest, that was the plan. Unfortunately, this is no such story. While at first I struggled to even find someone in want of my measly offering of five dollars, when someone eventually took pity on me and matched my bet, luck was not on my side. Filled with false-confidence after a consecutive streak of successful practice calls, I handed over my faithful fiver. I took to relying on that trusted mantra of “tails never fails in NSW” for reassurance and my dream of doubling the money I had started out with. ‘Twas a fool’s dream. Over just as quickly as it had begun, heads was called, hope was lost, and quite frankly so was my money. 

As I thought it would be slightly unethical to try and uncover the gambling secrets of the somewhat intoxicated two-up crowd, I had a chat with the enthusiastic two-up host Mitch Lowrie to find out a bit about his involvement with the game and hopefully get some insider knowledge to improve my odds next year. 

Mr Lowrie, who has been hosting the game at The Illawarra Hotel for the past three years, said he loves how “uniquely Australian” the game is. 

“It’s something that we don’t have anywhere else in the world, and it’s just the one day where we can not only have a good time, but also respectfully honour tradition that has existed since World War I in this country,” he said.

“It brings together all ages, if you look at The Illawarra Hotel on Saturday, there were 18 to 80 year olds there. 

“It’s great to see generations can enjoy this tradition there. It wasn’t just about, you know, tossing some coins in a good time on a Saturday, actually was a way to honour something that just lasted the test of time.” 

This year The Illawarra Hotel took the game outdoors by sectioning off the street for the day.

Mr Lowrie said he thought the outdoor venue this year had been “lovely” and hopes it will become the new set up for following years. 

“The last couple of years it’s been inside, we had a smaller crowd, kind of an insular kind of crowd,” he said. 

“And then the guys there decided to really go hard, and not just to bring the game outside, but actually have a crack at actually really raising some serious money for Legacy and RSL.

“So by taking out the street, it brought in the numbers. They definitely have put in a huge effort and it’ll significantly increase from past years.”

Mr Lowrie also commended the two-up crowd for such a positive atmosphere on the day.

“I spoke to the owners of The Illawarra after, and they had no bad behaviour,” he said.

“It didn’t lead to rowdy behaviour, and I think that’s really, really great to see, especially on a long Saturday in the sun.

“The crowd was great, couldn’t have got better weather and yeah, so everything just went great.

“I had a great time.”

Unfortunately I didn’t find out about any sure-fire means of winning, however Mr Lowrie did describe one technique an eager participant tried.

“There was a funny example on the day where a young girl would come up on stage every once in a while. She had a thing of taking her shoes off, thought that’s what grounded her,” he said.

“I don’t know if she won the money out of it, but that was very funny.

“But outside of that, you know, at the end of the day, it’s a coin toss of 50/50, it makes the fun of it.”

However, upon discovering which side of the coin Mr Lowrie preferred, I realised that my real mistake on the day may have been simply committing to the wrong two-up mantra.

“Everyone says tails is what doesn’t fail in New South Wales,” he said.

“But I always go, heads seems pretty cool, I think why not stick with what they say.

“Head ‘em up.”

So you’ve heard it here, maybe next year head on down to a two-up game, head ‘em up, and you might have a bit more luck than I did this year.