Odds are you’ll be playing some Super Bowl party betting games

Most people watching the Super Bowl hate both the teams playing, so why not make the occasion even more miserable by losing a bunch of money? Are ya with me?!?!? Cool, here’s a few ways to lose some dough at your Super Bowl party.

Super Bowl squares. As Keith Jackson would say, this one’s the granddaddy of them all. Here’s a squares template courtesy of the world wide webernet (“WWW”). First you gotta sell 100 squares to everyone at your party. $5 per square is typical, which makes a $500 pot; everyone writes their name in their squares. Now put the numbers 0-9 in a hat, draw one by one, and arrange them along the Giants axis; do the same thing for the Patsies axis. Bam! you got your squares all laid out.

The object is to have the last number in the score of each team at the end of a quarter. So if the first quarter ends with the Giants leading 42-3, then the person with the square at the intersection of “Giants 2” and “Puketriots 3” collects some cash. For a $500 pot, the usual payout is $50 after the first quarter, $200 at the half, $50 after the third quarter, and $250 for the final score. Adjust the buy-in and you adjust the pot, so price it any way you like.

 Pass-the-hat. You need 1) a hat, 2) some people with some money. At the start of the game, person #1 throws a buck in the hat and holds it. After each play the hat is passed to the next person, who throws a buck in and holds it. Keep going – whoever is holding the hat when either team scores collects what’s in the hat. Start over after each score.

Pick the hero. Still have that hat? Sweet. Write down the names of 5-8 skill players, the kicker, and “Team D” from each team on scraps of paper and throw them in there. Picking from the hat costs, I don’t know $5? Whichever player or defense scores next, the person holding that name wins the pot. If you have a lot of buyers, you can double up the names and split each pot.

Prop bets. Side bets best done between individuals:

• Team that wins the coin toss
• First team to lose a helmet
• First team penalized
• Team that scores last in first half
• Team that makes the longest field goal
• The list of these is as long as your imagination…