bet

bet n Bet, wager, stake, pot, ante denote in common something of value, usually money, risked in the confidence or hope that something is true or will turn out in a certain way, something else of value being risked by at least one other party in support of an opposing confidence or hope.

Bet and wager are used with little distinction of meaning either of what is risked or of the act of risking it.

Stake implies money or valuables bet and actually produced and entrusted to a neutral party (stakeholder) or placed in the pot in a card game. By extension a stake is anything material or nonmaterial that one stands in jeopardy of losing

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and will probably always have the largest commercial stake in the African continent— Livingstone

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with my most affectionate wishes for Dr. Johnson's recovery, in which his friends . . . have so deep a stake— Dick

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A pot is an aggregate of the bets made by all the bettors or players especially in poker

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won several big pots in successive deals

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An ante typically is a stake which each player in a poker game who wishes to continue a particular hand puts up after he has seen his original five cards but before he draws other cards, but in some games of stud or draw poker and in blackjack the ante is a compulsory stake put up by each player before the cards are seen. By extension an ante is a share or amount which must be put up, usually as a price or as a prelude to a joint venture

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Considerations that tend to raise the ante so as to discourage all but the most efficient producers— Amer. Fabrics

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the ante of these shareholders and other private sources of financing the steel expansion will come to about 1.7 billion dollars— Atlantic

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