History Main / Gambitroulette

* In Franchise/{{LEGO}}'s ''Toys/{{BIONICLE}}'' universe, the main villain of every story year so far, Makuta Teridax, has been defeated several times, but has revealed that he has, in fact, ''planned'' for every possible setback ahead of time. The Gambit Roulette is still turning, in fact, as he planned for all of the following to happen: the destruction of his own body, the death of the benevolent Great Spirit Mata Nui, the subsequent resurrection of said spirit, the rest of the world believing him dead... And the odd thing is, he seems to be the only one. There seems to be no GambitPileup coming, no (glaringly obvious) DeusExMachina, just a slow slide towards his victory, trying to keep him from winning as long as possible. Quite dark for a MerchandiseDriven children's story. It went [[Manga/DeathNote exactly as planned]]. Makuta committed GrandTheftMe on Mata Nui just as his soul was about to return to his body, becoming the universe as a result and banishing Mata Nui into a SoulJar and out of the Matoran Universe.

** Well, he hasn't planned for ''every'' possible setback, but instead tended to adapt to the situation. Throwing the fight against Takanuva was likely improvised as a way to get the heroes off his back. Getting crushed by a huge gate at the end of that confrontation was definitely ''not'' part of The Plan, according to WordOfGod but it didn't hurt too much as he was going to abandon his body in the end anyway.

* Parodied in ''The WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce Colon Movie Film for Theatres''; antagonist Walter Mellon reveals that he created the Aqua Teens, Dr. Weird, and the Insanoflex, and kidnapped [[Music/{{Rush}} Neil Peart]] in the meanwhile, so that Frylock and Dr. Weird would ultimately become enemies and fight to their deaths, whereupon he would inherit their houses and use the land to build a gym. Frylock then informs Mellon that they all ''rent'', and he couldn't have built gyms in residential areas anyway. Then the movie ended.

* [[DeusEstMachina The God-Machine]] in ''TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent'' runs on this to utilize the obscure laws, loopholes and exceptions in the laws of reality. TheButterflyEffect is in full effect; one small action can lead to a chain reaction, over a long period of time, to bring forth effects it desires. Often it sends Angels to make sure the chain of events work exactly as it predicts. That being said, [[{{Deconstruction}} this modus operandi exposes it]] to SpannerInTheWorks. An interference on the right spot at the right time can invalidate the entire chain of event, possibly one that took years to fruition.

* The Quori in ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' frequently pull off this kind of plan, and the game offers a really good explanation as to how: in addition to being super-intelligent {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, the Quori frequently return to their home plane to plot, where YearInsideHourOutside is in effect. This essentially means that they have ''weeks'' to plan their next move while a single night passes on the Material Plane.

* In Scion: Demigod, the Epic Manipulation knack called Advantageous Circumstances allows you to do this at will in order to gain a temporary advantage to the current situation as long as you can explain what you do to the GM. In the example they give, a [[TheTrickster Scion of Ogoun]] attempts to escape from another Scion in a bar. He buys a drink for a girl across the room. The girl gets the drinks and smiles thankfully toward the Scion, when a middle aged man leaving the restroom and walking towards his wife gets between them at the right time. When he smiles back, his wife accuses him of buying the girl a drink and [[PervertRevengeMode pushes him back]], knocking him into the pursuing Scion and giving the Scion of Ogoun a chance to escape.
* [[DeusEstMachina The God-Machine]] in ''TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent'' runs on this to utilize the obscure laws, loopholes and exceptions in the laws of reality. TheButterflyEffect is in full effect; one small action can lead to a chain reaction, over a long period of time, to bring forth effects it desires. Often it sends Angels to make sure the chain of events work exactly as it predicts. That being said, [[{{Deconstruction}} this modus operandi exposes it]] to SpannerInTheWorks. An interference on the right spot at the right time can invalidate the entire chain of event, possibly one that took years to fruition.

* In ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'', Kinzo's ability to use magic seems to rely on this.
** As [=EP7=] reveals, Kinzo's true plan with the epitaph is that it was ''made'' to be solved by one person - Yasu. It was all a big gamble in order to get Yasu to forgive him. There's a ''reason'' why the inscription above the chapel says "You will only be blessed at a probability of a [[MillionToOneChance quadrillion to one]]." [[SpannerInTheWorks Except he probably didn't count on any of the siblings being able to solve the epitaph's riddle.]]
* During the warmup to the rescue in ''VisualNovel/TheEdenOfGrisaia'' Thanatos tests the usefulness of the Mihama girls by sending them on various pointless errands. It gets the exact timing of everything down to the second and predicts exactly how people will flinch, among other things.
* ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' has Nagito Komaeda, for whom the repeated use of this trope is ''completely justified'': his [[BornLucky Ultimate Good Luck]] means that any plan of his that depends on "just hope that the right thing will happen" ''will'' [[StoryBreakerPower reliably work]], and his plans generally rely on exploiting this fact by leaving some crucial element completely up to chance.
** He wants to be picked to clean a building so that he can [[spoiler:prepare the things he will need for another plan later on]]. He suggests the group draws straws to decide who cleans the building, and sure enough he got the short straw.
** Late in the game, he comes to the conclusion that there is a spy in the midst of the trapped party, and, in order to out the spy to the others [[spoiler:orchestrates an elaborate ThanatosGambit involving him committing suicide in such a way that the spy would inadvertently finish him off, and thus get tried for killing him. How does he guarantee that the spy (whose identity he does not know) would be the one to do it? He doesn't, instead relying on his luck so that of all the people who stumbled on his body, the spy would be the one to finish him off without even realizing it. ''It works''.]]

* Played with in regards to [[{{God}} Mercurius]] entire scheme in ''VisualNovel/DiesIrae''. His plan is basically one giant gamble for him to get a desired outcome as he, as a god of EternalRecurrence, can just pull a giant reset if things don't pan out and try again. By the time the story starts he is implied to have done this millions of times already, reiterating on the plan through simple trial and error. A big reason for him having to rely on a gamble in spite of his nigh omnipotence is that he can only affect the starting point of each loop. From then on he has to rely on the butterfly effect as all his pieces play themselves out without his input.

* ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'':
** At the end of the "Professor Madblood and the Doppelganger Gambit" arc, Helen claims the whole chaotic sequence of events was her plan. As the series goes on, it's hinted that she plans a great deal more than typically believed. Helen ''is'' a megalomaniac (albeit an extremely cute one), so some or all of this could be from her own self-aggrandizing.
** Indeed, in another comic in "Doppelganger Gambit", she explicitly claims a fondness for the IndyPloy approach: "It's times like these I almost question my usual strategy of doing whatever dumb thing pops into my head." It's possible she masterplans things at a subconcious level which then tells her conscious mind to do seemingly random things.
** In another "Doppelganger Gambit" strip, Artie says her mind operates on a different level from his, making him [[TheChessmaster a cog in her machine]] (and he's a genius himself).
--->'''Dave:''' She's currently giggling and trying to set herself on fire.\\
'''Artie:''' That's [[MadScientist mad genius]] for you. It's a sort of brain potluck.
** Artie at one point suspects everything about him--from his intelligence, to his morality, to his shapeshifting ability--was engineered so that he could save Helen's life at one crucial, impossible-to-predict moment. He then wryly notes that it would be perfectly in-character for her to pull off such an insane plan when she could have easily just avoided the dangerous situation in the first place.

* Near the end of ''Webcomic/ItsWalky'', a WeCanRuleTogether speech by Penny and (presumably correct) extrapolation by Alan reveal that Dargon founded SEMME in the ''seventies'' specifically to gather abductees and Martian technology, the former to be given just this WeCanRuleTogether speech, the latter in anticipation of SEMME's eventual disbandment and the resultant scattering of Martian technology to military centers around the world. The latter event, by the way, was ''thirty years later'' and contingent on an HA caper they couldn't possibly have predicted, itself following his ''death and resurrection''. If either Dargon or Penny had lived long enough, we might have seen what, exactly, they planned to do with the world's military infrastructure destroyed.
** [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk Mike]] pulls this off routinely in both ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' and ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge''. Often times he will do something innocuous or [[http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/asshole/ plain friendly]] only to see it be [[http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/wearing/ all]] [[http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/no/ according]] [[http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/moms/ to]] [[http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/thank/ plan.]]
** The trope was actually ''parodied'' near the beginning of the strip:
--->'''Head Alien:''' ''Nothing'' happens that I haven't designed. Do you understand?\\
'''Alien Mook:''' Music/{{NSYNC}}?\\
'''Head Alien:''' ''[dejected]'' I was careless.
* The entire Bird "conspiracy" in the webcomic ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell''. Too long to explain, but it implies giving somebody super powers, TimeTravel, the [=Y2K=] bug, and locking an odd couple in a room.

* A really stupid example, or even possibly a parody of this trope is ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'' in its entirety. The whole series just being a gigantic set up for their mom to make George stop being too much of a pussy to fight, and kill Bob if he got out of hand. And the last few years being a bet between the Helmeted Author and Author to see if George would shoot Bob or not based on Gambit Roulettes between Bob and George themselves where George merged with the Shadowy Author and Bob was merged with the Helmeted Author, and manipulated certain aspects of their final meeting, that were in truth being manipulated by the author characters (even when the author characters WEREN'T using their "author powers" to alter fate and such, thus why it was bet.)

* ''WebComic/{{Freefall}}'': Sam Starfall's favorite master plan is to simply imply he HAS a master plan, then let his victims make up the details...
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Magus needs Ellen to zap Elliot with her GenderBender ray. His plans range from the "slightly implausible" (he orchestrated the entire sequence of events that led up to Ellen's "[[OppositeSexClone birth]]") to the completely ridiculous (planning to amplify Ellen's desire for pepper in order to make her sneeze and accidentally zap Elliot).
-->'''Magus:''' [[LampshadeHanging Wow, I really am desperate for a plan]].
** {{Lampshaded}} [[http://egscomics.com/comic/2016-09-26 here]], when Voltaire points out how much his attempts to assassinate Elliot relied on factors that he could not possibly have arranged. That is why he's willing to vow to make no further attempts on Elliot: he is so restricted by fae law that he has no reasonable way to make further attempts anyway.
* Initially, it seems that Alaric pulled this combined with a ThanatosGambit in ''Webcomic/TwoKinds''. It is, however, [[DeconstructedTrope revealed]] that this was [[http://twokinds.keenspot.com/archive.php?p=583 only one of hundreds of possible outcomes he planned for.]]

* In the ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'' strip "Remains of the Day" (NSFW), the skull-faced Curse Spectre curses a man so that his jizz will land on the face of whoever he's thinking about when he orgasms. In retaliation, the man resolves to think of Curse Spectre every time, causing the curse to only shame Curse Spectre... and in doing so, cultivates in himself [[ILoveTheDead a fetish for skulls]]. Upon going to a skeleton strip club for satisfaction, the man is horrified to find that [[FauxHorrific it's absurdly overpriced]]... cue Curse Spectre laughing, implying this was its plan all along.
* This is discussed, inverted and parodied in ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'', where Red Mage, who against all logic or sense thinks himself TheChessmaster, realizes that a GambitRoulette is foolish: any plan which relies upon ''something'' going right has a chance of failure, and a plan which relies on ''many'' things going right is all but doomed to fail. Therefore, [[InsaneTrollLogic a plan that has no attachment to reality whatsoever is unstoppable]]!

* Played with in ''WebOriginal/TheDefrosters''. In episode 9, Pixel Girl implies that she is working on a [[ThePlan plan]] to stop Pixel Boy from playing World of Warcraft. She and James even mention TV Tropes as they debate the differences between a Gambit Roulette and a XanatosGambit.
* Mentioned extensively in Website/{{Cracked}}.com's [[http://www.cracked.com/article_16848_6-most-pointlessly-elaborate-movie-murder-plots.html 6 Most Pointlessly Elaborate Movie Murder Plots]].

* In an [[http://www.giantitp.com/articles/rTKEivnsYuZrh94H1Sn.html article on creating villains]], the sample villain, the Fire King, infiltrates an elven noble's household, takes over the household, becomes the king's trusted advisor, starts a war, eliminates elements ''on both sides'' to prevent peace. The point of all this is to wipe out all the elves so that he can perform a ritual to absorb all the magical energy in the world, and ''conquer hell''.

* Several borderline examples in Worm: [[StoryBreakerPower Contessa]], [[TheOmniscient the Simurgh]] and [[WaifProphet Dinah]] all do this to varying degrees, and all have powers that make it seem plausible. Notably, only [[EldritchAbomination the Simurgh]] is able to do this when people that block precognition are involved.

* ''Website/{{Clickhole}}'' gives us [[http://www.clickhole.com/blogpost/big-red-horizon-my-journey-through-american-justic-938 Big Red Horizon]]: a plan that involves the writer falsely confessing to being a SerialKiller to get put on death row, while his accomplice becomes the state governor. All to get a free lobster dinner as his last meal, and pardoned after it.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' parodies this in its ([[UnCanceled at the time]]) final episode -- the Robot Devil brags that his "ridiculously circuitous plan is one-quarter complete". The plan: 1) Trick Bender into accepting an air horn, 2) Hope that he deafens Leela with it, 3) Convince Leela to sign a deal with the devil with him for her hand (with a twist) 4) Use the threat of this to get his hands back from Fry. All just to get him back where he was at the start of the episode. Even more, he somehow managed to get Bender to trade his hind plate for the air horn so as to have the perfect comeback for his CatchPhrase!

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama''
** A lot of Heather schemes require an insane amount of luck to work:
*** In ''Not Quite Famous'', after reading Gwen's diary in front of everyone, she convinces Lindsay, Beth, Izzy and Owen to vote off Justin. The problem is, she's on a team with eleven campers so Heather had to assume everyone else wouldn't unanimously vote for her, otherwise she would have been eliminated anyway.
*** In ''Search and Do Not Destroy'', she kisses Trent in front of Gwen. Leshawna catching wind of this, rallies the contestants to vote off either Trent or Heather, Heather wins immunity so they settle with eliminating Trent. However, Heather had no way of knowing her chest had the immunity pass in it.
** The "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island" special was actually an overcomplicated plot for the ''Total Drama'' powers that be (both in and out of universe) to use for the purpose of making the second season, in a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome for the whole series.
** Mal in ''All-Stars'' and Sugar in ''Pahkitew Island'' are walking embodiments of this trope as most of their successes were due to sheer luck and not of actual strategy or skill. Examples of this are Mal being able to find Courtney's list in "Sundae Muddy Sundae" without any explanation for how and most of the events from ''Pahkitew Island'' that were triggered by Sugar very likely still being able to happen even if she wasn't there to cause them.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
** Homer Simpson's mother plotted to destroy a missile silo owned by Mr. Burns. This plot relied entirely on her dying at exactly the right time, Homer finding her video will on the right day, everyone using what they left her in precisely the right way (and Lisa stealing her crystal earrings), and Mr. Burns leaving a cinder block and chain near the cell Homer was trapped in.
** Also seen in the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E9EternalMoonshineOfTheSimpsonMind Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind]]", in which Homer pulls a Gambit Roulette on himself. Upon accidentally learning that Marge was planning a surprise party for him, he goes to Moe's and orders an amnesia-inducing drink. Before he downs it, he predicts that he will wake up to find his family missing, remember snippets that imply that he hit Marge, go to Dr. Frink for memory recovery, only remember enough to conclude that Marge was having an affair with Duffman, and then throw himself off a bridge at the exact moment in which the party ship was underneath and at the exact place in which he lands on the ship's moonbounce.
** Sideshow Bob in "Funeral for a Fiend" does this. He builds a fake restaurant and broadcasts commercials for its grand opening solely for luring the Simpsons (and no one else) there. ''Then'' he purposely misquotes Shakespeare in order for Lisa to correct him so he could pretend to look it up on Wikipedia in order for the laptop to overheat and explode, leading to his capture. ''Then'' at his trial he relies on the chance that Bart will snatch away his nitroglycerine so he could fake a heart attack and allow his father to inject him with a drug that simulates death. ''Then'' he manages to undergo a funeral without an autopsy or any embalming process, and gets his family members to make Bart feel guilty enough about his death in order for Bart to enter the funeral home when no one else is around, and make peace with his "corpse" before it is cremated.
* Subverted in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeamoSupremo'': the main characters are stumped as to how the seemingly unrelated robberies committed by "Mr. Vague" contribute to his ingenious plan.
-->'''Mr. Vague:''' You fools! I have no plan! I just like to act evil and steal stuff!
* An example (but certainly not the only one) where this is used for comedic effect: In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' cartoon "Fool Coverage", Daffy Duck (after much persuasion) sells Porky Pig an insurance policy that will pay him a million dollars if he gets a black eye. However, after Porky signs, he's informed that the policy has some fine print -- the payout can only occur if the policyholder receives a black eye as a result of a stampede of wild elephants running through his house between 3:55 and 4 PM on the Fourth of July during a hailstorm. When this improbable sequence of events actually occurs (right after Porky signs up), Daffy makes up an additional clause on the spot that requires that a baby zebra be part of the stampede -- and guess what runs through the house immediately thereafter.

* There is never a full outline of what the plan was, or who was planning what, but the events of the third season finale and fourth season premiere of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' required an absurd amount of chance and relied on a AssPull for resolution. Molotov Cocktease and Hunter Gathers manipulate events so that Brock Samson kills OSI's top three assassins in a fairly straightforward [[ThePlan plan]] to ensure the supremacy of their Blackhearts organization. Although not specifically stated, they may have also been responsible for Brock's car attempting to kill him, which itself relied on pure luck on several levels. It gets ''completely ridiculous'' once it turns out that the whole storyline going back to Hunter's sex change operation was an elaborate plan by Hunter Gathers, who is actually TheMole for the Blackhearts who reversed his sex change, in order to convince Brock to join Hunter's SPHINX organization. The plan is either the most convoluted and implausible plan of all time or an unbelievably well executed game of GambitSpeedChess. It gets even crazier in the season 4 finale, when it's revealed that EVERYTHING outlined above was in fact orchestrated by General Treister to expose and eliminate Doe and Cardholder, who were actually moles for the Guild of Calamitous Intent; then install Hunter as the new head of the OSI. In other words, Treister's roulette depended on somebody else perfectly orchestrating and executing their own roulette, which quite possibly makes him the true master of this trope. ''Meanwhile'' Mol infiltrates SPHINX as "the rookie" (unsure if she's always been or just sometime before the season finale) in order to (possibly) place her Blackhearts as prostitutes that Dr. Venture orders for Hank and Dean's home school prom in order to distract Brock while she gets away with her SPHINX captured and doped up love, Monstroso (who may be a decoy or maybe the Blackhearts thing was a lie.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': The episode "Metamorphosis." Xanatos plans to fake the death of his colleague Dr. Sevarius and get a mutated Derek Maza on his side requires that Derek jump in front of him to take the dart with the serum, the Gargoyles attack his lab at exactly the right moment before Derek is about to receive a "cure," for the cure to be destroyed in the struggle, and then for Sevarius to get knocked into his aquarium during the ensuing fight and somehow not receive a fatal charge from his ''two'' electric eels. Given that Sevarius was in on it and that Xanatos is otherwise a competent chessmaster they probably had other ways of making it work.
* In the fifth season of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'', it was revealed that every event in the series until then -- the Shredder's rise to power, Hamato Yoshi's death, the creation of the turtles, etc. -- had all been allowed to occur as part of a plan to [[spoiler:kill the demon Shredder]].

* Deconstructed in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice''. Nightwing starts a complicated scheme to infiltrate [[LegionOfDoom The Light]] by sending in Aqualad and Artemis as moles. This plan will require the moles to commit genuinely villainous acts to maintain their cover, and most of Nightwing's team must be kept in the dark about the plan, meaning that they will be unaware that two of their greatest enemies are secretly allies. These two facets of ThePlan eventually cause the situation to spin wildly out of Nightwing's control, and Kid Flash [[WhatTheHellHero calls him out]] for putting his allies at risk with a plan that had too many variables.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': As meticulous as the Clock King is, there is a LOT that could go wrong with his plans.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': "Wakko’s Gizmo" starts out as your standard RubeGoldbergDevice, but turns into this trope halfway through. We see that the gizmo relies on the following to work:
** a pizza delivery man to open the door to the tower just in time to be scared off by a suit of armor on wheels so the latter can fall on a skateboard and coast down a spiral ramp,
** Ralph the guard to be scared by the same and try to stop it by yanking the phone out of the wall to use the cord to trip it,
** the cord to somehow also be attached to scaffolding that holds two mural painters,
** Dr. Scratchansniff to drive past at the very moment the scaffolding collapses and dumps a bucket of paint on his windshield, causing him to crash into a fire hydrant,
** the water from the busted hydrant to electrify a lamppost with a small anvil tied to a blimp tethered to it, burning the tether away and activating the blimp’s motor,
** the blimp to fly into a barn’s weathervane and pop, dropping the anvil on a ramp that a cow is standing on and catapulting it into the sky,
** the cow to crash through the ceiling of Mission Control, causing the engineers to prematurely launch a rocket from the shock,
** the rocket to bump a satellite, changing its trajectory enough to turn a satellite dish at the studio with a set piece featuring a U-shaped ramp tied to it by a rope,
** the set piece to be pulled into the path of a tour group on a golf cart, which flies around the ramp and straight back to the tower, up the spiral ramp to bump the tower door shut and set off the rest of the device.
*** And the ultimate objective of all this? [[spoiler:[[AntiClimax To make a doll sit on a]] WhoopeeCushion.]]

* ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' has Nagito Komaeda, whose [[BornLucky Ultimate Good Luck]] means that any plan of his that depends on "just hope that the right thing will happen" ''will'' [[StoryBreakerPower reliably work]], and his plans generally rely on exploiting this fact by leaving some crucial element completely up to chance.

** Late in the game, he comes to the conclusion that there is a spy in the midst of the trapped party, and, in order to out the spy to the others [[spoiler:orchestrates an elaborate ThanatosGambit involving him committing suicide in such a way that the spy would inadvertently finish him off, and thus get tried for killing him. How does he guarantee that the spy would be the one to do it? He doesn't, instead relying on his luck so that of all the people who stumbled on his body, the spy would be the one to finish him off without even realizing it. ''It works''.]]

* ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' has Nagito Komaeda, whose [[BornLucky Ultimate Good Luck]] means that any plan of his that depends on "just hope that the right thing will happen" ''will'' [[StoryBreakerPower reliably work]].

%%Please see thread to discuss a new image.

* {{Conspiracy Theorist}}s tend to use this trope in regards to their target to explain and justify their theories.

** Speaking of which, in the actual game it is possible to pull off one of your own with Genesis (not tournament-legal) and a green/white Kamigawa deck that contains among other things, Kodama of the Center Tree. Just discard Genesis, and have enough green and white lands to summon most cards. If your foe has enchantments or artifacts, cycling one of the spirit cards destroys them (there's even one to prevent damage, Kami of the False Hope). If your enemy relies on multiple attackers, you can soulshift Kodama of the Center Tree to pull them out of your grave. If you need to have a heavy hitter, you can pull Kodama out of your grave. Then you can use Genesis to put it back in your deck. There are random outcomes that can cause you to lose (the opponent has a speed deck, you don't draw Genesis or enough lands), but normally no matter what you do or is done to you, you can have some option to win.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/RouletteWheelOfFail350_3192.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[Manga/DeathNote Exactly as planned]].]]

** ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'' plays it straight in the opening case, however. Jezaille Brett's extremely elaborate plan of poisoning Wilson, then shooting him and framing Ryunosuke relied entirely on leaving the victim's gun in open view and timing it perfectly so that both other witnesses would be, for separate reasons, looking away when Ryunosuke picked up the gun. She had no reason to know that he'd do that, and if he either failed to notice the pistol, tried to alert Wilson verbally instead, or just left well enough alone, the plan would have completely failed. Of course, [[IdiotHero being an]] [[DitzyGenius Ace Attorney protagonist]], he chose the only course of action that led to him being framed.

** ''Then'', he shows a clip of the band Music/[=McFly=] (part of an unrelated at the beginning) singing a version of their song "Obviously", rewritten to contain the lyric "(He said) obviously, the order will be, an egg then a needle and then an ice-cream and there'll be a goose and moose and apple juice, oh yeah." Cue gasps and standing ovation #1. For the second chorus, he then flips the tops of the poles to reveal the same order. Cue gasps and standing ovation #2.

** ''Then'', he shows a clip of the band [=Music/McFly=] (part of an unrelated at the beginning) singing a version of their song "Obviously", rewritten to contain the lyric "(He said) obviously, the order will be, an egg then a needle and then an ice-cream and there'll be a goose and moose and apple juice, oh yeah." Cue gasps and standing ovation #1. For the second chorus, he then flips the tops of the poles to reveal the same order. Cue gasps and standing ovation #2.

** ''Then'', he shows a clip of the band Music/McFly (part of an unrelated at the beginning) singing a version of their song "Obviously", rewritten to contain the lyric "(He said) obviously, the order will be, an egg then a needle and then an ice-cream and there'll be a goose and moose and apple juice, oh yeah." Cue gasps and standing ovation #1. For the second chorus, he then flips the tops of the poles to reveal the same order. Cue gasps and standing ovation #2.

* [[DeusEstMachina The God-Machine]] in ''TabletopGaming/DemonTheDescent'' runs on this to utilize the obscure laws, loopholes and exceptions in the laws of reality. TheButterflyEffect is in full effect; one small action can lead to a chain reaction, over a long period of time, to bring forth effects it desires. Often it sends Angels to make sure the chain of events work exactly as it predicts. That being said, [[{{Deconstruction}} this modus operandi exposes it]] to SpannerInTheWorks. An interference on the right spot at the right time can invalidate the entire chain of event, possibly one that took years to fruition.

* Played with in ''WebOriginal/TheDefrosters''. In episode 9, Pixel Girl implies that she is working on a {{plan}} to stop Pixel Boy from playing World of Warcraft. She and James even mention TV Tropes as they debate the differences between a Gambit Roulette and a XanatosGambit.

* There is never a full outline of what the plan was, or who was planning what, but the events of the third season finale and fourth season premiere of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' required an absurd amount of chance and relied on a AssPull for resolution. Molotov Cocktease and Hunter Gathers manipulate events so that Brock Samson kills OSI's top three assassins in a fairly straightforward {{plan}} to ensure the supremacy of their Blackhearts organization. Although not specifically stated, they may have also been responsible for Brock's car attempting to kill him, which itself relied on pure luck on several levels. It gets ''completely ridiculous'' once it turns out that the whole storyline going back to Hunter's sex change operation was an elaborate plan by Hunter Gathers, who is actually TheMole for the Blackhearts who reversed his sex change, in order to convince Brock to join Hunter's SPHINX organization. The plan is either the most convoluted and implausible plan of all time or an unbelievably well executed game of GambitSpeedChess. It gets even crazier in the season 4 finale, when it's revealed that EVERYTHING outlined above was in fact orchestrated by General Treister to expose and eliminate Doe and Cardholder, who were actually moles for the Guild of Calamitous Intent; then install Hunter as the new head of the OSI. In other words, Treister's roulette depended on somebody else perfectly orchestrating and executing their own roulette, which quite possibly makes him the true master of this trope. ''Meanwhile'' Mol infiltrates SPHINX as "the rookie" (unsure if she's always been or just sometime before the season finale) in order to (possibly) place her Blackhearts as prostitutes that Dr. Venture orders for Hank and Dean's home school prom in order to distract Brock while she gets away with her SPHINX captured and doped up love, Monstroso (who may be a decoy or maybe the Blackhearts thing was a lie.

* ''VisualNovel/GSenjouNoMaou'' gives us one in the form of the devil, [[MagnificentBastard Maou]]. Every one of his plans require that everyone acts exactly how he knows them to act. A single misstep would bring down the entire scheme. This culminates in his last giant trap: [[spoiler:creating a blockade and making it a hell on earth all to get his father out of prison]]. Despite this, he ''still'' manages to weasel himself out of sticky situations by playing GambitSpeedChess with the protagonists.

* There is never a full outline of what the plan was, or who was planning what, but the events of the third season finale and fourth season premiere of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' required an absurd amount of chance and relied on a ShockingSwerve for resolution. Molotov Cocktease and Hunter Gathers manipulate events so that Brock Samson kills OSI's top three assassins in a fairly straightforward {{plan}} to ensure the supremacy of their Blackhearts organization. Although not specifically stated, they may have also been responsible for Brock's car attempting to kill him, which itself relied on pure luck on several levels. It gets ''completely ridiculous'' once it turns out that the whole storyline going back to Hunter's sex change operation was an elaborate plan by Hunter Gathers, who is actually TheMole for the Blackhearts who reversed his sex change, in order to convince Brock to join Hunter's SPHINX organization. The plan is either the most convoluted and implausible plan of all time or an unbelievably well executed game of GambitSpeedChess. It gets even crazier in the season 4 finale, when it's revealed that EVERYTHING outlined above was in fact orchestrated by General Treister to expose and eliminate Doe and Cardholder, who were actually moles for the Guild of Calamitous Intent; then install Hunter as the new head of the OSI. In other words, Treister's roulette depended on somebody else perfectly orchestrating and executing their own roulette, which quite possibly makes him the true master of this trope. ''Meanwhile'' Mol infiltrates SPHINX as "the rookie" (unsure if she's always been or just sometime before the season finale) in order to (possibly) place her Blackhearts as prostitutes that Dr. Venture orders for Hank and Dean's home school prom in order to distract Brock while she gets away with her SPHINX captured and doped up love, Monstroso (who may be a decoy or maybe the Blackhearts thing was a lie.

** Tattletale ''tries'' to pull this off, and manages to succeed at some points. However, she's quickly outmatched: she might be a high-level Thinker (assessed at 7), but she's certianly not ''the'' highest-level Thinker on the block.

May be parodied by having events obviously (and blatantly) be out of the character's control, [[IMeantToDoThat and yet still have them take credit for it]].

* GambitRoulette/{{Fanfiction}}

-->-- '''Creator/RogerEbert''', [[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19990709/REVIEWS/907090302 review]] of ''Film/ArlingtonRoad''

* During the warmup to the rescue in ''VisualNovel/GrisaiaNoRakuen'' Thanatos tests the usefulness of the Mihama girls by sending them on various pointless errands. It gets the exact timing of everything down to the second and predicts exactly how people will flinch, among other things.
* ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2'' has Nagito Komaeda, whose [[BornLucky Ultimate Good Luck]] means that any plan of his that depends on "just hope that the right thing will happen" ''will'' [[StoryBreakerPower reliably work]].

* ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2'' has Nagito Komaeda come to the conclusion that there is a spy in the midst of the trapped party, and, in order to out the spy to the others [[spoiler:orchestrates an elaborate ThanatosGambit involving him committing suicide in such a way that the spy would inadvertently finish him off, and thus get tried for killing him. How does he guarantee that the spy would be the one to do it? He doesn't, instead relying on his [[BornLucky Ultimate Good Luck]] that of all the people who stumbled on his body, the spy would be the one to finish him off without even realizing it. ''It works''.]]
** Given that Nagito has his own ridiculous brand of [[BornLucky luck]], it really makes sense that any plan formed by him that relies on random chance to work, will work. Another example: [[spoiler:He wants to be picked to clean a building so that he can prepare the things he will need for another plan later on. He suggests the group draws straws to decide who cleans the building, and sure enough he got the short straw.]]