Sunday 24 June 2012

Deal or No Deal - 18th-24th June

OK, I'm going to try something different this week. These recaps are getting too hard to write, so, from now, I'm going to give a quick stats recap for each show, and provide a bit of commentary if I feel the need to.

Monday 18th: Angela
Winnings: £4,000
Dealt at: 2-box
Highest offer: £10,000 (14-box and 8-box)
Box value: £10

Well, Angela certainly played further into the game than perhaps she should have, and dealt one or two rounds too late, but she at least avoided a crash, which is always a good thing.

Tuesday 19th: Elaine
Winnings: £20,000
Dealt at: 8-box
Highest offer: £50,000 (2-box)
Box value: £250,000

An enjoyable game, and an intruiging one too, with the 1p and the £250,000 staying to the end. The new term for this ending is the 'Scream finish', coined by regular pilgrim and forum contributor John.

Wednesday 20th: Chris
Winnings: £11,000
Dealt at: 11-box
Highest offer: £16,000 (5-box)
Box value: £5

Another third offer deal, but not a daft one, and Chris missed out on a further £5,000, so still a good result.

Thursday 21st: Mary
Winnings: 1p
Opened the box
Highest offer: £8,000 (8-box)
Box value: 1p

Mary was certainly a memorable player, though not nessecarily for the right reasons (many found her repeatant laughter annoying). The game itself was a pretty much unavoidable trainwreck.

Friday 22nd: Ali
Winnings: £40,000
Dealt at: 8-box
Highest offer: £40,000 (8-box)
Box value: £100,000

Best game of the week by miles, no matter what the gamblers say. Ali made a sensible 8-box decision, but left a final two of 10p and £100,000. The Banker offered the 'Banker's Gamble', which Ali sensibly turned down. Alas, it was not the right thing to do, but, then, better to have regrets and £40,000, than regrets and 10p, I say!

Sunday 24th: Wayne
Winnings: £28,250
Dealt at: 8-box
Highest offer: £42,000 (5-box)
Box value: £500

Good game to finish off the week. Wayne was a good player, who made a very sensible decision. If he'd gone one more round, it would've paid off, but, ultimately, he made a good call, as the game collapsed after 5-box.

Not a bad week by any means. The Banker has hinted on Twitter that there are some big games coming up, so we look forward to those. I am also suspecting a new series of University Challenge may be around the corner soon too, so I'll report back on that soon as well. When that returns, I'll have something else to write about on here! 

Sunday 17 June 2012

Deal or No Deal - 11th-17th June

What a week it's been! I've been busy with various things, notably starting refurbishment work on my new flat, and also my school leavers prom, or 'Final Fling' as we call it. It's been a good week for Deal or No Deal too. It didn't start off very well, but things have more than picked up now!

Monday 11th: Hoda
Hoda was a delightful lady, who was playing in hope of winning some money for her grandmother in Morocco. She reached 8-box with an isolated £250,000, with a big drop back to £20,000 and £15,000. The Banker offered £8,000, which most of us would turn down to avoid selling the £250,000 for the lowest ever sum. Hoda went on, but the £250,000 went in the next round, and the game fell apart, leaving her with a final two of £500 and £10. Feeling bad for not taking £8,000, she dealt the offer of £200, only for £500 to be in the box.


Tuesday 12th: Oli
Very controversial game indeed. Oli was a nice enough chap, and he came across as a good board reader. At 11-box, the £250,000 was in play with a big drop back to £35,000 and £20,000. The Banker offered £10,000; after much debate over the likelihood of what could happen next, Oli dealt. Now, 11-box deals are generally disapproved of, with some saying it is too early; some cynics suspect the production team don't like them either. Anyway, this was no ordinary 11-box deal; this was the first 11-box deal with the £250,000 on the table. Oli missed out on offers of £17,000, £22,000 and £76,000 along the way to the reveal. Naturally, Oli gets the 'early deal gone wrong' treatment, with others taking pity on him. It could be said, however, that his game was the turning point, as things have been great ever since...

Wednesday 13th: Bobby
Bobby was a lovely old lady, who had certainly stood out on the wings for being a good character. Her 8-box deal at 19,000 was a cautious one for the board, with the £250,000, £100,000, £50,000 and £20,000 higher than it. But as it transpired, it was the perfect deal, as the big sums slowly disappeared. £50,000 stayed to the end, but with 1p as the other sum, and 1p was in the box! A great result from a cautious deal, that just goes to show some people get seduced by apparent strength of boards, and, sometimes, the prudent option is the wise one.

Thursday 14th: Jacob
An amazingly similar game to Bobby's. Jacob reached 8-box with £15,000, £20,000, £75,000 and £100,000 left; the Banker offered £11,000, low enough for most to gamble, but Jacob dealt. Like with Bobby, the prudent decision proved to be the right one, as all four higher sums vanished, resulting in a second consecutive 'Banker spanking'. £5 was in the box.

Friday 15th: Selen
The most dramatic and complicated game of the week. Selen reached 5-box with 1p, £5, £15,000, £20,000 and £100,000 left. The Banker offered £9,500, and then added the incentive of opening one box, and getting another offer. Selen played on, but the loss of £10,000 saw a stick at £9,500, plus an extra £1,000 for Hoda (which later became £2,000 and £3,000). Selen played on, and took out £5 which saw an offer of £21,000. A very brave no deal was followed by the loss of £15,000, resulting in a final two of 1p and £100,000. The Banker offered £30,000, which was a very easy deal for most of us, and Selen was no exception. Pleasingly, her deal was vindictaed when 1p was revealed in her box for a huge 'Banker spanking', the third in a row.


Sunday 17th: Gaz
Well, Selen was going to be hard to follow, but Gaz did a good job. The loss of big sums early on dented his confidence somewhat, but £75,000 stayed to 8-box with £10,000, £5,000 and various blues. The offer of £4,000 was rejected, but £75,000 went in the next box. The 5-box offer dropped to £1,200. The Banker felt confident for the first time in a while, but that confidence vanished when Gaz no dealt that offer, and pulled of the perfect all-blue round (the odds of which were 10%), leaving £5,000 and £10,000 on the board. Gaz turned down the final offer of £7,000, and £10,000 was revealed in the box for a fourth consecutive 'Banker spanking'. Another tomorrow, and the record for the most consecutive 'Banker spankings' will be broken!


So, ever since Oli's controversial game on Tuesday, things have been pretty much perfect, with the four subsequent players all getting the most out of their game. Long may this good luck continue, and let's hope it does!

Sunday 10 June 2012

Deal or No Deal - 'Selectivism', and the support for gambling

OK, I've been putting this off for a while now, but that's been down more to time than eagerness.

As you will know by now, Deal or No Deal is a game of pure chance. Not total 'gambling', but plenty of luck is involved. The skill in the game is knowing when to stop, in my opinion. When you deal, you have a 50/50 chance of it being the right thing to do (by which I mean, the game crashing afterwards, or not).

Naturally, with a game like this, not every game is going to be perfect. And that brings us back to 'schaudenfraude', and the selectivist approach to the game some people have. I already touched on this briefly in my post just over a month ago on schadenfreude in DOND, but it does bear repeating here.

There are some people who believe that, on DOND, gambling, and opening your box regardless, is the best way to play the game. These people usually ignore games where blues are in the player's box, and only focus on games where Power 5 sums are on the table, whether the player wins it or not. So, a player winning a big sum from the box are labelled 'brave', players who deal and miss out on big sums in the box are labelled 'cowards', regardless of the state of the board when they dealt. If a player takes a huge gamble, and wins the lower sum, they will still receive praise for 'going for it', and not for 'chickening out'.

The best example of this has to be Corinne Davies' game from December 2009. Corinne was driven throughout her game by her desire to buy a vintage Bentley, which only the £250,000 would buy. Unlike some, she was not bluffing when she said she was after the £250,000, and, despite some very generous offers, playing to a final two of 1p and the £250,000. The Banker offered her £88,000, which pretty much anyone else would take, but Corinne declined it! After a big build up, Noel opened her box to reveal 1p!

The response from most people was that Corinne was incredibly greedy, and deserved to crash after declining £88,000. However, some people defended her for not giving up on her ambition, despite being faced with all-or-nothing.

This had led me to believe that, overall, there is a huge preference for gambling over caution. People frequently express this by quoting Noel's frequent mantra of 'You're Only Here Once', although, given that Olly Murs played regular DOND in 2007 before he became famous, and then played Celebrity DOND earlier this year, that is not necessarily true anymore!

Another celebrity game, that of Louis Walsh, is a great example of this 'preference'. Mr Walsh reached a final two of £3,000 and the £250,000, resulting in an offer of £70,000. Large numbers of supporters, including Jedward(!), urged him to go for it. But, he resisted this, and dealt. And it's a good thing he did too, as £3,000 was in the box.

But the fact that lots of people were urging him to go for it gives further backing to this 'preference' theory that I have. Naturally, had Mr Walsh had the £250,000, all the people praising him for playing the perfect game would have been a lot less impressed.

Rarely, though, do we see the same people who criticise a player for dealing too soon castigate another player for gambling too far. It's usually the same people. However, there are some people with, what I have termed, a 'selectivist' approach, which I expanded on a bit more in my schadenfreude article.

This also extends to when people claim what they would have done in a certain game. There has not been much evidence of this lately, but there are some people who alter their gameplay tactics to ensure they will have won the max from the game (whether that be opening the box to the highest sum of the game, or dealing the peak offer and being justified). Mercifully, such behaviour is rare nowadays.

That's all I have to say on this matter for now. More articles of this sort will go up a) when I think of something to write about, and b) when I find the time to do it.

Deal or No Deal - 4th-10th June

Well, it's not been the best of weeks for Deal or No Deal, but there have been worse.

Monday 4th: Fiona
A pretty sub par game, with pretty horrendous luck throughout. A collapse at 5-box left £3,000 as the highest sum on the board. It stayed to the end, but the 1p was with it. Fiona pretty much resigned herself to joining the 'prestigious' 1p club, but, pleasingly, she won the £3,000 from the box, so a good result; bar the 8-box offer, it was the most she'd get out of the game.

Tuesday 5th: Jay
I was away for the Jubilee weekend, and I arrived home on Tuesday just in time for this game. Some pretty unfortunate luck, with one of the Power 5 going in the first four rounds, leaving just the £75,000 at 8-box. Jay did manage to keep in to 5-box, but with no backup, leading to an offer of £6,555. Low enough for most to gamble, but, given that Jay had a baby on the way, perhaps a sensible deal to make, so he dealt. Alas, the £75,000 stayed to the end, and the offer would have been £25,555 (allegedly; may well have been lower in live play). Luckily, though, 50p was in the box, so not a complete disaster.

Wednesday 6th: Olivia
More atrocious luck throughout this game. Olivia never really got much of a chance to take a decent offer. The Banker did try to be nice to her by letting her play the final round one box at a time, but this only dragged the final crash out longer than it should. In the end, Olivia won 50p from her box. No really bad decisions were made; the luck just wasn't there.

Thursday 7th: Gary
After 24 shows on the wings, Gary finally got his chance on his 25th show. Another game that had plenty of bad luck in the early stages, with again, only £75,000 remaining out of the Power 5 at 8-box. When Gary revealed that he was playing to raise money for charities in Gambia, the Banker, who hates charity, resorted to low offers (which, as was said on the forum, is rather surprising, considering how comparatively generous he was to the Celebrities!). Fortunately, Gary avoided a second consecutive crash with a 5-box deal at £5,000, a decision immediately vindicated when the £75,000 came out immediately afterwards. £10 was in the box.

Friday 8th: Rhian
The game got off to a good start, and saw an opening offer of £12,000. Rhian took a fair bit of time on that one, leading some to suggest it would be the first ever first offer deal! She played on, but this was repeated at the second offer of £14,000. Rhian turned that down, but then the game took a turn for the worse, and the offers plummeted. Luckily, an all-blue 5th round saw a 5-box offer of £20,000. With three of the Power 5 left (£35,000, £50,000 and £75,000), an arguable call either way. Rhian took the money, and found the two highest sums in the final round. Alas, the £35,000 was in the box, so a 'Banker spanking' was denied, but still a good result considering.

Sunday 10th: Phil
Just finished a couple of minutes before I began writing this. Phil took losing the £250,000 and the £100,000 in the first round well, and the subsequent offers reflected this. After turning down some decent offers, Phil bailed out at £11,000 at 8-box, with £20,000, £50,000 and £75,000 left on the board. Pleasingly, all three were wiped out during the final two rounds, thus giving us a 'Banker spanking'. £1 was in the box. A great result to finish a mediocre, but not totally bad week for the show.

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Deal or No Deal - 28th May-3rd June (including McFly's Celebrity game)

Well, I'm playing catch-up at the moment. I went away for the long weekend, and I've only just got back. So here goes with a brief summary of last week's DOND games.

Monday's player was Neil. He was a nice chap, but his game didn't have a great deal of luck. When offered £5,000 and 8-box, he dealt. Alas, £20,000 stayed to the end with a blue. The Banker offered the Banker's Gamble, which would allow him to give back the £5,000 and go for the £20,000. Neil declined this, but, alas, the £20,000 was in his box.

Tuesday, and Isolda was the player. Her game was also full of bad luck. However, a good final round saw her recover to a final two of £3,000 and £5,000. She won the £3,000, unfortunately, but that was still a good result after all that bad luck.

Wednesday, and the Banker's 'favourite' player, Tony, came out. Tony was certainly a player who had provoked mixed reactions on the forum; some enjoyed his ramblings, others found him annoying. His game was also full of bad luck, and he went away with just 50p. But he certainly gave us an entertaining game, and will be remembered for that.

I missed Thursday's game due to a college interview. Mike was the player, and he also had bad luck early on. However, he recovered to a 5-box offer of £14,000, which he dealt. Unfortunately, the £50,000 stayed to the end, along with 10p. For the second time this week, the Banker offered the gamble. Like Neil, Mike turned it down, but, unfortunately, he had the £50,000 in the box. But he certainly gave a dramatic game financially. Probably the best regular game of a sorry week.

I missed most of Friday's game as well, due to a night out with my social club. I caught the first quarter, then went away. Mani was the player, and, unlike most recent games, she had a good start. The game improved as it went on. She eventually dealt £20,000 at 8-box with £250,000 and £100,000 left on the board. Alas, the £100,000 was in her box, so another frustrating result.

But Saturday's game was by far the most frustrating of the week. Valerie was the player, and she also had pretty torrid luck early on. She reached a third offer of £10,000, which she dealt. It looked like she might be on course for a very rare third offer OPW (getting the maximum sum from the game), but, alas, a perfect final round left £20,000 and £35,000 on the board. £35,000 was in the box to finish off a torrid week for the show.

On Sunday, the final Celebrity Deal or No Deal saw boy band McFly play the Banker for a variety of charities. Another shocking start saw THREE of the Power 5 go in the first round. The boys ended up with a final two of 1p and £10,000, and, pleasingly, won £10,000 for their charities, thus giving us a feel good game to end both the week, and the Celebrity series.

Sorry for the disjointed summary this week, but I'm playing catch-up at the moment. Normal service will be resumed later this week, I hope. I also hope to post about the Apprentice Final later on this week as well, so stay tuned for that too.