Deal or No Deal: Paul's Game (07/05/12)

Well, I said yesterday that I'd be doing weekly Deal or No Deal updates, unless something notable happened, and, well, it did today, so here goes...

Some of you may already be farmiliar with me and my views of Deal or No Deal, as I regularly contribute to the Unofficial Deal or No Deal forum. You will know that I disapprove of all schaudenfraude that goes around whenever a player undersells their box. However, today, I cannot really help but agree with what has been said.

Paul Barnes took to the stage as the first player of the 'Banker's Birthday' themed week. This is an annual week of special shows that takes place in the week of the Banker's birthday (May 12th). Last year, Suzanne Mulholland won the top prize of £250,000 on the 13th May, so much would be expcected this year.

For those unfarmiliar with the concept of the game, there are twenty-two identical boxes filled with sums of money from 1p to £250,000. The idea is to remove the smaller sums from the game to increase your chances of winning a big sum. After five boxes, the 'Banker', who remains annonymous throughout the show, and speaks to host Noel Edmonds on the phone, makes the player an monetary offer. The player can accept this offer, or decline it, in which case they open another three boxes, and then recieve another offer.

Repeat until the player takes an offer, or there are two boxes left. If the player turns down an offer, Edmonds will open the box they have selected, and they win the contents.

Anyway, Paul had a terrific start, with the small sums vanishing quite quickly, leading to a first offer of £15,000, which he turned down.

At the third offer of £19,500, his wife, in the audience, said she would deal, but he declined it, and played on.

The fourth offer of £24,000 saw this happen again. Paul still had four higher value sums left, including the top prize of £250,000, but his wife said he should take the offer. Despite wanting to play on, Paul took the money.

At this point, the game is not over, but is carried hypothetically to see if the player could've had more money.

Alas, the next round saw him lose three insignificant sums, and the offer would have gone up to £40,000. The final round saw Paul leave a final two boxes of £50,000 and £250,000, which would've seen an offer of £140,000!

And, to make matters worse, Edmonds opened the box Paul had selected before the show, and it contained the top prize of £250,000.

So, that's today's show. Paul took an offer of £24,000, but could've become the first male to win the £250,000 top prize. Naturally, there is much schaudenfraude going around at the moment; a second post, discussing this schaudenfraude, and the background to it, will be up later this evening.