Deal or No Deal - 16th-23rd July

Well, excluding Monday, it's been quite a good week for Deal or No Deal.

Monday 16th: Dawn

Winnings: 50p
Opened the box
Highest offer: £4,000 (17-box)
Box value: 50p

Not very much luck there. A basically unavoidable trainwreck where the first offer was the highest. Well, £2,100 at 5-box was a fairly decent offer, but, at the same time, it was a low stakes gamble, so justifiable to go on. Dawn was unlucky to crash from there. Particularly cruel was when the Banker correctly predicted when the final red would come out, which was sheer fluke, as he doesn't know where the money is (allegedly)!

Tuesday 17th: Delroy

Winnings: £18,000
Dealt at: 5-box
Highest offer: £18,000 (5-box)
Box value: 1p

A fun game with a fun player. Delroy was constantly singled out on the wings for allegedly being over demanding, notably wanting strawberry juice to drink instead of water, like the others! A good result for him though. £18,000 would have been low enough for some to gamble, but Delroy jumped the right way, and avoided the dreaded 1p club. No-one can complain about that, surely!

Wednesday 18th: Sara

Winnings: £27,500
Dealt at: 5-box
Highest offer: £68,000 (2-box)
Box value: £250,000

This was a controversial one. A very rare all-blue opening round saw a strong board develop. Sara reached 8-box with just one blue left, which saw an offer of £24,000, which she rejected. She took out the final blue next round, guaranteeing her £3,000. The Banker offered £27,500, which would be low enough for most of us to gamble, but Sara took it. This proved the wrong decision, as the £250,000 stayed to the end, with £3,000, and was in her box! Many have called this game 'a great opportunity missed', as the offer was poor for an all-red 5-box. Some may compare it to Michael Heath from May 2011, who dealt £24,000 at 5-box with £10,000 guaranteed. One forum member speculated that Sara came along with too modest expectations, and, so, when faced with such a strong board, the offers felt better to her than perhaps they were. All in all, an unfortunate game for all concerned (except the Banker, obviously!).

Thursday 19th: Emma

Winnings: £22,000
Dealt at: 8-box
Highest offer: £30,000 (5-box)
Box value: £3,000

Emma's game was another interesting one. She also had a strong 8-box board, and, when faced with an offer of £22,000, was stumped, resulting in Noel giving her the ad-break to consider the offer. She eventually dealt, only for the proveout to reveal it to be a deal too soon, and £30,000 would've been offered at 5-box. Luckily, the game collapsed after that, which is good, as Emma admitted she'd have turned down £30,000 due to the strength of her board. So, her deal may have been one round too soon, but it was the right decision for her.

Friday 20th: Stine

Winnings: £15,000
Dealt at: 5-box
Highest offer: £15,000 (5-box)
Box value: £100

Well, this was an interesting one. Genuinely stumped by £11,000 at 8-box (one forum member who was in the audience revealed that she took half an hour to make her mind up in reality!), Stine's partner advised her to no deal; some welcomed this intervention, others considered it arrogant of him to say that, especially as it wasn't his game. Stine did go on, and survived to a 5-box offer of £15,000, which was enough for her to bail out on. And it proved to be the right decision too, so a good result for her.


Sunday 22nd: Jhillu
Winnings: £15,000
Dealt at: 8-box
Highest offer: £17,200
Box value: £20,000

This game started off slowly, with Jhillu telling of his childhood in Nepal, where he ran away from home and joined a monestary in India. He proved a very capable board reader; when offered £15,000 at 8-box, he analysed the board to judge whether the potential uplift would be enough to gamble. He decided it wasn't, and dealt. This didn't prove to be too disastrous, as the most he could've got was an extra £5,000, so a good result.

So, overall, a good week compared to some recent ones. Next week, DOND celebrates the Olympics with a week of 'Gold Medal specials'; these should be interesting, and hopefully better than most special weeks of recent times have been.