I had this mad thought earlier about a strategy that players could adopt to be guaranteed to go away with a minimum figure, say 10k. It sure goes against the spirit of the show and I'd be interested to know if it was against the rules - if it wasn't Im sure it soon will be! BTW I am not suggesting that anyone has ever done this nor should! Lets just call this Fantasy Dond.

Put simple a cooperative play. We all hear that players on the wings form deep friendships with other players. So whats to stop them getting together in order to be guaranteed a decent win? All is required that say 10 people - presumably sign an agreement to all go to the final box and then divide up the winnings between them.

It would throw up some very interesting results and rewards. For example in the last 10 games we have end boxes of £35,000, £250,000, £50, £50, £50, £50, £50, £1, £750, £100.

That gives a theoretical 'winning pot' of £286,101. (Another £250,000 if one of the players had swapped at the final 2 box). That would have meant all 10 players would have an actual win of £28,610 which I think is more than any individual walked away with having played their own game. What this system means is that group playing means that its better to go to the end and take whats in your box than any offer amount the banker could give. It also means no player would go home with a zero or low blue win. Not sure how they would divvy up the holidays.

Who's to say that the maximum amounts to be got out of those combined 10 games would be opening each box though? I'd imagine there is something in the contract players sign to stop them doing something like this anyway.

Wasn't there a run of about 15 games in late September/early October 2008 where it was all blues at the table?

One thing this does point to, of course, is that the long-run average win is maximised by playing to the end, but in practice few will be able to justify that strategy!