As it says really. I don't think Laura is the obvious answer, as watching Tabitha's highlights reminded me of the banker's recession after Tegen..

I however think it was Suzanne..as the big games that followed (Irene and George spring to mind) IMO wouldn't have been as big as they were if It wasn't for her, but that's just me!

Laura, without question. Ever heard of a period of Deal or No Deal called WAKEY WINTER, where the Banker made insanely generous offers and nearly every contestant made at least 1 insane No Deal? Laura started that period with her jackpot win.

It definitely wasn't Nong's.

Oh, he's been around this place long enough, ACB, don't you worry....

Sorry. Supposed to be on sabbatical. Will come into effect a bit later, in that case.

I've only seen one, which was Laura, and yes, I'll go with Laura for the effect her win appears to have had on players at the time.

Has to Laura's as big gamblers (a lot of which provoked by Noel) and insane banker generosity was commonplace at the time. £75k Julie, £110k Bunney and Dennis' AMO rejections followed in the aftermath

The only big winner on the wings in Nong's game was £50k Scott and it's been a struggle for big games since then

Laura by the length of the Severn Tunnel. The influence even survived Craig's spectacular self-inflicted blue win the next day, for crying out loud!

Tegen second, with the next game clearly influenced by that game, and also Tabitha (I think she'd have been a big risk taker anyway, though).

Nong had zero effect despite everything else (huge and clearly out-of-character final gamble, utterly one-dimensional gambler on the wings, crumbling ratings at the time of recording) being set up for a Laura-esque influence.

Suzanne's influence may have been tempered by Kerry-Anne. Scrub her game (or give her a low-stakes one that doesn't give her the chance to squander £130k) and maybe it has a certain influence.

Alice's probably didn't because a) it was a weird one-off from a deus ex machina, b) h2005 was on the wings, and Endemol knew he'd call Noel out if he attempted to respond like he did after Laura. I can't think why else he didn't...

Well, we now know which quarter-millionaire had the least influence on other contestants...

I'm not entirely sure how or quite why a £250,000 win should have any effect whatsoever on subsequent games or players.

Every game is markedly different, and I think every game should thus be approached differently to the rest. If the £250,000 is taken out in round 1, 2, 3, 4 in most games after the win, furthermore, how should a £250,000 win have any effect at all on those games? It's irrelevant, because the players who don't have the QM available to them won't win it no matter how brave they are inspired to be.

And yes, they might be inspired to go for the next largest prize on offer, but in a lot of cases doing this results in a terrific crash to a blue win or at least a lower win than a sensible, rational approach would garner.

Bravery is bravery; courage, courage; stupidity, foolishness and recklessness are three different things completely.