Since no one has touched this forum since 2009, I thought I'd spice things up a bit by posting a memorable episode of American Deal or no Deal every week that relates to recent games in the UK Dream Factory. Most of these will be syndicated episode that version had more challenging offers rather than the "you'd be crazy to go on once you lose your safety net" prime-time offers.

Today's contestant is Marisol Almarillen. She's hoping to win enough to Japan. Since this was part of a special week, whoever has the $7,500 case automatically gets a $7,500 trip. Marisol has the psychological advantage of knowing she can't leave with next to nothing as she already won a $7,500 trip to Canada earlier this week. She swaps her original case #8 for #12 (if only the UK version did pre-game swaps so there wouldn't be any debates about hypo-swaps )

Round 1 (Remember the case opening format is 5-5-4-2-2-1-1):

#10- $1,000
#19- $0.01
#6- $7,500 trip to Swiss Alps
#22- $75,000
#13- $250,000

Banker's Offer:
$11,000 No Deal

Round 2:

#3- $1
#16- $5
#21- $50
#9- $300
#11- $2,500

Banker's Offer:
$22,000 No Deal

Round 3:

#20- $5,000
#5- $200
#17- $25,000
#1- $100

8 case board:
$10
$25
$400
$500
$10,000
$50,000
$100,000
$500,000

She still has 3 of her Power 5 in play along with a $10,000 fallback (though many didn't consider the latter in their decisions ).

Banker's Offer:
$36,000 No Deal

Round 4:

#15- $10
#8- $50,000

That was an OK round, and no doubt the offer will go up since the average went up and she still has a safety net.

Banker's Offer:
$31,000 NO DEAL

Only a very cautious player who doesn't want to leave at the 3rd offer would Deal that. Why in the world did the Banker do that?

Round 5:

#7- $10,000
#18- $400

Banker's Offer:
$103,000 DEAL!!!!!!!!!

While that was a very sensible decision, no doubt a big factor to that Deal was the huge generosity leap from the last offer. Let's see if she missed out on destroying syndicated Deal or no Deal's budget.

Round 6 (proveout)

#14- $100,000

Banker's offer would've been:

$86,000

Believable proveout offer, unlike the majority they had at those stakes . No doubt most would Deal that offer if they had gotten that far.

Round 7 (proveout):

#4- $500 ($25 and $500,000 remain)

Banker's offer would've been:

$197,000

Again, a surprisingly believable proveout offer (considering the only player to have a $500k/peanuts finish in live play got offered more).

Clearly the $500,000 wasn't winnable in this game unless you were a pure Wakeyist. But did Marisol miss out on Deal's biggest prize?

#12- $500,000

To prove it: #8- $25

She missed out on $500,000 (which, btw, is the equivalent of just under £250,000 after taxes) but fortunately through a sensible SIX FIGURE DEAL , which most people who sold the $500,000 didn't have the guts/safety net to make.

So, what in the world does this episode have to do with recent UK Deal or no Deal shows? The Banker's tactics nowadays are very similar to that of the American Banker in that episode. He low-balls early offers then, when he finds it very pivotal for the contestant to Deal, he has a significant leap in the generosity. His well-timed generosity leaps got both Janaba and Jen to sell the £250,000 at 5 box and saved him a fortune. Fortunately, some players (Tommy, Kerrie and Dave) did not fall for the generosity leap "trap" and each left of them at the highest offer because of that.

Very good read.

I voted for the 7th offer, but on reflection I'm not sure. I might have gone at the same point as Marisol, in fact I probably would have done. A six-figure offer was more than enough to tempt me there.

If not $103,000, then certainly $197,000.

I'll take heat for this, but $197,000 would not have stopped me in this situation, nor would $103,000. I'd need an offer of at least $222,000 at 2-case in order to deal.

By the way, did anyone ever mention that the U.S. version was one of the worst-ever international incarnations of Deal? I cannot begin to tell you how much it sucked. From the loud, obnoxious, brain-dead contestants to the week's worth of primetime shows where a total of about $350 was given away, the U.S. version is a blemish on the face of this otherwise decent game show franchise.

So you're basically saying you're just as crazy as the "brain-dead" contestants on the primetime version of the show.

Anyway, the point you brought out in the second paragraph is precisely why most of the classic episodes will be the syndicated ones. Though it will be very hard to find an episode to symbolize the current state of the dream factory.

I despised the American version. It was too flashy and the contestants had absolutely no grasp of numbers. The banker would offer the average pretty much at every offer and contestants would continually no deal until it was a one-case game, at which point they would deal. What made it worse was after the shiny new toy effect was over, the producers tried to keep the show engaging by introducing the Million Dollar Mission... and then re-introducing it when it didn't work the first time... and then keep using it until the first million dollar winner was awarded... and then kept using it.

I saw a video about a year ago of some contestant from the primetime version being offered $537,000 on a $0.01/$1,000,000 finish. He said no deal and won $0.01. That pretty much summarizes the show right there.

Again, that was the prime-time version of the show. For the most part, the contestant base for that version was crazy gamblers, whereas on the syndicated version there was a wider range of personalities and game-play methods. Plus the banker's offers on the syndicated version were very much similar to the UK banker's offers: unpredictable, somewhat tailored to the player and at times very stingy, especially with the $250,000 and/or the $500,000 in play. I remember once a lady was offered $31,000 on $500k/$7,500/2 low amounts 4 case and accepted it, while another lady was offered $98,000 on a $500k/2 low amounts 3 case and denied it.

Fair enough. I didn't watch much of the syndicated version.