Good evening, and welcome to another episode of Deal USA. If you’re wondering where tonight’s first episode is, a recap of it will follow later on. In the meantime, we have a special episode tonight that’s all about redemption.

Our contestant is Artis Jackson. You may be wondering, how does redemption factor into his game? Flashback to the very first season of Deal USA on NBC, where Otis’s mother, Cheryl, played a rather terrible game and won a whole five bucks. Now, Artis is out to break the Five Dollar Curse, and he’ll do it with case number 5. I see what you did there, bahd.

“Let’s go!” Artis says. That’s a great idea.

Round 1
[7] - $10,000
[19] - $5 - Big cheers for that, and in only two cases, the curse is broken.
[21] - $1
[1] - $75
[9] - $200,000
[18] - $25

A fairly good opening round. The Banker ackonowledges the poor play of Artis’ mother, and offers...

BANKER'S OFFER

$29,000

No one ever takes the first offer, and Artis doesn’t intend on breaking that trend. After meeting Artis’s supporters, one of which is his mother, he says NO DEAL, and we head into our first break.

We’re back, and it’s time for round 2.

Round 2
[2] - $1,000
[22] - $200
[10] - $750,000
[13] - $750
[8] - $500,000

Well, not such a great round, but the million remains in play. The loss of the two Power 7 amounts is reflected in the offer.

BANKER'S OFFER

$15,000

Otis says NO DEAL.

Round 3
[15] - $25,000
[4] - $100
[25] - $400,000
[24] - $1,000,000

“It ain’t over,” says Artis. Howie points out that the largest amount left in Cheryl’s game at one point was $300,000, which is now the highest amount left in Artis’s game. The Banker dangles a $5 bill in front of Artis and then offers him...

BANKER'S OFFER

$10,000

Otis says NO DEAL.

Round 4
[26] - $300,000
Well that was awful. This is now a $100,000 game. Howie recommends taking a commercial break to reset, and he gets Artis to do the link.

We’re back with more Deal USA.

[6] - $500
[20] - $.01 - This came after chants of “Penny! Penny! Penny!”

Howie points out that Artis can’t leave with less than double what his mother won. Okay, then. Cue the next offer:

BANKER'S OFFER

$17,000

Artis says NO DEAL.

Round 5
[3] - $10 - Cheryl herself recommended this case. Looks like mama made a good pick.
[12] - $50

An all-blue round. Howie says Artis is in for a big offer, and that offer comes after the break.

Deal USA plays on with Howie informing Artis that he now can’t leave with less than 60 times what Cheryl won. Speaking of, mama believes he’s got the hundred grand in his case. Here is the next offer.

BANKER'S OFFER

$28,000

After some deliberation with his supporters, who tell him to counter, he decides not to and says NO DEAL.

Round 6
[17] - $5,000

The next offer is Artis’s highest yet. Specifically, it’s...

BANKER'S OFFER

$39,000

Howie mentions that some people make less than that amount in a year. Otis understands, but he says NO DEAL, and we head into another break.

We’re back, and Howie thinks he’s in a church because of the constant “Believe!” chants.

Round 7
[23] - $75,000

Howie says that Artis is kind of replaying his mother’s game. The loss of the 75 large forces the Banker drops the offer accordingly.

BANKER'S OFFER

$30,000

Artis says NO DEAL.

Round 8
[11] - $50,000

Yiker’s Island. The board right now:

$300
$400
$100,000

And the offer is...

BANKER'S OFFER

$25,000

Howie asks the question, and Otis turns to his supporters. Cheryl tells her son to counter at $35,000. Otis says he is not deterred by potentially going home with a few hundred dollars. No matter what happens in this game, he’ll have outperformed his mother by a significant margin.

Otis then says NO DEAL.

Round 9
[14] - “Open the case... when we come back.”

“Is it repeat or redemption?” Howie asks as we return from the break. Let’s find out.

[14] - $300 - Redemption!
“Olga! Olga! Olga!” (the name of the model holding case number 14) is the new chant.

The Banker says she respects Artis, and for that, she believes there should be a reward. Howie points out that the other case in the gallery is Cheryl’s original case, number 16. The final offer is...

BANKER'S OFFER

$63,000

A textbook play from Monsieur Le Banquier’s - remember him? - playbook. That there’s an AMO, folks. I would take it. Most sane people probably would too. Artis is one of those people, and perhaps he’s watched Le Banquier sometime in the past because for him, it’s a cast-iron DEAL.

So what was in case number 5? We find out as Howie opens it to reveal $400, confirming another player win. The $100,000 resided in case 16.

Artis successfully achieved redemption by winning 12,600 times what his mother won, and we’ve achieved the end of this recap. Stay tuned for the recap of tonight’s first episode after this.

Very interesting endgame there despite all of the $200k+ amounts going so early. Very tricky to say how I would've played that, and at least Artis had the sense to Deal when it was glaringly obvious that it is time to stop, unlike Cheryl with her $80,000 offer.