I do believe Jon actually made a geniune belly up of things though - Vicky didn't do anything to deserve the comment that Daniel123 issued.

Ah, but you see, Jon Dealt... and for a sum that I thought was significantly more than the board was worth, too...

That's true, you can't judge people on hindsight. Sarah B no dealt 20K on the same board and look where that got her!

Vicky seriously considered all the offers and was just very unlucky. Didn't do anything wrong IMO.

The vast majority of Wakeyists - and Noel is included amongst them, and may be the reason for such framing in fact - suddenly go quiet when a Deal ends up being rewarded...

The vast majority of analysts, certainly including myself, don't judge in that way.

I agree with you. She certainly didn't take the offers lightly, particularly the £15,000 and £10,000 ones. At £15,000, I was almost convinced she was going to deal. I was so disappointed with Vicky's game. It was the unluckiest game I've seen in a long while. I've never been so gutted when the £250,000 was discovered! I hate it when nice people don't win much, but she took it so well. I'd have been in tears! All the best for the future, Vicky.

I'm not so sure about that. You are a student (as you have said before) and therefore four figure sums to you will be huge sums of money. As a standalone amount any four figure sum is a huge amount of money but for the working lot of people (including myself) that sort of money is regarded as quite minor when we earn more.

It does make me wonder what jobs people do who appear on the show, when mid aged people have never seen £5,000 in their life!

That's rather harsh. Maybe you have a fantastic job and earn loads but to a lot of people, £5,000 is a massive sum.

That's what I don't understand - what kind of job could earn anyone so much money to make £5,000 'massive'? That's why I think many people on DOND are unemployed. Part time maybe, but how many mid-aged people are part time employed?

OK, average wage- £20,000 a year let's say.

How much of that is actually saved? Not a lot really. £2,000 a year at the most, some of which will then be spent next year. That's the reason why most have never seen £5,000 actually in their bank accounts.

A lot of them are up to their necks in debt and will grasp anything to try and pay it off. People who are prudent with money and have less financial pressure on them can afford to gamble because the loss of hypothetical money doesn't matter so much to them.

It depends how much is spent on the needs of living and bills etc. but it can't be as much as double figures and I know that personally it isn't that high.

That is true enough, basicasic. Paper losses are much more easily absorbed by those in less precarious financial situations (although they are still losses, and are or should be still treated as such)

The flipside of that, of course, is that you get some people who are prudent with money but understand that the money is real once it is offered, and consider it prudent to take it rather than gamble. I consider myself in that category.

Yes, I'm a student. Four-figure sums of money will be significant to me. But there's a huge gap between, say, £5,000 (which would probably make getting through uni much easier) and, say, £35,000 (which would pay off my student debt and make getting onto the property ladder a much more realistic proposition). I have my concept of the value of money - possibly more clearly defined than most, who either 'come to play the game' (ignoring the first half of its title, in some cases) or have a single target, the result of simplistic attempts to value money that end up settling on one value. Us economists might refer to this as a 'point of inflection' on one's 'utility curve'.

And I'm not the extreme coward some make out. There've been plenty of games where I'd take more risks than the contestant, just as there've been plenty where I'd go before they did. Given my mathematical tendencies, I'm more reactive to the generosity of the offer than its raw magnitude, though I still consider offers in the context of what I'd do with both that sum of money and those on the board (and, if before two-box, anticipated future offers in various scenarios).

I consider this 'playing the game'. It allows for any level of risk-taking because the process remains the same - it's the interpretation that varies. I think I am considered a 'Dealer' (and indeed sometimes play on it a bit myself) only in the context of not being an aggressive 'No Dealer'.

It was such a shame to see the game fall apart like that… and very bad luck to have such bad rounds! Still, at least she got a comedy deal out of it – well done to her for keeping it together at the end and seeing it through!

I think the Dealometer we did last season showed that - your Wakey Factor was negative, but far from being the lowest.

I guess in some of the strong board-weak offer games we've seen then you'd be less cautious than a lot of the "targetists" who would take their £20,000 however mean the offer (by the way, why does it seem that every time a player writes down a target these days you instantly guess - usually correctly - that it's going to be £20k?)

I agree with a lot of that actually, I'm 18 and respect the value of money.
i don't see the point of being too target driven especially with a good board but don't see why people who are prudent with money and don't have too many debts would necessarily no deal to the end for the sake of it. You might as well just deal/no deal based on the risk involved to try and get the maximum out of the game. (This is just my opinion of course).

Bang on, Power5 - I'd have gone to the end in Kathleen's game (possibly swapping for the £250k), and I'd have got £160k out of Kelsie's game, but I might well have taken the third offer in this game, and certainly would have taken the third (or second...) offer in a lot of the January/February games.

On the Dealometer I came in with a -0.37, meaning I'd deal (on average) 0.37 offers sooner than the average contributor to that thread. I was slightly below most people, but well above a few (there was a big bunch just below 0, and I was at the bottom of that). I think that's probably quite accurate, although as I'm so very sensitive to offer generosity I suspect my exact position would be changeable depending upon offer patterns. (The Dealometer was based on May 2007.)

And yes - most targets do seem to be £20,000 - could it be down to this being roughly one year's salary for many people? (Or rather - probably less in raw terms, but more when you consider it's <Harry>tax-free!</Harry>...)

I think the vast majority of players go into the game with a target, or at least a rough figure in mind. £20k seems a common tipping point and once that is achieved they bail out irrespective of the board. Sometimes it's wise, sometimes its not. They have no intention of going for the big money on offer. They don't play the board generally except if they have a bad one which forces them go on to salvage what they can. They don't seem to analyse the boards much (if at all) and seem to rely on audience/wings reactions to gauge whether an offer is deemed high or low.

Its a valid way of playing the game but they can't all be in debt or poor. Some of them appear (and no doubt are) well off. Some are big earners. What is the point of dealing for a few thousand when they could win a huge amount?

I suppose the time slot of the show will attract the unemployed, retired, student type etc who are more likely to be target driven but even so there seems very few brave souls who will go for it if the board is good and they see the potential for a big win.

ITA. And it seems the players with a target [usually £20k like you say] dont actually consider whether an offer is good or *beep* for the board, they're just intent on taking the money and running and like you say basic, have no intentions whatsoever of going for bigger money than £250k because they think "ooooh i wanted £20,000 i'm being offered it, so i've got to take it right now"
And i agree 1,000,000% on the playing the board thing - and actually that could be the reason why i thi9nk the game is better when they have a worse board

Anyway, well done vicky on winning £2.15!

Hi Vicky,its your neighbour from the East Wing Brenda. Nice to see Rossano has joined us and where are the photoes Ross! That was so sad, everybody was crying and even though I was there, was shouting OMG at the TV. Yes its not about the money it is the whole experience and the people. You take care now and have a good life and don't spend it all at once!

Hi Ross, glad you joined us. So strange seeing us all now. Please don't forget photoes. Have new internet address. Vicky's was definately an OMG game and I was shouting at the TV even though I was there. Hope to see you at reunion, take care, Brenda.