I wouldn't say it's poor regarding who was actually playing. Actually it was a clever one to offer to Clare. She did confess she had £8,500 to pay off the car.

I've said it enough times. If you mouth off any finances on the show. He will latch onto it and adds more ammo for his mind games. If she didn't mention her finances then the offer would be "slightly" more. I say "slightly" as she did knock out £75,000 so the offer would go down from £14,001.

You would've thought that after nearly 1800 contestants, they would've learned by now.

Yes, that is exactly why players should NEVER mention any debts they have. She might've been considering about £12,500 - £14,000 if she'd kept quiet about that £8,500.

But if he didn't offer enough (which he didn't) then he could have risked paying out £50,000, which was never on if he'd offered a few grand more. He just got lucky (or knew!) she had the blue.

Loved that one. It was great for both sides, spades of courage and spades of regrets.

This game is jinxed. When they bale out early, Noel screams "get some courage!" and when they OHO, they win a blue.

I hadn't thought of the conspiracy theory re: denying the swap then phoning back to offer it, but then DOND can be opaque when it comes to honesty, transparency, consistency and fairness for *all* players. But then their requirements are for high ratings, low payouts and big emotions.

Surely even you want to see SOME big wins though? If everyone who played to the end won a blue there'd be no show.

Absolutely, I enjoy seeing big wins! The only game that really fits into this category for 2011 has to be Dale. He is the star of 2011(see separate thread for your best/worst of 2011). Would we be saying the same of Gurpal if he'd swapped. I can't even remember the name of the woman who won the £250k other than it was 'themed' week.

That was Suzanne during Cowboys & Indians.

And it sounds like you forgot Tegen ever existed.

If someone is going to no deal £14,001 at 5 box with that kind of board it's obvious that they won't be bought at £8,500 on a 50K blue finish. I thought the banker might have stuck which would have given Clare a tricky decision. The 8 box offer was dealable too. Given the nature of the pantomime specials and the commercial break usually occuring after 8 box now, I don't think many of the 8 box offers will be worth dealing this week.

£8500 at 2-box was a very poor offer, but I would have had to deal it because I wouldn't want to go away with 50p after some of the offers I had turned down. May have been a bad decision in terms of the game as a whole, but at least I would have avoided a blue win. Can't complain with Clare going to the end though.

That was a good game. Unlucky for Clare obviuously. No conspiracy theory from this corner but i do agree Clare was careless in letting slip how much debt she had. Certainly that was a good incentive for the Banker to pitch the offer lower than he might have done.

Having said that given what he said about Clare wanting to secure a spanking there was an incentive for him to offer £14001 again,

And that's where we differ I thought Dale was reckless (even Greedy) and arguably deserved to go home with a blue where as I love Suzanne's game for the way it unfolds, the Banker effectively powerless to stop it. A thing of beauty but then I've always prefered strategic players to those who trust to blind luck

True, but I'd say Tegen's win is better than both; Suzanne's win felt a bit too easy, whereas Tegen did show a bit of bravery by turning down 33k at 5-box with 10p still there to be won. Suzanne never really took that big a gamble. Dale's win cannot be accused of being an easy win at all, seeing as he's probably the only person in the room at the time who would have taken that gamble, allegedly.

And it's hard to say which category Sam and Tabitha's 100k wins fall; Sam's was perfectly achievable to non-targetist players, while Tabitha's would have been unachievable for many because she swapped. A bit like Suzanne's would have been unachievable for many due to her swap.