My reckoning is that if the 1p was in the final 2, she'd be easier to talk into a swap with another blue there. And if the £35k stayed, everyone would be thinking he'd actually seen the highest amount left rather than the lowest.

I was really surprised at that £26k offer - I genuinely thought the banker was going to drop the offer because of the £100k going.

Whether Shakira was influenced by the twist and previous games is hard to say - but I do get the impression she had a plan in her head of what she'd do in the game (saving certain numbers etc) then when she got to the chair, it was nothing like she expected it to be. Even when you've seen 26 other games, it can still be a real shock to the system to be stood there with all eyes on you. This hit Shakira hard - she picked a box in the first round she was going to save, and when she was offered a sizeable sum, she suddenly realised what she could do with it, and that turning it down was much harder than it looked. A lot of people out there don't realise what it must be like to play the game for real.

Overall, I've really liked this theme and the twist - not only has it been a million times better than the catapult, but it's also been much easier to follow than the twists last Christmas, where we had a 5-box twist, little boxes being randomly used in offers, and a tree with holidays on it - seems very confusing now!

Poor Shakira! I wanted her to win the £250,000!

Well after deciding whether to watch this based on the number of pages on the thread it didn't disappoint.

A little tubthumping by Noel during the intro regarding players with "the guts to go for the £250k". Always a good way to start!

Well after the decline of the £22k and £26k I was sure expecting a crash - with 4 insignificant amounts it was a 50/50 chance. Greed, confetti hound, OHO, attitude. Call it what you will it just deserved a crash. No apologies for that. OMG, as crashes go it was spectacular. It was absolutely well jinxed by Noel too.

The ten seconds of stunned silence before the obligatory cries of "come on" from all around were up there in the worst crashes of 2011. OMG x2 and the £75k is revealed. Can it get any better for team banker?

Well cheers all around at the reveal of the 50p, but I don't quite think they've accepted the state of the board. She could still take home the penny! OMGx3 and the bankers wish is granted and there is more silence in the studio, broken only by laughter at the sight of the horse. So let the mindgames commence!

I enjoyed that bluff and I think the banker judged that just right. By saying she had the penny, its reveal proved him a liar. Her loud squeals of delight must surely have given hope that she had the £35k in her box. Oh its reveal was just poetic. Ok she had a pyrrhic victory with the £750 but you could tell she was ringed with regret. What an end to 2011. Best year since the early days.

Based on what happened and the fact it is Christmas I hope you didn't mind team banker indulging in a little 'glory hunting' as so often accused.

Oh you just HAD to didn't you Norwich .......but yeah I do sort of agree with you that she should really have taken the £26k, especially if she was going to take a crash badly. Unless she'd done a Toni and took THAT outcome equally badly, but I think better to have regrets and £26k and regrets and a blue. I can't help thinking she must have felt some sort of outside pressure to go on though after two pre-ADP deals (i.e. 5-box) in a row though.

And I also agree with Brick about not being prepared for the outcome when playing to the end - did she seriously think she WOULDN'T have to turn down a sum like £26k to win really big? I know Dennis from the "Wakey Winter" was much criticised for turning down an AMO but he took the crash to a blue perfectly in his stride and was prepared for it so I felt he was totally justified. I don't think Shakira was "going to the end no matter what" anyway.

Any coincidence at all that this huge crash to a blue and yesterday's 11-box OPW were the two games that the Christmas TV magazines weren't listing as airing?

Well I thought I thought about this game in great details but I'd never have been clever enough to come up with THAT one!

I'm still the leading conspiracist on here whether I believe my own cynicism or not.

Personally i would have taken the £26k. Considering Shakira had just taken out the £100k to see the offer go up was a serious compliment. I genuinely believed the Banker was trying to get her out of the chair before the next offer

Even though i thought she was pushing her luck it backfired more spectacularly than i might have imagined, Shakira was very unlucky both to have the round she did and to lose on the Genie's Lamp twist. Once the Banker knew what she had in her box it was easy for him to coax her into a complete crash, really she was lucky to get £750 out of it

Like the final game of 2010, not the best way to end the year (although for different reasons).

Can't criticise Shakira too much for no-dealing the £26k - it certainly wasn't a horrible decision at the time and she spent a long time in the studio deliberating both that offer and the £22k before it (in fact, if my memory serves me right, after the game, she actually apologised for the pilgrims for taking so long to make her decisions).

There's no good time to destroy your game but this was the 3rd game I'd seen live with a blue/blue/power 5 final 3 and the player hit the red before 2-box (and it never gets any easier to watch)

The £26,000 offer was very good but it was worth playing on with the amounts left on the board. Just a bad game from then on though. The same would have happened to me unfortunately.

Unlucky to have a round like that. Can't help but think that, were it a normal game, she would have dealt the 26k.