The Banker calls and says that there is only one scenario that will get him a lot more money and that is the perfect round.

Damien says

DEAL

Round 6 - Proveout round

21 - £1,000 Stine

4 - £50,000 Emma

16 - £750 Agnes

Banker time with £250 and £35,000 remaining

A very cautious deal following the big hits. We'll see if this was right or wrong...

Now there is a contrast says Noel.

Banker's offer would've been:

£9,000

Noel opens Damien's box 7 and reveals £250

Hardly a cautious deal, the odds were not in his favour at five-box.

Box 13 with Pauline contains the £35,000

Not a bad game. Sensible decision, and vindicated in the proveout.

Well a pretty good game for him, but bad for me, sadly.

He's done enough tension with the "break the seal on box X, put your hands on the side of the lid, [insert Noel's pointless speech about the bloomin' obvious here], lift the lid." It doesn't add tension, it's just ANNOYING!
Yes, it worked the first few times he did it but this has been done to death now!

Some have suggested he does that to make sure the camera people get the right shots.

Noels tells the players its to get the shots right, but im sure its just to build out tension and let him do a speech at crucial points rather then the player just rip the box open! He shouts sometimes at players when they go to break the seal straihht away!

Surprised no-one commentating live mentioned the possibility of the BG today. Probably took the offer today that was most dealable (although the one before was pretty close to a deal for me if not quite a no-brainer)

Regarding Noel's recent habit of calling the break before the question, most time in the studio, the time taken before they start filming again after the final break is called is actually probably less than the 3 minute commercial the viewers have to endure.

I thought that was a good opportunity for the Banker to offer the gamble but it was 4:51 on the clock so there wouldn't have been enough time. I'd have thought it would have been worth a stick there too. £9k was a joke!

I did think about it, but I didn't think there was enough time left.

Fair enough but that wouldn't have been an issue when the show was filmed as show hasn't been edited yet.

A game that showed a lot of promise, but the board collapsed too soon and too quickly. As impressive as it is to get halfway through the game without a single hit to the power 5, Damien had unfortunately stripped away his back up and so once, the big money started to go there was nothing to prop up what remained.

Luckily he got out before it crashed completely and only an ultra-cautious player would have walked earlier

with all the power five in play, crap offer, would have had to be 30k to seriously consider a deal for me, he asked a few, but surely he didnt SERIOUSLY consider dealing did he? I said to my bro that if he did then we have a problem! He was unlucky that he found the top 2 in 2 consecutive rounds, still did well and played a solid percentage game, just the way it should be played, knew the risks, evaluated properly, impressed with him, well played Damien!

Having been in his position, what I can say is that he probably already knew what he was going to do before he asked advice. All it does IMHO is give you time to think through the decision, and makes for a better show. In short its buying you a bit of "Thinking time" to make the right decision, but yes I thought the banker was being a bit stingy

Exactly. If the Banker gave me a statistically poor offer, I wouldn't just dismiss it and ask for the question straight away, as that wouldn't come across well on TV. I'd give it plenty of respect, and think it over, just to be sure I know what I'm doing.