There's a difference though between taking your time on an offer that's a low amount of money/a poor offer and taking your time on a high amount of money/good offer.

If the offer is good (mathematically speaking) and the player thinks about it but still turns it down then that gives the bank cause for concern.

If the offer is bad and the player looks as if they actually have a hard decision to make then turning down such an offer may well gain respect from the banker, but your next offer is probably going to be low too.

Ady's example is interesting. 14-box was a decision because £17,000 at the end of the day is £17,000. But by spending so long thinking about it Ady denied himself any offer improvement. The next offer of £17,000 was just about as generous as the prior one but given the blue/red split I think he might have got an extra few thousand had he shown a bit more confidence early on. Not many would deal there but based on earlier offers the banker correctly read that Ady would.

Hi cfd

I think you've contradicted yourself more than once in the above post - you clearly have an understanding that the issue is in the final edit - and I'm pleased about that, as of course I'm sure you will also understand that not just me, but many many players can and DO take all the time they need to deliberate the offer. However - if you know that this is the case and it's 'hard to avoid it' - why make such a fuss over it? Whilst I accept that placing a live running commentary on here is most probably a difficult thing to do, surely your role is to communicate the facts of the game and not to use it as an opportunity to voice your own personal views? Surely the role should be impartial - for example I'm sure many football commentators support a team of their own choosing but would you expect them to express those personal views when commentating on a match their team were playing in?

One other point I respectfuly wanted to make is with regard the 'no real decisons to be made' comment. I'm suprised that as a fan of the show you cannot see that (as I said in my game) all of a sudden I was in a position where I was being offered £3000, £5,500 even £9,500 in real money, I appreciate that sat at home the money loses it's relevance - but let me assure you that as an ordinary working man to have those sorts of figures put before you really DOES have an impact.

Believe me, I can read the board, I know my stats and how the game works - and I knew that this was my once in a lifetime chance to play the game for real, however clearly this wasn't the dream game that I had been waiting nearly 4 years to play - I was looking forward to a decent spar with The Banker too, I wanted to play the mind games and demonstrate my understanding of the board and give everyone a spectacular game - BUT the boxes were not kind to me, my luck was not in - call it what you will, - are you suggesting that I should therefore take a more casual approach to the game? Play it less intensely and with less passion just because it wasn't a spectacular 'big money' game? I don't think so.

I had the most amazing time of my life whilst I was at Deal, and I truly wish that those of you that have applied to be on the show can have the experience that I (we) all did. I played the board that I had on the day, and I am proud to say that I made it to the end - regardless of the outcome!

Many thanks,

Mike.

Well said Mike. Nice to meet you during your run too, and you still hold the position of being the only player to introduce themselves to me, and already know who i was!! To say you shocked me is a slight understatement! Filming starts again in 4 weeks and im booked in already, so lets see what happens!

Hi John, good to hear from you! You lucky so and so - I'm so jealous, I really harboured dreams of going back for the occasional day here and there as a pilgrim to get my fix but alas that's not to be. I miss not knowing what's going to happen next already!

Many thanks,

Mike.

It's a real shame you had a game like that, Mike - would have loved a statistically-minded player to get a game with big decisions. I think cfd's live commentary was built around the snap assumption of "oh god this is taking ages" when in practice that was a by-product of it being a serious game that crashed before 8-box (as opposed to today's game which had a lot of comic asides to fit in and also produced a good 5-box Deal, so there was less time for offer anguishing).

I do love cfd's commentary style, but I think he needed to properly step back after the game and realise "yes, this is why he was seen to hang around, there was nothing else the edit could do but show the usual consideration of the offers which 95% of contestants give to every offer after 17-box".

Hi KP I've been looking forward to talking with you !

Like you I like cfd's commentaries - Jayden's was a great example and I appreciate his humour. I also posted mid - thread on my own game and said carry on, it's all good fun - but I felt the need to voice my opinion since, as you have said there seems to be an on-going self-justification of the point that I dis-agree with. I'm not here to start a fight! Far from it, I know it's been said here before but the point really is that out there, in the studio with Noel next to you and the cameras pointing at you the game IS very serious and it is very different.

Many thanks for your input on the board KP, I have read many many of your posts prior to being on the show and learned much from them. As you say it was just a shame I didn't get the 'break' I needed

Regards,

Mike.

good to read your comments on here big fella....very well said,and the experience and how
much it means to be a contestant encapsulated in words.u played the game to the end,and
came across as a likeable chap,so good on u bud.as u say the experience itself is a once in
a lifetime opportunity-priceless i would say.so well done on playing to the end,and u cant take away the experience.interesting to read that yourself,and Eleanor today,waited 4 yrs to get the call.i have been waiting 6 yrs now,and still havent given up hope,tho' i can only recall 1 or maybe 2 contestants that have waited that long.great to have u on here Mike...cheers fella!...

Hi Garry,

I'm well aware of your story mate, I've been reading on this forum for a long time myself, but I decided not to post either her or oin the official forum until I got home as I didn't want to hinder my chances of getting on the show in any way (I'm not suggesting that's what's happening to you by the way!) I just preferred to keep a low profile (if that's possible at 6'8 lol).

No news is till good news Garry, you haven't been told no yet - so at risk of sounding patronising please (as you say) don't stop believing cos mate believe me it is all so so so worth it in the end

Regards,

Mike.

thanks for the words of encouragement Mike-my story has been on here for yrs now,
so i would hazard a guess that most contestants would have read it at some stage.i would
keep a low profile,of course,if i did get on the show,as i realise your game has to be kept
secret til aired.cheers again Mike...

For that matter, do they ever tell silver ticket holders no? There's sufficiently few of them that I feel they ought to, and I'm not keen on the idea of people being left uncertain for literally several years. Most game shows don't even last several years!

Glad to see my advice was viewed before the game, Mike - obviously it wasn't that helpful to you in the chair because the only remotely dealable offer was £9,500 and that wasn't quite enough in my book either (though there's a decent case for the conservative player to take it, they then have to have the courage to go against the grain in dealing the third offer, and not many players have that mixture of fiscal caution and personal character to go "no, that third offer is quite enough for me").

And don't worry, you're not the first person to get a statistical crash course from my web postings and end up with a blue win for your efforts - someone in season 1 read my posts on another site before this one even existed (!) and ended up winning the grand non-total of £20 through the first ever comedy Deal, in a game he played just 24 hours after facing a check-up at Bristol Royal Infirmary! You definitely had a better experience than he did

my audition KP was in August '06-before the days of bronze/silver/gold tkts.i was
basically contacted twice at Halloween time two consecutive yrs,and spoke to people
working on the show both times.and i havent had a no,hence i keep BELIEVING....

Hi mike,

(posting from phone waiting for a train so apologies for any errors!)

I hope you don't think my posts were critical of you. They aren't really supposed to be (well, maybe slightly lol as is my style) but I can see how they may come across as such. I'll tone down comments on players in future updates.

The problem with your game was that you say you can read the board etc but we didn't get to see that as you had a bad game obviously not your fault (unless you chose different boxes, actually then totally your fault ) but the banker didn't help either. By offering £NO_DEAL the banker sucks the fun and tension ftom the game. £9.5k to me was the only interesting offer as I wasn't sure which way you'd go. The other offers were poor and you correctly no dealt them. And of course because you're under pressure of the cameras/the money/etc you're going to want to spend a little time ensuring you make the right choice. But this sort of thing should end up on the cutting room floor.

But with an hour slot to fill and a game which just steadily went downhill there's not much room to manoeuvre in the edit. I'd love to see what they do if someone deals the first or second offer!

As an example imagine if the banker offers £1.5k at 5-box. This would make for a much more interesting dynamic whilst still being a not inflated offer.

Enough rambling as got on train so gonna lose Internet. Peace