Hang on, are the wingers allowed to turn their lights on the proveout?

Noel explains the options once again.

Nick says:

NO DEAL

Once again, Box 23 is rejected. But should he have taken it?

Noel opens Box 23 to reveal NOTHING

Prefect choice for not going for it

Well, he made a good choice there!

But, overall, not a terribly memorable game. Except that yet another near-first-offer-deal that wasn't.

Usually I would say 5 box easy no deal (due to one blue) but today it wasn't.

Was begging Nick to deal the first offer.

Closest yet.

Like.

So close.

It's because of Noel mentioning it every time. We will never see it happen thanks to him

I blame the wife on this occasion. Angel has some great F&F's. Quite touching really!

Right. These next 5 offers will be poor, as you expect, but thank goodness he turned down what you think is the most generous offer of the game!

I think had he taken the first offer, Noel would have been going on and on in future about how it didn't work out and he could have had £35k in the game.

In the end he took a worse offer statistically.

The games from the end of last year are still heavy in the players' minds clearly, plus Sarah's cautious deal working out the day before may have been heavy in their minds too.

£15k wasn't a bad offer and certainly higher than most first offers recently, so in effect it's not surprising Nick considered it, but like Grant in November who agonised over a generous opener for a similar period, the board was strong enough to take a hit in the next round so it's not surprising the offer wasn't taken.

The game reminded me a lot of Steph's from just under a year ago - he too had a very generous opening offer (although his first round had been much worse!) which he lingered over and eventually turned down, only to have 2 below-par rounds with the second and third offers being lower than the first - and he also dealt the third offer thinking it could be downhill from there! Nick's proveout went rather worse though - £12,500 wasn't fantastic for the board but with the top 3 so isolated, the offer could have been four figures on a different day. And the NOTHING option finally comes to the table - I think a lot of the wingers and viewers were waiting for that moment, thankfully given the nature of today's game it was unlikely to be dealt for this time.

Great, ANOTHER contestant who reluctantly No Deals a 1st offer that is VERY dealable for their utility curve SOLELY because of the stigma against it just to Deal a significantly less generous offer later on in the game. And worse yet, it was at the 1st acceptable point to Deal in the game. Nick and everyone else who fits the description above (i.e. Iris, Steph from last January, Liz for last May, Michelle from last August, etc.) are the biggest COWARDS this show can have.

The only sensible decision Nick made was declining Box 23, and thank goodness he wasn't tempted by it.

The only bigger COWARDS are those who deal at the first offer!

Now there's only the DOUBLE that's yet to come to the table.

For the sake of (insert as many *beep*s as you wish)! Have you learned nothing, nothing at all? Do you learn? What is your capacity? What are you?

1. Your first sentence is rather accurate. I liked that bit, although you could have taken a breath maybe halfway through because it's not that great when I have to read something and I feel like I'm running out of breath and someone just can't bloody well say something properly even if they're right in what they're saying you know it's quite annoying is it not?

2. 'Acceptable Deal points' - Aha, you've got me there. What? What defines an acceptable deal point? Who defines it? And how? Why does an 'acceptable' deal point exist? For what perverse reason? What nigh-on voyeuristic satisfaction does it give you to analyse everything a player does, and call all of it out as a mistake on his part, or poor gameplay? It's a game of luck, Benjamin (as far as boxes and rounds are concerned) - a game of chance and luck! If a round goes alright for the player, good on him, but it's got nothing whatsoever to do with him! His only real part to play - to my understanding - is when an offer is made, and, now, when box 23 comes into play. Surely you can comprehend that?

3. 'Cowards'. Again. Show some bloody respect. He could join us here, as I've said all too often, and he'd be faced with a 19-year-old American boy calling him a 'COWARD ' - and another nineteen-year-old, in me, trying (probably haplessly) to steer you, albeit with rough hands, towards realising how much of a prick you've acted throughout your one year here. That, and you, just maybe, maybe changing your ways. If that's possible.

Leave it out, Ben. If you don't understand that, it means stop. Grow up. Show some respect.

Since when is calling someone a coward childish?

Anyway, by "acceptable point to deal" I obviuously meant 11 box onwards, as Noel (and sometimes the players on the wings, though obviously not today) fights tooth and nail to make sure no one Deals before then, and has succeeded 99.96% of the time.

It's the tone of your posts. Your use of capitals and emoticons captures the pure essence of a whining child who didn't get what he wanted.

God, I should've got an A* in English Literature GCSE.

I kind of like ACB, a lot of his posts make sense. But Ben.. You must understand that this game show is what it is. The different players and characters make it what it is. A sole person winging because Nick took the cautious route isn't going to change anything.

£12,500 is a heck of a lot of cash.

Most of your posts wreak of the truth, but the way you express your opinions and feelings is uncalled for, un-necessary and I find them quite upsetting.

You see, I'm all for the player. If the players are happy, then I'm happy. Some games I'm disappointed with the result, because I think THEY could have done better. It's all well and good saying what YOU would have done or what the PLAYER should have done. But they didn't, and you haven't got the opportunity.

I quite like the funny ACB, the one who doesn't make a dick of himself. Can we have him back?