HEAT 1
JANUARY 2009
A brand new year and it's time to start voting for the very first Show of the Month for 2009.

In this heat there 8 games to choose from. As always the top 3 shows from this heat, and the subsequent heats, will go into the final where the overall winner will be decided.

You have 5 days to place your vote.

923 - Alex 01/01 - £750
After having what Alex (and the Banker) considers to be the best opening round - taking the 5 lowest reds out in the opening round - it looked like the game was going in Alex's favour. However, a disastrous 5-box, where the £250,000 was discovered, along with £20k & £35k, left Alex with a blue finish of 50p/£750. Alex no dealt the final (joke) offer of a dozen eggs, decided to swap, and won £750.

924 - Alexandra 02/01 - £13,500
Alexandra was offered £13,500 on a £10/£75,000 finish, which Alexandra dealt, but she could have won more as her box contained £75,000.

925 - Mark 04/01 - £24,000
Mark achieved the first OPW of the year after dealing £24,000 at 5-box. Mark then went on to find £250,000 in the next round. His box only contained £5,000

926 - Mary 05/01 - £75,000
A mistake from Mary proved to be rather good fortune. Because instead of dealing the original offer of £20,000 like planned, she went on to win £75,000 instead.

927 - William 06/01 - £15,000
A deal for £15,000 proved to be a good decision at 8-box for William, as the offers just went down after that, and he only had £10,000 in his box.

928 - Kate 07/01 - £20,000
An usual finish to a game with Kate. After being offered £17,500 at 2-box Kate wanted to try and negotiate a higher offer with the Banker. He agreed to raise the offer, but would not tell Kate by how much and that she would have to deal to find out. Kate dealt the ‘Mystery Offer’, which was actually £20,000. However, her box contained £100,000.

929 - Pip 08/01 - £20,000
Pip dealt £20,000 at 8-box, but had he gone on he would have ended up with the next best thing to a ‘dream finish’ - £75,000/£250,000 - with an offer of £120,000. Pip’s original box contained £250,000, but took a hypothetical swap and brought £75,000 to the table instead.

930 - Len 09/01 - £3,000
A strong start to the game for Len, but it went downhill after that and eventually went home with just £100 from his box after a swap. Had Len not swapped he would have won £3,000 from his original box.

Mary here without a doubt - an entertaining contestant, an amusing show and a nail-biter of a game at the end.

You might just want to ignore the year underneath the heat numbers . Though I did get the right year in the very next sentence . I won't bother editing it though as it will mess up any votes cast, and it's not really important.

Anyway for me it has to be Mary, and will be my vote in the final too (as i'm 100% sure Mary will make the final).

It won't if I do it (which I just have ).

Oh the power the admin have

Mary's game easily for this heat

No question that it's Mary in this heat.

I think everyone here's going to vote for Mary, but I think another game at least deserves one vote and that for me was Mark - it was great banker v player scrap and he managed to extraxt inflated offers out of the banker, and got a massive OPW, so to be different, Mark gets my vote here.

Like most people, I chose Mary's game.

Mary without a shadow of a doubt.

It just has to be Mary, I have it on tape and have watched it many times

agree with this, obviously Mary's was the best and deserves to win but I watched this one live and 5 box was tense because it was a large offer and there's a chance he might have gone on.

Mary for me too. Alex coming a gallant second.

Has to be Mary, one of the best games I've ever seen.

Kate played her game perfectly, so a token tactical vote to get her into the final. We already know the winner of this heat and indeed this month.

Wow, Mary's got 30 votes so far! I didn't even think there'd be as many as 30 people voting in this thing...

926.

Just out of interest who has received the most votes before Mary

Mary for me!

I voted Alex, but then I remembered that Mary's game was the best... so will vote for her next round, I think.