One of the many great games, although I seriously doubt someone tomorrow will get that much!

Poor old Kingsley had a lot to live up to following those two.

Denis' game was the only one in a run of about 7 games (from Judy to Artak) that left me feeling happy, even though it was an average win and he missed out on a few grand, the quality of the contestant still meant it was one of the top few shows of the month, in which a lot of really good contestants played. I remember being really spoilt for choice in the E11 popularity poll there was around the time!

And Lynne just had the aura of a winner about her. I can tell them a mile off.

21st November 2007

Anne

Show # 599

Anne played with box 2 and did a total of 25 shows. A brilliant all-blue opening round gifted Anne a strong opening offer of £11,500 which she said No Deal to. Two MORE blues with £50k followed, sending the offer up to £15,500 but was also rejected. The reds then caught her up as she found £15k, £35k and £250k. The offer as a result, dropped to £7,000. Anne played on.

ANOTHER all-red round followed, though luckily not touching the £75k or £100k, and she declined the even lower offer of £6,000. £1k and two blues followed, and she dealt at £16,500 - the second game in a row that amount had been accepted! Her final five were £50 / £100 / £10k / £75k / £100k - but she then pulled off what would have been the perfect round as she was left with the £75k and £100k at the end! Her offer would have been £70,000 more than what she took; £86,500...and to make things worse, she had the £100,000 in her box all along!

The original today's show thread for this show can be seen here.



21st November 2006

Steve

Show # 309

Steve played with box 3 and did a total of 22 shows. In his opening round, he found four low values and £100k... and turned down the opening offer of a swap. Then a 2 blues + £1k round produced a second offer of £16,100, which he also turned down. Then a 2 blues + £75k produced a third offer of £18,099.99, which he declined...

After finding £20k and £35k, Steve was offered £12,000 and no dealt, but then found the £250k and his fifth offer was just £1,200 on a 1p / £50 / £5 / £10 / £50k board... and he no dealt, to be left with a final two of £10 and £50... and he no dealt the VERY low offer of £12, to win... £10 from his box.

The original today's show thread for this show can be seen here.



21st November 2005

Leigh

Show # 19

Leigh played with box 1 and did a total of 19 shows. In his first round, he discovered £75k, £100k and 3 blues, so it wasn't a great start. He no dealt the opening offer of £600, and declined the second offer of £6,000 following an all-blue round. Then a 2 low amounts + £50k round produced a £7,500 third offer... which he also no dealt.

Though he then found £35k and £250k, and the fourth offer was £2,500, which he declined. A better round produced a fifth offer of £3,600 which Leigh dealt. The board at this point was £5 / £50 / £3k / £5k / £15k. He was left with a final two of £5 and £3,000 and his final offer would've been £1,200, and he had £5 in his box.

There was no today's show thread for this game as the forum didn't start until some time later. However, there is a commentary thread for the show when it was repeated as a classic show on More4 on 13/08/06 here.

A bit tired so I'll update this tomorrow!

Urgh, the £16,500 era....that was probably Artak's folly too.

And I think Steve's game was the first time there's been a real insulting offer at 5-box too, I was absolutely shocked by that, and it gave him absolutely no pause for thought whatsoever. It's almost what we've come to expect now though!

22nd November 2007

Sarah

Show # 600

Sarah played with box 20 and did a total of 20 shows. On this 600th edition of the show, Sarah began her game in perfect fashion as her first box revealed the 1p! But the £15k, £50k and £100k followed and resulted in an opening offer of £7,500, which she said No Deal to. £3k and two blues sent the offer up to £10,600 which was also turned down. Two more blues and £20k went in the third round, and the offer rose to £16,500...which Sarah surprisingly decided to deal due to her intent on helping people in Zambia!

Her decision to deal wasn't shown to be a very clever decision game-wise as her first proveout round only saw the £5k go on the red side of the board! Her 8-box offer would have been £30,000 as a result. £75k and £10k were found next, but since Sarah still had a strong 5-box situation of 50p / £5 / £1k / £35k / £250k her offer would have been even higher; £41,000! Luckily both £35k and £250k went before the last phonecall, and with a final two of 50p and £1k her final offer would have been a modest £500, and she had the 50p in her box!

The original today's show thread for this show can be seen here.



22nd November 2006

Dawn

Show # 310

Dawn played with box 17 and did a total of 24 shows. She had a mixed round, where she found £100k, followed by 3 blues... followed by £250k. She turned down the opening offer of a swap, and then had a 2 blues + £75k round, and no dealt the second offer of £3,013. A good round finding nothing over £3k produced a £7,777 third offer, and she played on...

After taking out £35k, she was offered £6,123 at the 8-box stage, which she no dealt. After an even better round, she declined the offer of £12,300 on a final five consisting of £100 / £5k / £10k / £20k / £50k and was left with a final two of £10k and £50k! She dealt the final offer of £25,000, and had £10k in her box.

The original today's show thread for this show can be seen here.



22nd November 2005

Len

Show # 20

Len "The Coward" played with box 3 and did a total of 20 shows. He had a good opening round, taking out nothing higher than £20k, and he turned down the opener of £3,200. Things looked bleak as he took out £250k and two mid-values, and the second offer was £1,500 which he no dealt. A 2 blues + £100k round triggered a third offer of £1,900 and Len no dealt.

Another mixed round where he found £35k and two low values produced a fourth offer of £2,700, and he played on... a good round caused a £9,400 fifth offer on a £50 / £250 / £500 / £10k / £75k final five, and he dealt. He was left with a final two of £50 and £250, and the last offer would've been £100... he had £50 in his box.

There was no today's show thread for this game as the forum didn't start until some time later. However, there is a commentary thread for the show when it was repeated as a classic show on More4 on 14/08/06 here.

23rd November 2007

Artak

Show # 601

Artak played with box 9 and did a total of 22 shows. A good start with three blues, £5k and £20k gave Artak an opening offer of £11,000, which he said No Deal to. Two blues and £10k, including the 1p, were found and he rejected the next offer of £16,500. The third offer remained at £16,500 despite seeing £250k and £15k found, but he decided to play on.

A brilliant all-blue round saw Artak offered a fantastic £28,000 at 8-box, yet he turned it down! Even a £100k hit wasn't disastrous as his offer only dropped to £23,000 - after all, his 5-box board was strong; £750 / £1k / £35k / £50k / £75k. On that configuration, he decided to gamble, but only managed to keep the £50k to the end out of the big money, along with £750. He turned down the chance to become the fourth straight player to take home £16,500, then decided to swap his box for box 13...which proved costly as he won £750 from his new box!

The original today's show thread for this show can be seen here.



23rd November 2006

Neil

Show # 311

Neil, the banker's "bathtime buddy", played with box 20 and did a total of 22 shows. He had an average opening round, where he found 2 mid-values, 2 blues and £75k... and he no dealt the first offer of £8,000. Then a £250k hit produced a stick at the second offer - £8,000. After another mixed round (2 blues + £35k), Neil no dealt the third offer which rose slightly to £10,000.

Then another 2 low amounts and Power 5 (£100k) round triggered a fourth offer of £7,500, and he no dealt. He dealt the fifth offer of £9,500 on a 10p / £10 / £50 / £5k / £50k board... and was left with a final two of £5k and £50k, and the hypothetical final offer was £27,000. He had £5k in his box.

The original today's show thread for this show can be seen here.



23rd November 2005

Lisa

Show # 21

Lisa played with box 9 and did a total of 19 shows. Her opening round wasn't great as she found 3 blues, £50k and £75k... she no dealt the opening offer of £1,300. The second offer was £5,200 after a better round, although it still contained a £35k hit. The more destruction followed as she took out 2 mid-values and £250k, and she turned down the third offer of £2,000.

An all-blue round produced a fourth offer of £8,000, which she also declined, and then a 2 blues + £1k round produced a fifth offer of £17,800 which she dealt! The board at this stage was 10p / £10 / £50 / £10k / £100k and she was left with a final two of £10 and £50. Her final offer would've been £20 and she had £10 in her box.

There was no today's show thread for this game as the forum didn't start until some time later. However, there is a commentary thread for the show when it was repeated as a classic show on More4 on 15/08/06 here.

November 2006 was the first time I started following the show a lot and got to know contestants on the wings. I think it was also the time when they were getting into the idea of following a big win with a real punisher, which poor Steve bore the brunt of . Everyone else got quite reasonable late offers though - look at Neil's 5-box offer, you'd be lucky to get half that with such a board these days!

Come November 2007 I'd gone back to college and hardly got to watch the show at all, I think the only game I saw in full was Nicky's. I remember being really peed off when I heard about Judy's 5-box offer though, although I guess if she'd kept the 35k to 2-box she'd have had a high offer like Shaz did. I guess we should take some comfort from the fact Adam got offered something vaguely dealable on a similar board last week, that it didn't set the standard.

I did get to watch bits of Sarah's game, I think her only problem was that she perhaps became a bit overwhelmed by the experience - she'd say something, then regret saying it and change her mind, which was probably her incentive to deal when she did. It was a bit of a shame she didn't go further, although I doubt she'd have been offered as much as the banker claimed and there's no denying she was playing for an admirable cause.

Artak wouldn't have fared much better playing Sarah's game - I've only seen snippets of his game, it sounded painful at the time and in many ways even worse now looking at what he was offered along the way...

24th November 2007

James

Show # 602

James played with box 14 and did a total of 21 shows. A SWAP was offered after a disastrous opening round with £750, £10k, £20k, £75k and £100k found...but James let the opportunity pass. More damage in the forms of £15k and £35k resulted in a first monetary offer of just £5,000, which he said No Deal to. Even more damage with the £50k in the third round saw a stick at £5,000. James played on.

A much better round with two blues and £5k going saw the offer increase to £7,500 which was declined. Nothing higher than £3k found in the next round left James with a dangerous 5-box scenario of 1p / 50p / £100 / £250 / £250k - and he chose to deal at £15,000. This proved the perfect decision as the £250k was found in the very next box! With a final two of 1p and £100, and a proveout offer of £15, James was thrilled to see the 1p revealed in his box; yet another occasion where the 1p came to the table and the player not join the 1p club!

The original today's show thread for this show can be seen here.



24th November 2006

Amanda

Show # 312

Amanda did a total of 24 shows. Her game was actually never televisied, due to a loss in her family. Kirsty's show was aired in place of Amanda's.

However, whilst the show was never aired, some months later, someone who claimed to be in the audience posted about her game, in this post here.

So we can sort of piece it together, based on that...

Amanda played with box 8 and did a total of 24 shows. In her first box, she found the £250k! She said she wanted to pick box 8 in the first round, but this was the box she had... suprisingly, she didn't get an offer of a swap as the first offer.

Amanda no dealt to the 8-box stage, where the highest remaining value was £100k, on a board which was a 4 blues / 4 reds split. The fourth offer was £11,500, and she dealt. The only box larger than the offer was the £100k. She was left with a final two of 10p and £100k, and a hypothetical final offer of £40,000! She had 10p in her box.

The official stats however, revealed that she actually dealt at £13,500 and missed out on an offer of £43,500.

The discussion threads for this episode are available here and here.



24th November 2005

Mally

Show # 22

Mally played with box 18 and did a total of 14 shows. His opening round was ok as he took out 4 low values and £75k, and he turned down the opener of £3,300. Then a 2 blues + £100k round produced a second offer of £2,300, and he played on. A round finding nothing higher than £5k produced a third offer of £6,900... which he no dealt.

Then an all-red round including 2 Power 5 hits (£35k and £50k) meant the banker stuck for the fourth offer - £6,900. Mally played on, and was then offered £54,000 on a board of 10p / £100 / £250 / £20k / £250k and he dealt. But he was left with a final two of £100 and £250k, and his proveout final offer would've been a MASSIVE £145,000!!! He had £250k in his box!

There was no today's show thread for this game as the forum didn't start until some time later. However, there is a commentary thread for the show when it was repeated as a classic show on More4 on 16/08/06 here.

The starts link on the Endemol website said Amanda dealt for £13,500 with 10p in her box but a highest offer of (I think) £43,500. So the offer would have been VERY generous for the board she had left!! So very close to, but not exactly the account given here.

Mally's game was the easiest 54k ever and I think even Basic and Sr Wilson might have dealt that...well maybe not.

And James (what a stupid name!! ) - thank GOD someone managed to finally do the right thing in what was a bruising week for the players. It could have been very easy for it to go drastically wrong wither way (I'd forgotten the 250k was the only sum left over 5k at 11-box)- he could easily have taken it out earlier and won probably 1p, or dealt and had it in his box or missed out on a huge offer. It was good to see the banker make some proper offers in a 1 box game too, not only when he dealt, but the two previous offers too. I think I'd have done the same as him, as the chance of hitting it from 5-box had gone into the banker's favour, and all the consolation oranges had gone by then too.

I was half expecting £16,500 not £15,000!

Nobody in their right minds would have gambled on that £54,000 offer in Mally's game - especially from a massive climb from two £6,900 offers! In my eyes it was a perfect game as nowadays, he'd have dealt at around £54,000 at 2-box instead!

I actually think the banker missed a trick by not offering that - well either that or £14,999, I guess the £16,500 must have been forgotten about due to the recording break. They did a great job of disguising the fact there's been a break. I have a compilation tape of the era which I am currently re-living (various games from Denis to Stuart - Artak and James are both on it), and the only noticeable difference to me was Ashleigh no longer had a sore throat!!

Also that James' replacement would have no idea he'd become a legend of the show in due course!

Is it really two years since Amanda's game not being shown...crikey!

Dear god, a year on Wednesday since Clive appeared....and actually a year ago today Orry appeared!! (Actually upon watching games in late Nov/early Dec last year, he's actually loads funnier than I remember him being, especially his joke with Noel about what he was wearing in Debs' game!! )

I've edited Amanda's recap to include the official stats.

The other thing was, I was amazed how similar Allan's game today was to James' - just that Allan got a better 5-box offer, but didn't have the 1p in the box. Both of them took out the 250k first box after the deal too!!

25th November 2005

Trevor

Show # 23

Trevor "the Sage" played with box 3 and did a total of 23 shows. He had a good opening round, finding 4 blues and £75k, and no dealt the opening offer of £3,100. Then a 2 blues + £10k round produced a second offer of £12,600 but Trevor played on... An all-red round including two Power 5 hits (£35k and £100k) resulted in the third offer going down somewhat, to £4,900.

Trevor no dealt and removed 2 blues and £5k from the board, and declined the fourth offer of £17,000. At the 5-box stage, he had £1 / £100 / £1k / £3k / £250k left on his board, and he was offered £47,000, which he dealt. He was left with a final two of £1 and £3k, and the final offer would've been £1,400. He had just £1 in his box!

There was no today's show thread for this game as the forum didn't start until some time later. However, there is a commentary thread for the show when it was repeated as a classic show on More4 on 17/08/06 here.

£47,000 on that board...blooming heck.

I've had really bad internet problems last couple days, I'll be doing a mega update tonight.