Paul's game today.

Noel talks about how both Reg and Debbie have beaten the banker, and wonders if we can get a third in a row with today's player...

Noel says there are some pros and cons and dos and don'ts on the wings... and goes through the contestants saying what the players do and don't like - such as Ruth not liking camels and Kate snoring...

Paul has box 12.

Noel calls Paul our "Saturday star".

Paul Rowe is a shop manager in a family pet shop from Hereford. He says they sell all sorts of animals... he says he got the call for DOND at the same time his wife had their baby... he shows one or two pics of their baby, who is now 6 months old.

Paul reveals he is an obsessive angler, and shows a pic of him with a HUGE fish!!! Noel jokes about Paul killing the fish, and Paul says he always puts them back, and never kills them... he says how some of the fish have names!! Noel asks if Paul has kissed the fish, and Paul says he hasn't... then says actually he has On the top of its head

He says he has some dreams if he wins big money - such as owning his own fishing like which could be converted from dis-used gravel pits. He says it'd cost about £30,000 and Noel says that's a lot for a hole with water... Noel says there must be a catch somewhere though

Here we go...

Kind of alright it's his game today even though yesterday he had £35,000. At least it wasn't the top 3.

His past 13 games 4 blues.

Which means diddly squat in this game. What is it with these newbies? The 2005 era all over again.

Noel asks what bank Paul wants to sit on, and he warns that there'll be lots of fish puns and jokes!!!

He has his very close friend Andy in the audience with him...

1 - Laura - £250

Noel says that's a 250 pounder

5 - newbie Sheila - £250,000

8 - Sarah - £100

Paul chooses Margaret, and Noel asks if she likes fishing and she says yes, but it's for men She says today is her 40th wedding anniversary and Noel jokes that she has her rod out for men

11 - Margaret - £10,000

13 - Mark - 50p

Time for the banker...

What it's started oh I'm missing it

Curse of the newbie strikes yet again!

Should be alright for a good win still, though!

The banker likes Margaret as she's a "fisher of men", and Noel wonders what went in on the hotel last night!! The banker talks about the Midnight Dip Laura, Mark and others were in the swimming pool and Mark says he was there as a lifeguard He then says he hates fishing!

The banker says how Paul would have a boob job if he won £250k, and Paul explains how he said to Shaz that he'd get a boob job to know what it feels like to be a woman, after she said to him that he'd never know what it's like...

Banker's offer

£580.08

The offer is "BOOBS" upside down

Paul NO DEALS

17 - Justin - £75,000

"Oh my word" says Noel... and someone in the audience screams

19 - Phil - £5,000

Noel says he can see Phil fishing, sitting on the river bank with a hand grenade

Paul says he likes reds, and Noel asks if he likes breaks, and he does... Paul says we'll talk about some other animals other than fish after the break...

No wonder the groan for finding the £250,000 was so loud - someone's a drama queenie in the audience!!!

Would've been better if the banker offered 8008

We're back

21 - Derek - £1,000

Banker time...

An all red round not good

All-red rounds are NEVER good.

With that first offer though, the offer surely has to go up!

The banker says Paul is like a breath of fresh air playing DOND, as he is a real person... a REEL person Noel says that was a good LINE and wonders why Paul didn't CATCH it

Banker's offer

£5,800.82

Paul says it's a good offer

Paul NO DEALS

The game should improve further as long as we start hitting those blues!

16 - Andy - £35,000

4 - Shaz - £50

18 - Dave - £1

Banker time...

He loves his big reds, doesn't he?

The banker doesn't like the talk of gravel pits...

Banker's offer

£9,000

Noel says that offer would get some people out of the chair...

Paul NO DEALS

With £50,000 and £100,000 still there, that should be a no-brainer

10 - Joy - £15,000

14 - Caron - £20,000

Noel says now Paul's got a big problem...

7 - Ruth - Noel calls a break

That's practically all that's left now!

It's worth going on after this offer though, especially if the offer is going to struggle!

I think that Pauls going to be a dealer

should get a 10K offer if he hits a blue or 3K.

We're back

7 - Ruth - £750

Banker time...

Noel says just one word is needed here - "courage"... as the banker will make a teasing offer to work out if Paul has courage or not...

The banker thinks £13,000 will get Paul to deal...

Banker's offer

£3,000

Paul NO DEALS

22 - Ken - £500

20 - Nicola - £10

Extra heartbeat music now...

15 - George - 1p

Banker time...

Nicola had £10

That's great. Just don't deal and we're buzzing.

Noel says that was a great turnaround... the banker regrets taking that risk, as it backfired spectacularly...

Banker's offer

£24,000

Thanks Craig, missed who opened it

Thoughtful music plays as Paul considers the offer... George says there was a prediction at the hotel this morning that £100k was at the table...

Paul DEALS

Good decision, I think.

4th biggest win of the year?

Oh dear. YET ANOTHER deal with still 2 of the power 5 left. Oh dear oh dear

Goodness me, where did that £24,000 come from?!?!?!?

Well deserved!

Paul says he has no system, but he had some boxes he'd keep to the end, so he's playing these now.

3 - Matt - £3,000

Audience clap and Noel shouts "WHY ARE YOU CLAPPING!!!". Noel says that would've been an EXCELLENT start!!!!

9 - Kate - £50,000

"£50,000, now you've got to get the other one" says Noel

He's keeping Steve until the end

Heartbeat music plays

6 - Jean - £5

Banker time with 10p and £100,000 remaining

Banker's offer would've been

£37,000

Paul says he'd have dealt that... Noel reminds us how George thought £100k would be on the table today...

Noel opens Paul's box 12 and reveals £100,000

SCREAMS from the audience... Noel says how a 31 year old would've had £100,000... and the ounce of courage needed desserted him...

Another player blew it big time.

His high red run continued.

Even though the £37,000 was rapidly inflated it didn't really matter. He blew One Hundred Thousand Pounds

You're right about the drama queen, especially the £100K reveal. Ow my ears. Sounds like somebody I knows.

The other box - box 2 - Steve - 10p

Noel says he's given the worst payout ever Noel says the £100k that never was, was the one that got away...

YIKES!

How many times has the £100,000 come to the table this year alone?!?!?

A good win, those last two offers were VERY inflated, so luckily he got his mitts on one of them - shame it wasn't the £37,000 offer, which would have had every other sensible player dealing at!

A good game, but the £100,000 is taking the mick now! A complete contrast to how many times the other six-figure amount has made it to the table!

Well come on. I wouldn't describe it as being dramatic. He blew £100,000. I'd have a heart attack if I was in the chair and that was me playing.

I was just about to comment on that - Drama Queenies in the audience! What next!!!

It happens again they squander the chance of making a massive difference to 2008

If I see him walking down the street looking like Jordan I'll Freak

I could believe £37,000 slightly because of the very generous £24,000 offer in the last round.

Who cares if he dealt again? Every game this week's been a red win. That must be good.

I think he played the game very well, enjoy the £24,000 Paul.

How's it taking the mick? You all desperately wanted power 5 on the table and we've got it.

But WON £24,000 and wouldn't have won the £100,000 as he would have dealt the £37,000....

Betcha loads of people watching care. It's boring. Yeah, loads of gambles would be boring but so would loads of deals. That's my beef with games like today, bloody more and more deals and f'all gambles.

And would you believe, he's now the 37th player who blew £100K!

I really enjoyed that game. I thought £24,000 would've been a sensible call. Good use of the pulse at 6 box and 3 box.

www.wedigtv.com

There's an online deal or no deal game on that. If you really want your gambles go to the end regardless.

He did take gambles. I read the commentary and saw that he took 4.

Oh, and a "boring" £24,000 win > an "exciting" 10p win.

If we classify turning down an offer and winning a blue 'losing' that offer, then surely taking an offer and selling massive value boxes are also 'losing' that amount in the box. Both hypothetical, but the same idea. £24,000 isn't lifechanging in many people's lives, but £100,000 is! Maybe he would have dealt £37,000 but in reality the offer would have been much lower and at the end of the day he sold £100,000 nevermind the fact he 'might' have dealt later. He could have been in a peckish mood for the £100,000. You never know, doubtful indeed but still.

Perhaps £24,000's lifechanging to him? Perhaps £9,000's lifechanging to Debbie? Ever considered that?

Not everyone's you, you know.

I really enjoyed that game, i must have laughed at the most stupid points in that show like when they just went to the first break Noel said they wouldnt talk about fishes anymore, but then said look theres a fish and pointed to the pic, i was laughing for ages about that! I know im easily amused!

£24,000 is a huge amount (well for me it is) and was really happy he took it because of what has happened in previous games. Where the final round they just knock out all the big numbers!

Congradulations Paul on £24,000!

I want my gambles. It's much easier for me to take them, and that removes the excitment. When players gamble real £ sterling (even though they aren't gambling a penny of their own cash) it is much more exciting. Online games don't offer the chance to win £250,000 for real.

I don't classify any of Paul's moves today as gambles. I classify gambles as turning down significant sums from 5 box to 2 box and beyond, and I class cowardism and targetism as dealing low offers for the board taking minimal risks and annoyingly, sometimes early.

That's your opinion. I would personally class an exciting 10p win better television as a boring £24,000 deal because it is memorable and exciting wheras the former is boring and forgetful. I want to be watching memorable and exciting stuff not boring and forgetful stuff. Maybe for the player a 24k deal is better but I couldn't care less what they think. I don't know them and probably will never know them.

And I would understand your perspective a lot more but for the small matter that if everyone gambled, it would be no fun either. If you want all gambling all the time, there's live roulette channels and lots of televised poker.

For the rest of us, there's a responsibly hosted game show on at 8:45 on another channel.

From this recap, this looks like one of Noel's worst hosting performances in months, possibly ever. And that is saying a hell of a lot.

The 24k offer actually wasn't even inflated. The banker's offers have just been so low lately that a fair offer like that seems large. Ed got 33k with a similar board, and Doug got 26k. I think offers with 100k, and 50k at 2-box should be in the mid-to high- 20ks. Also, the offer had to be 37k at 2-box because the banker had to go up at least that much after the 24k offer. The banker's 2-box offers have been WAY too low with 100k anyway. He shouldn't be offering 15k to 20k like he does so this was a nice change. Apart from that, kudos to Phil for taking advantage of one of the banker's rare "fair moments" and sensibly dealing a good offer.

No they shouldn't. People still deal for lower amounts so what's the point in higher amounts? More people will deal.

Ed had a much better third red than £3k though. As did Doug, if memory serves, and anyway in his era the offers were insanely generous!

For what it's worth, I think the two-box finish here was a very good time to bring out the Undeal offer.

So what you're saying that winning 10p is "better" than dealing for £24,000?

What?



but it's a responsibly hosted show that the country isn't watching or talking about. Given the facts are last from last week, 50% from Ant & Dec's audience switched off. I'm surprised it's still airing but I suppose Michael Grade is keeping to his word regarding poor performing programming.

Ed had £750/£10,000/£20,000/£50,000/£100,000 - a much more stable board than Paul.

I think Noel's worst performance was in March 2007. But he is starting to go weird again - such as crawling over the table because of the way Jill's game turned out (although he was more angry at the bad luck rather than the fact she dealt).

But he is definitely biased towards the no dealing side, that's evident from the way he was saying how we wanted someone with some gamling genes to come out after Jill. However, in March 2007 he seemed to be doing it just for the sake of it, but now he's probably doing it to encourage more gambling and less targetism.

I don't think seeing him yell at people who dare utter the word "deal" is good TV viewing personally... but I can see why they may be getting a little desperate when we've had no big wins / exciting games for quite a while now. Even one of the production team said there had been something wrong with the show for a while as not many people had won big recently (according to an audience member who saw some of the February 2008 episodes being recorded).

Anyway it was a good show today with a nice payout and the five-box offer was rather generous, and in this era of low banker offers, I think most people would've dealt. Normally the final offer would've been seen to be inflated, but I think it's more the fact that the offers of late have been too low on Power 5 / blue finishes.

Am i the only one that thinks Noel is doing a really good job as host, like for example when the £3,000 went in the last round and people started clapping of course he would shout No, its bad! Hes not exactly going to go thats brilliant youve found the lowest red, because its not brilliant, its really bad!

and also that last offer of £37,000 was sooo not inflated, thats probably one of the most reasonable offers at the final two boxes weve had in a long time!

But anyways Well Done Paul on £24,000!

I know Woodsy had it but I can't think of anyone else...

It would have been excellent in active play... but wouldn't have happened in active play, the most would have been a stick at £24,000.

Therefore, it's inflated.

That bit was fine, though perhaps more humour about it being clapped and less 'HAHAHA YOU'VE MADE A MISTAKE' would work. Instead of laughing at the player for there being a proveout, laugh only at the people who clapped the low red. 'Nope... nope... *waits for applause to die down* I can only presume whoever clapped that just saw the colour and not the number! Two more to go... if this is red, you can clap THAT one...'



Yes, but most people would have taken far, far less in that situation, which is why 'unreasonable' can be considered!

Shame Paul didn't play yesterday as he'd have played on the 2nd anniversary of another Paul who won the same amount! Shame this proveout wasn't as good....

But actually I thought that 24k offer was really high, the banker suddenly went from being very stingy offering 3k to being very generous. I can't see how anyone would have less than 24k unless they'd completely Wakeyed it AND swapped....but blame the banker for that, rather than Paul!

He must have impressed the banker with the calmness and coolness he no-dealt the 3k with!

I was comparing the board to Reg's and Paul was offered 7k more with 3k and two of the banker's power 5 compared to Reg's 15k and higher blues! Very much right deal at the wrong time compared to Reg's wrong deal at the right time! Even Doug was offered only 2k more with 5k and 3k and £250 as the 30% disaster scario, and he was one of the biggest gamblers around!

When someone takes a good offer like that it usually doesn't bother me the proveout goes badly, and indeed it makes me happy when someone deals when I would have gone on, and the avoid the trainwreck I would have had. It's only when people deal rubbish offers and miss out of huge money that does bother me (such as Anne)!

And lathebault, I'm wondering why you're bothering watching if dealers annoy you so much - anyone knows that the vast majority of players, back to Oct 2005 have dealt, and also those to go the end tend to win more blues than reds, so I don't know why you expect anything different. Sure, hardly anyone's going to the end at the moment, but I can hardly think of more than 2 people going all the way in a week, unless they have terrible games with crap offeres like Battle Of The Sexes!

Dealing is normal, so why get upset about it?

£24,000 was an unusually high offer reminding me of John G's game which had a similar board at 5 box with a 25K offer but which had a very different outcome!

Well done on winning £24,000!

If you read the rest of my post you would understand that I thought winning 10p over £24,000 obviously is worse but watching the telly, winning 10p has excitment and memorability, even with a bad taste afterwards and I think makes better telly than a BORING and FORGETFUL 24k deal even though the player may be better off at the end of it!!

The reason I get so pissed off now about any deal is because we haven't had a power 5 box win (or to be honest, a proper gamble) in ages so it's been a continuous run of crap games, even if someone gambles and it goes wrong. Trainwrecks aren't gambles so even recent blue wins can't be classed as good games because they went to the end. The last game I thoroughly enjoyed was Orry's. The last player I thoroughly enjoyed watching was Clive, but everyone can't be a character like him.

Too many gambles would be boring and too many deals would be boring. Dealing is normal if we had some gambling to mix out the boring phase of deal deal deal deal game after game with the power 5 still there to be won.

I'm sure Paul would have won 100k if the offers had been lower though.

Most of the players have been that sort though - I don't think everyone has been cautious at all, I find that with the odd exception like Reg, that most of the players who have dealt would have no-dealt had the offers been lower. People ARE recognising the good offers and taking them. They're not just looking to deal ANYTHING like other times I can think of, which is why I'm OK about it all.

I'm afraid you may be in for a few more disappointments along the way then as the players choice at which point to deal is kind of the whole idea of the show...

Absolutely. However I couldn't care less if they think 10p wins aren't exciting, obviously for them it isn't but if a decent gamble was taken (or extreme in Orry's case, winning £1) we never foget the game and even though it leaves a bad taste afterwards it's way more of a show than a 10-20k deal, which we seem to see all the time. I suppose it's all up to the producers to make offers the lower end of the scale on strong boards with more than one power 5 in play and offers on the higher end of the scale for one box games. They haven't been successful at doing this, with the banker's strange offer patterns recently but even low offers still get people to deal so the producers do a 'September 2007' with rock bottom offers so people DEFINATELY will not deal; a sad reality indeed. But the targetism has to be reduced and it's the player's duty to start taking moderate risks if they are a targetist; we cannot eliminate those as there will always be people with targets and it does add variety to the show (as do gamblers, who we see very little of - hence making the show boring, IMO).

But how low will it take? I can't remember her name off the top of my head but she dealt I think 18k on a 100k finish!!!! How low will it need to go? 15k? People will still deal that. 10k? Heck even people will probably deal £5,000 on a £100,000 finish even though it's £95,000 under the highest value and £4,999.90 higher the lowest value.

Then we get people complaining about low offers!

No wonder the producers don't use the offer patterns you suggest. Those patterns are fatally and fundamentally flawed.

Low offers on a two box game and high offers on a one box game? Ridiculous. Making the contestant's decisions easier to suit your tastes would decrease the tension, lower the pressure and reduce the impact of big wins whilst making the show twice as expensive.

The show is like real casino poker - full of human interest and emotion; skill even: moments of cruelly followed by against the odds punishment. You want it to be like online poker against computerised opponents; almost the same thing but with all the skill, emotion and human interest removed - just a crapshoot.

Win what's in your box or the average of your final two boxes? No thanks.

You mean Woodsy? I suppose she was more cautious than a lot of people, but my point was that Paul didn't seem the type who would deal ANY offer significantly more than the lowest value. I'm sure if the banker had offered, say, 10k on that last 5 he would easily have no-dealt. It needed to be high like 24k to challenge him.

Low offers on good boards encourages players to go that bit further on them and high offers on bad boards get the player to deal and possibly avoid a trainwreck.

Ah, so you want people to be dragged on, but you don't want any blue wins.

Doesn't work like that.

(In fairness, the Dutch version has a slight element of that - but it's more 'offers are lower on good boards and higher on bad ones' and that's simple utility theory in action to make the decisions more interesting throughout).

Yes 24K was a very good offer and certainly more than I was expecting -78% of the mean was pretty good. I think he did consider the potential and wasn't necessarily a targetist.

Although it was interesting banker tactics in that the offer was a gimme in comparison with the previous offer (which should have been about 10K).

I only get annoyed when there are targetists in the chair (like Ferno, Pat, Glenis etc).

if someone deals a good offer after considering the potential that 's fine in my book even if the proveout is bad.

I know £5,000 is incredibly derisory, but it doesn't matter is it's £10,000, £15,000, £100,000 etc., if you go on there's still a 50% chance you'll crash £5,000 to 10p!

Some people can't cope with that, and if they can't, they should be allowed to deal.

Unless there are only reds left on the board and low ones are found!!

I don't see why getting 'hacked off' which "lathebault" is doing is helping anyone.

Player's don't gamble because they do not want to risk going away with nothing which many gamblers seem have done. Afterall, many people say it's best to get out too early rather than too late. Just because you don't have needs for money (which probably means you're still at school) other people do. Accept that. Moaning won't change anything. I like these deals, as they were better than the BOTS weeks Where every player had a poor game and won a blue by gambling.

Well to be fair, lathe bault has a point there aren't enough gamblers.

as I've said it's just the deals which are caused by money grabbing targetism that annoys me. Yesterday wasn't one of those times - it was a good offer

If five or six players swapped between January 2007 and January 2008, DoND would have been much better in each period.

Ok, here's my view and its coming in two parts:

Pauls Game: Another really good game. I've loved each game this week. Paul had been pretty quiet on the wings but i really liked him during this game (and not just because of the W8 connection). £24,000 is awesome money. Perhaps what Noel described as "turnaround week" may be a turnaround for decent games..its a possibility.

The debate: I find it annoying that a select few are constantly complaining just because someone goes on the side of caution and deals. Using Paul's game as an example: yes he could have won £100k but he wouldn't of...he would have dealt £37k. And if anyone wouldn't with only 10p left, well, lets just say if they went on and won 10p, i would laugh at them.

Anyway, what really concerns me is that we will have a fantastic win coming up but that it will be done by someone dealing on a power 5 finish e.g. 35k and 250k. Then i suspect people on here would get annoyed with that form of deal...

Anyway, "rant" over.

A fun show I thought yesterday and dare I say not a bad deal. To jump from an offer of £3,000, which was clearly forcing Paul to go on, to £24,000 is most probably going to surprise most players and whilst I agree it would of been more exciting if he had no dealt and got to 2-box Paul only needed to hit £100,000 and the offer would go down or at the very least stick if he had kept £50,000 in play instead.

So whilst this may never be a classic show, I still thought it was a fun & entertaining show with some good banter & jokes.

I agree 2007 was much better but 2008 well lets just say if we did not have Angie and Geoff on the show DOND would be a better place

Oh and because they dealt, it makes them horrible players...i'm sorry but to say that just because they dealt is just plain harsh...

So you see comments like mine annoying yet you think that is absolutely fine...



It's just as bad because they are guaranteed £35,000 as a worst case scenario and you really couldn't ask for a better pairing to win the £250,000 on. When do we ever get active play power 5 finishes? That's why deals piss me and others off in that instance because if they went to the end they were guaranteed a power 5 but dealing eliminated winning either 35k or 250k... one of the finishes where they can't really manufactur a 250k win.....

Actually, when was the last time anyone got offered something in the 30s on 100k/blue in active play? Something tells me it was Charlie nearly a year ago, but I'm not toally sure (I just remember that game more than others due her being stunning and the crap run that came before it!).

I do Frisbee Dave came close but had £1k instead of a blue!

Do therefore on that basis, who still thinks that 37k was genuine?

Ok, maybe not that i would have laughed at them. Just i would see them as an extremely greedy player.