The cash drought continues, as the Banker's paid less than £20,000 cash in six games since STEPHEN last played! Now he's here to try and suggest the run happened because he didn't play in it

We all know what it'll be, but in this house we follow rules and regulations, so pick 1-4 for each of player power, Banker power, offer pattern, and money menu on The Configurator and then we can bring the action!

3 3 3 3 please.

So obvious I already started setting this up...



AGAIN you get that end-of-game wheel bonus, you also get a 5-3-3-3-3-3-2 offer pattern, but the really intriguing part of this is that the Banker has control of whether you buy Box 25... but you're going to have control over its configuration!

Nothing unusual about the board anyway...

1p
10p
50p
£1
£5
£10
£25
£50
£100
£250
£500
£750
£1,000
£3,000
£5,000
£10,000
£15,000
£20,000
£35,000
£50,000
£75,000
£100,000
£150,000
£250,000

...but things will get interesting now with that money menu!

So, you'll get a choice of two pairs of options to start, picking one pair to use. Then you'll get two sets of three options, and you pick one of those to complete the money menu.

This is your first decision. Bearing in mind the Banker decides if it's getting used or not...

+£1,000/75%
ADD HALF/-£2,000

...that's an interesting decision, but which will you take?

In situations where -2k is devastating, adding a half isn't that great, and in siutations where adding half is good the -2k is irrelevent, and 75% isn't ever awful (though in situations it's negligable +1k isn't that great), so I'll go with +1k and 75% since the Banker's choosing weather I buy the box or not.

Alright! And now, those two will be paired with one of these triplets...

ADD HALF/MONEY BACK/-£2,000
BONUS/+£3,000/QUARTER

The BONUS is the better of ADD HALF and +£5,000, so two of those options are strictly better on the second list, but the third has a much more uncapped damage potential... is that enough to sway you to the other one?

With the banker picking the buy, it is - I'll take Add half.

And this will be your money menu as a result!

ADD HALF
+£1,000
MONEY BACK
-£2,000
75%

Quite boring, you could say, but in the circumstances, boring is good! And would you believe it... Box 3 is on the table! If that's not a sign...

Five to open in the first round. GAME ON!

6 9 12 15 18 please.

#AsExpected

Box 6 - £50 starts us off right!

Box 9 - £5,000 doesn't hurt...

Box 12 - £1,000 is also the right end of the reds...

Box 15 - £500 gets us back in blue! If this is blue too, quite the start...

Box 18 - 1p! ESPECIALLY if it's THAT one!

Surely not how the Banker imagined that start.

10p
50p
£1
£5
£10
£25
£100
£250
£750
£3,000
£10,000
£15,000
£20,000
£35,000
£50,000
£75,000
£100,000
£150,000
£250,000

Three to open in every round from here until 4-box... good job No All-Blues isn't in effect!

BANKER'S OFFER

£9,633

Deal or No Deal?

Certainly nothing to complain about with that opening round, will be interesting to see the opening offer.

A good opening offer for a good start, but there's plenty of life on the board left, so no deal.

21 24 2 please.

Box 21 - £750! The momentum continues...

Box 24 - 50p! And continues...

Box 2 - £20,000 is just a gentle tap on the brakes!

This is turning into something very promising.

10p
£1
£5
£10
£25
£100
£250
£3,000
£10,000
£15,000
£35,000
£50,000
£75,000
£100,000
£150,000
£250,000

He's gone up...

BANKER'S OFFER

£15,333

...by a considerable margin! Top six in play but we're already in the mid-teens at 16-box and there's real blue-win possibilities this early even on that board... Deal or No Deal?

Again, a wonderful offer for a wonderful round, but with the safety net only barely dented, no deal still.

5, 8. 11 please.

It's tough to stop on these boards! But Paul also had a great start to his game and then it started to collapse midway through... Banker wants a rerun, will he get it?

Box 5 - £10! Not yet he won't...

Box 8 - £50,000! Finally a hit...

Box 11 - £75,000! Much-needed round for the Banker, but everything in six figures is intact!

The Banker says this is going to play out just like Paul's game!

10p
£1
£5
£25
£100
£250
£3,000
£10,000
£15,000
£35,000
£100,000
£150,000
£250,000

In that game, he offered basically a stick after a destabilising third round, it was declined, and then the crash came.

BANKER'S OFFER

£15,333

So he's trying the same thing, but actually sticking this time! History doesn't repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes... will your next line be Deal or No Deal?

The bord's more unstable now, but I think there's still another round in it and the safety net is weakened but not destroyed. A good offer given the last round, but no deal.

14, 17, 20.

We play on, and one difference Paul had is that he'd lost his jackpot and you hadn't!

Box 14 - £100,000! And now you're increasingly dependent on it...

Box 17 - £3,000 is still red but also still relief! Now we're going for blue...

Box 20 - 10p! And hitting it PERFECTLY!