As interesting it is to see a player's reaction when they're tempted by the Banker telling them what their possible future offer will be, i really think its getting a bit dry now.

I mean seriously, the Banker is supposed to call after every round. We're having like average 15 calls every show (certainly what it feels like) for these pointless bits of information. Part of the thrill of watching the show is anticipating not only the boxes but the dilemma the player will be left with after each round i.e. the offer. The Banker phoning whether hypothetically or not only ruins the surprise or reaction when the phonecall actually comes, and I think its really beginning to ruin the show. Thoughts?

(:

It's possibly overused, especially for its obvious purposes of making players go on 'just one more round' (and then two, and then crash bang wallop), but I don't think it's a fundamentally bad idea so I voted for the final option.

Yes, but it's used enough as it seems

You can't say it's overused in the circumstances...I think it's safe to say it is here to stay. It is now part of the game where it has two sides: one side is that it reassures you of a good offer if you played a cracker of a round following. The other side of course is that its mind games come the end of the game, and usually the criteria are never met!

First used, if I remember rightly...in a VERY tense game last Autumn with Shaz. A 5-box with four blues and £75,000; she was told if she had an all-blue round she would get an offer of at least £20,000. She of course met that criteria, and was offered a fantastic £25,000; she dealt, and had £1 in her box all along!

I think it plays an essetial part to the game nowadays, and it's a worthy addition to the tension. I like it.

Oh and when I saw Chris' game (due to be aired in November), the Banker was involved in exactly the same way.

What was amazing however, was what happened. Don't worry, this isn't a spoiler...

Basically, the phone started ringing, and before Noel picked the phone up, he whispered to Chris, with a hand on his shoulder: "Remember, do not let whatever is about to happen, change the decision that you reached before the phone started ringing."

I'm going to take a wild guess and guess that this won't make the final edit.

I think it is a good thing for the player as it helps them to make a decision, but as a viewer it does reduce the tension somewhat, as when the phone rings as you know what the offer will be.

However, in games such as today's, it can make things even more tense when you know just how much money is available after 3 good boxes.

I wonder how long it'll be before the banker starts going back on his word though, and not making the offers he promised? I think that almost happened with Stacey-Anne recently actually, but he was just messing about.

He has gone back on his word a few times hasn't he? Can't remember whose show it was (it was at the start of the year, Natasha I think...) but the Banker said if the audience made enough noise, he would offer so much money, the audience went raucous, but the Banker called them all gullable and offered far less!

Probably not... it's the first good thing I've heard about Noel in ages...

Problem is that lately the banker has being making promises of offers based on events that are fairly unlikely (for example the promise of the offer for an all blue round at 8 box today was a 1 in 14 chance)

I chose option 3. If it's used too often, the players expect it, so it would get boring. I think if it's used once in a while, then it makes the game more tense.

I like it in moderation, but not keen on it twice in two shows (thought admittedly I though it worked well in today's game).

I don't like it when the Banker does it in the prove-out rounds though. I mean what's the point phoning up after someone has dealt and the Banker saying "blah blah this is where I would of phoned if you were still playing etc...". In some instances where a player has dealt two rounds before. I guess they do it just to show how much a player has (hypothetically) missed out on, but if they've dealt why bother dragging it out with phone calls that aren't really going to affect the gameplay apart from the Banker inflating the offers. Which he usually does quite well when the normal phone call comes around.

Going back to today's show I thought it worked well and added a bit of tension, even though it was highly unlikely that Mark was going to take out the 3 lowest blues for £55,000 (ironically he took out the 3 largest reds in the next round in a row ). Knowing that there was a £40,000+ offer though for an all blue round made for a tense round, especially when he was only one box away.

It's obviously a way for the Banker (Endemol) to entice players to go on and tease both the player and viewers that big money is available. However, like the Banker, Endemol are most probably hoping that when these generous offers are made they don't come true. Let's hope it backfires on Endemol one day and someone does have the perfect round after a guarantee from the Banker.

I seem to have gone on rather a lot and not actually answered the question.

So in moderation I think it's fine and I think it should only be done in certain situations. If the Banker started doing it everyday it'd get a bit much and much like the gift giving at the start of the season people may come to expect it (though that seems to have stopped at the moment).

Great point from Mike and I now add another caveat to my acceptance of the use of this twist: it must include both a strong/best-case AND a weak/worst-case scenario. Just the former is simply the latest Endemol Wakeyist manipulation.

Went with the second one, it's just another method of the banker playing mind games

i agree with killersbee, it might make the decision for the contestants a bit harder sometimes...