It's time for another sponsor-ridden, bonus-laden, French-filled, theme-centric episode of Le Banquier. This week's show celebrates the 50th anniversary of Le Journal de Montreal, a popular French newspaper in my hometown of Montreal, Quebec. In order to give you a better idea of why this particular theme was chosen, I present the Le Banquier Chain of Sponsorship.

Le Banquier is hosted and produced by Julie Snyder → Julie Snyder's common-law husband is Pierre-Karl Péladeau → Pierre-Karl Péladeau is the former president and CEO of Quebecor Media → Quebecor Media owns Le Journal de Montreal and TVA.

Got that? Good, because it basically sums up how several things on this show and TVA work.

Tonight's contestant is Julie Lavoie-Labrecque, a 27-year-old mother of three. She's an EMT and and entrepreneur, and she won her way onto the show from a contest in Le Journal de Montreal.

The 26 models appear to have been fired, so 26 people who were once featured on the front page of the newspaper are guarding the cases instead. One of them descends the large staircase and hands Julie the contestant case 4, because that's the case she wanted. And now we can begin the game.

Round 1 - 6 to open
[9] - $175,000
[2] - $20
[21] - $1,000 / Maxi Case - First time there's ever been a right-side amount behind that. Julie L. wins a trip to Florida to visit Legoland with her children worth $10,000.
[19] - $100,000 - Tabarnac.
[13] - $300,000 - Tabarnac.
[1] - $10

BANKER'S OFFER

$39,000

Julie L. says REFUSÉE.

Round 2 - 5 to open
[25] - $1
[3] - $5,000
[14] - $5
[16] - $50
[5] - $150,000 - Tabarnac.

BANKER'S OFFER

$51,000

Julie L. says REFUSÉE.

Round 3 - 4 to open
Before selecting her next case, Julie L. announces that she has a "scoop," keeping with the newspaper theme of the show. The scoop is that she is four weeks pregnant. Mazel tov. But then, singer Ginette Reno appears from nowhere and presents our contestant with $8,000 to put towards her children's education, courtesy of Capital One. Lovely.
[24] - $750
[26] - $200,000 - Tabarnac.
[8] - $200
[17] - $500

BANKER'S OFFER

$71,000

Julie L. says REFUSÉE.

Round 4 - 3 to open
[12] - $100
[6] - $75
[23] - $300

An all-blue round! What does the titular Banqiuer have to say about that?

BANKER'S OFFER

$91,000

Julie L. says REFUSÉE.

Round 5 - 2 to open
[10] - $0.01 / Surprise - The Surprise is $10,000 worth of power tools and home renovation materials from BMR, plus a full house cleaning from Qualinet.
[15] - $50,000

BANKER'S OFFER

$138,000

Julie L. says REFUSÉE.

Round 6 - 1 to open
[7] - $125,000 - Tabarnac.

BANKER'S OFFER

$157,000

Julie L. says REFUSÉE.

Round 7 - 1 to open
[18] - Capital One - You know the deal. That's a $10,000 cash handout.

BANKER'S OFFER

$217,000

Julie L. says ACCEPTÉE.

Including all of the gratuitous handouts, Julie L. has already won over $250,000 in cash and stuff. But was there more money in her future? There's only one way to find out.

Proveout
Round 8 - 1 to open
[20] - $400 - And that was the last blue on the board, too.

BANKER'S OFFER WOULD'VE BEEN

$341,000

Round 9 - 1 to open
[22] - $400,000

With a final two of $25,000 and $500,000, Julie L. would've received an offer of:

BANKER'S OFFER WOULD'VE BEEN

$329,000

Okay, stats break. That offer makes no sense. $329,000 is a massively inflated AMO; even I know that. In live play, I guarantee that the offer would've really been between $230,000 and $250,000. This Banker is generous to a fault. The UK Banker might've offered between $150,000 and $180,000 here, which is realistic, given how he operates.

Anyway, Julie S. opens case 4 and reveals that Julie L. could've won the lot if she'd have played on. That's right, the $500,000 was inside. Case 11 had the $25,000.

Although tonight's Idiotest was technically failed, $257,000 in cash and stuff is hardly a failure. In fact, it's good for second place on the all-time list of the show's top money winners. Not bad. The biggest win remains a $275,000 Banquier spanking that happened a few years ago.

Next week, we celebrate Halloween with tricks, treats, costumes, sponsors and gratuitous handouts galore. Join us, will ya? Until next week, merci, et bonne soirée.

A mega-money win. Sure Julie could of been the show's half-millionaire, but who cares. She won over $250,000 in cash and prizes, which is just about as life-changing as the jackpot would be.

For what it's worth, I would've gone more and dealt the $341,000 AMO, as the worst case scenario would've still produced an offer well into six figures and I would've wanted to become the show's biggest winner. I would've then have 0 regrets over what happened next, as it would've taken a reckless idiot to win the jackpot. Therefore, I proclaim that Julie (the player) passed the Idiotest.

I think I need to come up with a set of rules for what constitutes a pass or a fail on the Deal Idiotest.

I probably would've dealt the next offer myself, because I knew that if at least one of the top two stayed in play, I'd get an offer of at least $300,000. Plus, there's the history-making element in there as well.

As you said, the only way the jackpot could've been been won was through sheer greed or recklessness. The majority of this version's contestants don't take risks like that, from what I've seen. When they get an offer that's good enough for them, they deal immediately, and usually end up making the right decision.

The worst deal money-wise remains $60,000 for $500,000, which occurred early in Le Banquier's run.

I would of dealt the 329,000. But a good game. Thanks for the commentary