Round 6

Mary now, and Noel gives a dramatic build up to the box opening, and Mary puts on a pair of silly glasses.

9 - Mary - 10p

14 - Bill - £1,000

17 - Bonita - £10

Banker time with £5,000 and £100,000 remaining

Well hopefully someone will remind her what she had for the last two games.

With a guaranteed £5k, worth a gamble.

The banker implies Maryanne has earned this offer.

Banker's offer:

£29,000

Maryanne says she's feeling lucky today and she really wants to go for it.

Maryanne says

DEAL

Oh gosh...suddenly were onto something big...oh, she takes it

Maryanne says she really wanted to go for it. Noel says he has a feeling she should've gone for it.

Maryanne has £5,000 in her box 4

And it's an OPW, good way to start the week

Box 8 with John contains the £100,000

Noel says that's a banker spanking.

I'm impressed actually - she seemed the type who might deal early, the offers weren't quite up to scratch.

A normal week before the madness resumes. And it's Maryanne to play, so I'll dig out Regina Spektor while writing this recap. (Regina has referred to a character called Mary Ann in several of her songs. I recommend her, if you can deal with truly surreal lyrics. And some very limited swearing.)

How many times do players actually have a Power 5 before their game? Yet another today.

That's a decent start: three of the five lowest reds, with two blues. Promising. Offer reflects it, not exceptional but really quite good. All-blue! Will the offer reflect that? No. And not only that, but the banker "says it'd be embarrassing for Maryanne if she let a big amount slip through her fingers". The fight is on! (Music switches to "Two Tribes" in the KP StatCentre.)

The first Power 5 amount goes, but even that is £35,000, and she's only gone and followed it with the penny! Super board, and anything below twenty grand is the sign of a banker who is more concerned with getting the game to the ADP than of the contestant taking him for a big payout. OK, even I expected nineteen grand there. He really isn't expecting her to take any risks, is he?

OK, she's got a house in mind, she can chase the top prizes given the chance. She might not get it now, it's a two-box game all of a sudden. With that said, said two boxes are the six-figure amounts, and I'd still want about half as much again as she turned down last time. He could have thrown up a surprise increase and actually validated the preceding stinginess tactically there, but no, he goes down, with Noel's Goading Courage Speech #694 still ringing in Maryanne's ears.

And it sounds ever more hollow now. A hilarious twist follows; it starts as a sensible "make sure you make your own decision" spin, then gets nasty with the decreasing offer twist. Not that it matters, she turns down the original offer anyway. That twist was almost goading her into making a snap decision, and most of the time, the initial impulse is "I want to play on". There was a very good case for taking that, and I think anyone who could even give the first four the time of day should have gone there.

But she doesn't, and goodness it works out! The £5k kicker here is really interesting; how different is this from a blue/£100k or £10k/£100k finish? £29k would be an easy No Deal for most on the latter, and an easy Deal for most on the former. And now I'm thinking whether I'd be reassured enough with £5k to take on this one. Just. Only just. £3k/£100k, and £29k is enough. Absolutely no argument with the Deal; the heart said to take the chance, but the head won out.

"Noel says he has a feeling she should've gone for it." £5,000 in the box. Music changes to Cee-Lo Green.

I realy enjoyed that, like the Banker i was expecting Maryanne to crumble and take the £6k at 5 box but she surprised both of us and what a brilliant time to get the perfect round

Don't blame her at all for taking that final offer, she earned it. And it was an OPW, i don't think many can complain about that.

Is Eastenders' Roxy trying to make up some of her lost millions on Deal or No Deal? lol

Have to admit I did enjoy that game today and very good start to the new week

At one point I thought MaryAnne would going to no deal the £29,000 and how much was that a kick in the jacobs for the Banker as he confidently predicted she was going to crumble

Well done MaryAnne and enjoy the £29,000

Thought she deserved a better offer at two box given that the banker said she had earned it. 5k was a nice fall back and I've seen him offer nearly as much for a blue and 75k although sometimes thats post deal, but not always. Anyway, good job she wasnt tempted and the counter argument is that the banker could have bought the 100k for just 29k.

Best game in a good while, that one, well played!! (Though personayll I'd have gone for the £100k with a meaningful sum as back-up, how silly! )

I couldn't believe it when he went up by just £3,750 after that all-blue round, and by only £1,750 three boxes later.

Good thing it ultimately backfired on him, like Ferrari's decision to pit Alonso...

Well done on spanking him Maryanne, and enjoy that £29k.

Great start to the week. Thought the 2-box offer could have been the other side of £30k but £29k will do nicely.

Enjoyable game to start off the week, I too thought she was going to deal earlier than she did, and in the event it was a borderline decision, but it's a gamble I would've just taken on, very much of KP's viewpoint there. But no arguments with the deal, £29k is very decent!

In other news, look out for a "STAT OF THE DAY" section i'm thinking of trialling soon, where I relate the day's game to a stat from the show's archive in a hopefully interesting way...

I shudder when I think of the absolute slating she'd have got from certain people if the £100k had been in her box...

Overall though, another satisfyingly feelgood game. Enjoy the money Maryanne.