Another display of sickening cowardice. Another entrant for my 'Chicken's Gallery'.

What hope is there of ever getting another quarter millionaire with contestants like this that deal a derisory offer with the top 3 amounts on the board.

I give up. I really do.

And I can't wait for big brave Adam's game.

Is that official?

I think Rodney is the big hope for all you Wakeyists out there over the next few weeks!

Could you not see that the money really meant a lot to him? This isn't a game about going to the end and ONLY winning £250,000. It's a game where the players try to get an amount of money they would like.

I'm not sure why I'm even bothering to explain this, you don't seem to be able to comprehend...

Aww that was a great game - I liked Craig a lot more than I thought I would and it was great to see an OPW when it looked like he'd done a crap deal. The offers were really low for the board again today...but I guess the fact that that fourth offer gave Craig such a problem (and was eventually accepted) justifies it entirely.

Noel was back to his old ways again though while he was contemplating the £24,500...if that's neutral then I'm Buddy.

Oh silly me! I thought the show was called Deal or No Deal! And actually yes, I am looking forward to Adam's game as he should be a dealer and that is what the show is about - working out the best time to deal, which varies from person to person, which is why Craig dealt relatively early and some don't.

Almost one year ago, Jainie had a worse board at eight box, and got a £31,000 offer, which she dealt.

Her board at 8-box was £5, £50, £100, £250, £750, £50k, £100k and £250k.

Her next box after the deal was #4, which also had the QM.

I thought £24,500 at that point was stingy and mean. I believe that offer was at the lower end of the banker's scale. I would have probably expected something like £35k to £40k or so.

While I agree that the offer was low for the board (it should have been £30k), you must agree that sometimes that kind of gameplay does pay off? I know you hated yesterday's early deal, when she had £100,000 in her box, but today's deal was at the 4th offer, and turned out to be the right decision. I think 'sickening cowardice' is a bit OTT, considering the outcome, and considering there have been early deals which were far worse.

Interesting that when the player is a young, attractive female (such as Kascey or Sarah), Noel doesn't rub an early deal in too much, but when it's a male playing, Noel does his guilt trips / shows his no dealing ways...

£24,500 was very low, but it's because Craig showed "weakness" by deliberating a lot on the £15,000... but hey, the banker was smart enough to pick up on this and use it.

We've now seen just one player in the last 7 games get past the fourth offer!

While I like to see OPW's like today and people dealing when it's right for them, we are overdue a couple of really dramatic games and perhaps it's time for the Banker to play a bit more on the ongoing Lynn effect and pitch the mid-game offers lower.

Thats's with the benefit of hindsight and it's not as if I'm stating some minority opinion.

The fact of the matter is that my view represents the majority of the watching public. You only have to watch the sweep again to see that all of them except brave Adam said NO-DEAL.

I'm the first to applaud good deals but that sucked big time.

I think Lionel said Deal as well didn't he?

As did Pauline, I think. And Penny didn't comment, suggesting she thought it was a difficult decision.

Welldone Craig, enjoy the money!

First things first: I'd have offered consistently more all game, and with those actual offers I'd have potentially gone all the way to the end (though £22,000 might have taken me out). That clearly proves the Banker is already making the mid-game offers low enough to create the big finish, but these players are playing their own game, which just happens to be cautious. I'm fine with gamblers if it's clearly them playing their own game, which I'm not completely convinced is the case (especially in that atmosphere with that host).



On this game, maybe (though few will argue it quite as much as you, most will simply go 'oh I wouldn't have done that' or at most 'oh REALLY?'. But past history shows you have a record of No Dealing that is consistent bordering on dogmatic. It's your right to have that attitude. It's not your right to project that onto the contestants - especially when the host of this show already is.

I was trying not to make this point with the benefit of hindsight. I myself probably would have said "no deal", as I thought the offer should have been higher for that board (as I stated in my previous post). I also understand that most people thought at the time he should have gone on. I'm just saying that "sickening cowardice" is a bit over the top - it was 3 times the amount dealt at yesterday, and he had thought seriously about dealing at £15k before going on. At least he didn't deal there, or goodness knows what you'd be saying.

I'm actually erring towards basicasic's thoughts here, believe it or not. I was actually shouting at him to no-deal £24,500 as I thought it was nowhere near enough for the board, and was actually quite disappointed when he dealt. I was convinced it would be at least a technical win of some sort, and was absolutely amazed he got an OPW - I'd say it was down to luck rather than any great judgement. It was less than Kascey was offered with £100k there instead of £50k, and no middle red safety net (and she wasn't exactly ging to be the world's biggest gambler!)!

At 8 box the top 3 backed up by a middle red is a dream board IMO. I'd say wrong deal at the right time, but I suppose you can never complain at an OPW, no matter how they come!

Basicasic (and Wakey indeed) do have a good point - nobody's even reached the last pair in active play since Savvas, so there haven't been any real nail-biters, unless you count proveouts that could easily have gone either way like Kascey's, or wonderful proveouts like Stephen's!

And I didn't really warm to Craig either I'm afraid, his laugh grated on me somewhat! Sorry!

I'm also struggling to hold back my "Wakeyasic" thoughts a bit at the moment, because we're just not getting the really memorable games recently.

How many games from this month are ever likely to be up in the classics vote in the future? Graeme, definitely. PJ, for the controversy of it. Den, perhaps, for an entertaining character who made the most of a poor run of the boxes. Apart from that very little stands out! We're just seeing lots of mid-game deals with a handful of trainwreck games in between.

Now I don't believe in forcing people to gamble when it's not right for them. But I do like to see nail-biting games and people winning genuinely life-changing sums as opposed to pocket money.

I don't blame the contestants at all, and would never call someone a "chicken", "coward" etc. for how they play the game. If the money's right for you then take it. But the producers have something to think about in terms of both contestant selection and Banker behaviour at the moment, or otherwise I think a lot of viewers will lose interest.

We probably do need more gamblers, but we don't need the host trying to create them. If there's a need for someone prepared to take a chance or two, have a known gambler on the wings play earlier than s/he otherwise might, keep the offers down to encourage the big finish (judging from the last two days, they're already trying that one), but absolutely make sure the players are making their own decisions independent of external forces, whatever those heartfelt decisions actually are.

That's not happening now.

Regarding Power5: we are already seeing people winning life-changing sums of money. Craig would never have left that board for anything that wouldn't change his life, surely. I know I wouldn't. (And £24,500 might well change my life... indeed, I'd take that and run there if you replaced £75k with a blue.) And gambles can sometimes lead to pocket money. However, I totally agree that we won't remember individual games here. It's the big finishes that people remember and the most memorable moments we've had in the post-Lynn run of conservative play are Sarah's £100k box and Craig's super-destructive Noel-defying proveout. And a lot of people here won't want to remember the latter!