deal or no deal

[sheffwed39]

todays contestant got down to the last 2 boxes.1 containing 500 and the other 20,000.Usually the banker would ring up offering the choice to swap boxes but on this occasion he didnt leaving her no choice but to stick with the box she had which was the 20,000.Is it just me or does anyone else think that the"banker"really does know which boxes contain the money and wanted her to go home with the 20,000.

[lindapinda]

Yeh I noticed that there wasn't a swap too. But I thought that maybe they'd decided to stop doing the whole swap thing.It'll be interesting to see what other replies you get.

[rogerthomas]

...he didn't leave her any choice...

[hopalong]

I think the banker knows whats inside the boxes. I think he needs to know in order what deal to offer

[sheffwed39]

thanks for your comments.Although noel says the banker doesnt know,im not convinced now,she turned on the waterworks and the banker felt sorry for so i think he wanted her to get the cash.

[jenstar]

Maybe he offered a swap and they just edited it out. It seems the actual recordings last anything up to 90 minutes, and there was so much other stuff going on in the last section of the show already (let's face it, Noel getting the other two players to stand in front of the board was pretty funny - you'd rather see that than an offer that she didn't take anyway, wouldn't you?).

[joko]

i noticed that it was getting very close to the end of the show, so maybe they just ran out of time, and had to wrap up the show

it is only done for dramatic affect anyway, and the option to swap has no benefit really as it could go either way.

[sheffwed39]

Hmmm,all sorts of possible answers.Still a very good show .

[andyboy]

I don't think that the banker does know how much is in each box. My friend is an actuarial mathematician (not as impressive as it sounds) but basically he deals with probabilty and chance. He can pretty much guess what the banker will offer before he does based on the probability of what may be in the players box. Having watched pretty much every episode, the banker doesn't always offer the swap option and given that The Black Widow has consistantly had high numbers in her box, this may be why the banker chose not to. This forced the player to open her own box. On this ocassion it backfired though.

[sheffwed39]

fair comment andy.sounds good.

[mrrobbo15]

...the banker cant possibly know how much is in the boxes...if he knew how much was in the box, say he knew it was 50p....why would he offer anything above 50p ?

.....the only answer could be....to make the show interesting....dont think so tho

[zipadeedodah]

I would say that that the banker doesn't know what's in each box. I was expecting the phone to ring today to offer a swap, but as suggested, maybe it was edited out, or maybe it just didn't happen - it doesn't always (or at least didn't earlier in the series I don't think). It's better to sometimes offer it and sometimes not, just to vary it abit.

[brachiopod]

Is there actually any advantage for the banker to offer a swap in this situation? (I'm thinking in a Monty Hall Paradox sort of way?)

Andy? Andy's actuary mate? Anyone?

[paddy_36]

rogerthomas - on this occasion he didn't, leaving her no choice...

[jenstar]

There's no advantage in the Banker offering a swap unless he knows what's in the boxes and only offers a swap when it would be to his advantage (with maybe the odd "disadvantageous" one thrown in to put people off the scent). I don't think there's any evidence that this is happening, though.

[andyboy]

brachiopod

Good question. We could be opening a whole other can of worms here because a lot of people still disagree with the mathematics of the paradox. The final round of the game doesn't exactly fit the the scenario. However, given that the rules of the paradox say that given the option to swap, you should, there would be no benefit to The Banker. If you believe the paradox The Banker is giving the player a greater chance of winning the bigger amount by offering the swap and this goes against The Bankers objective.

Did that make any sense?