'Press Your Luck' Scandal on GameShow Network right now...

[pshreck]

Im halfway drunk and watching this show. Really quite interesting (this guy is apparently manipulating a game show board that is supposed to be totally random). On from 9 to 11 EST so you can still catch some of it.

[IggyWH]

[ QUOTE ]
Im halfway drunk and watching this show. Really quite interesting (this guy is apparently manipulating a game show board that is supposed to be totally random). On from 9 to 11 EST so you can still catch some of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, it's old... think it was originally on like a year ago. Quite interesting to watch though.

[wuwei]

If I remember correctly, he didn't manipulate anything. He just picked up on the pattern.

edit: well, I suppose he was manipulating the board based on that pattern. When I first read it, I was thinking of manipulating in a cheating sense, which it wasn't. Regardless, it was a neat story.

[ClaytonN]

Yea, I believe it was a plumber who figured out the pattern so he could hit the "big money" thing every time. He won like 80 grand, I think.

[Leo99]

Watch the end when they have old contestants on and they teach them how he manipulated the board. The woman is such a btch.

It's a good story/show.

[Dynasty]

I would have loved to watch this. But, I just discovered that GSN moved from normal cable to a extra pay digital cable tier.

[Vince Young]

Press Your Luck (http://www.rotten.com/library/conspiracy/press-your-luck/)

[Dynasty]

[ QUOTE ]
Yea, I believe it was a plumber who figured out the pattern so he could hit the "big money" thing every time. He won like 80 grand, I think.

[/ QUOTE ]

He won $110,237 in 1984. (http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/whammy.htm)

[daryn]

he came close to hitting a whammy accidentally nearing the end too, but he got lucky.

[pshreck]

[ QUOTE ]
he came close to hitting a whammy accidentally nearing the end too, but he got lucky.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah... from reading about what a craphole of a life he lead after this show, it's almost sad he didn't hit this wammy.

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
Watch the end when they have old contestants on and they teach them how he manipulated the board. The woman is such a btch.

It's a good story/show.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah that lady who had to play against him was still bitter!

What a hag!

[Reef]

[ QUOTE ]
Press Your Luck (http://www.rotten.com/library/conspiracy/press-your-luck/)

[/ QUOTE ]

sucks to be him

[Thythe]

Interesting article. I don't get the part about consecutive serial numbers on dollar bills, though. When you withdraw money from the ATM (or when a store gets stacks of bills for their drawers) they are almost ALWAYS consecutive!

[tpir90036]

[ QUOTE ]
Press Your Luck (http://www.rotten.com/library/conspiracy/press-your-luck/)

[/ QUOTE ]
From that link:
"Mr. Larsen was experiencing a horrible secret side-effect of his plan which he could share with no one: he had failed to locate an exit strategy."

Not to be game show nit... but PYL was my favorite when I was little and Larson certainly had an exit strategy since he could just pass his spins and wait until his opponents pissed them away. He ended up getting a few more passed back to him from the bitchy woman....but he could have kept converting them into spins he could pass and would have won no matter what as long as he didn't screw up. The look on his face during the very last spin is hilarious because he messes it up and realizes it instantly... thankfully the Whammy had been replaced with a trip to the Bahamas.

[Thythe]

Any ideas on my above post?

[TimM]

Not the case 20 years ago.

[pshreck]

[ QUOTE ]
Not the case 20 years ago.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, clearly if a radio station is offering 30k for it, it has to be close to impossible or entirely impossible.

[Thythe]

[ QUOTE ]
Not the case 20 years ago.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah you're probably right, but it seems odd. Even 30 years ago I'm sure the mint printed in order. Did they throw it in a bin and mix it up before shipping it out?

[TimM]

It was rare to get brand new bills all the time like now.

[mmbt0ne]

IIRC, you're required to use any spins you win. Therefore he could pass his original spins, but once he starts with the free spins, he has to take those.

[Nick B.]

[ QUOTE ]
IIRC

[/ QUOTE ]

You don't

[mmbt0ne]

Then what spins are you required to use? I know there are some that you can't pass.

[guller]

You have to use the spins passed to you from other players.

[NutCrackerr]

What's sad is I remember watching those 2 episodes when they originally aired.

[daryn]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In risposta di:</font><hr />
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In risposta di:</font><hr />
IIRC

[/ QUOTE ]

You don't

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah you only have to use spins that are passed to you.

[tpir90036]

[ QUOTE ]
yeah you only have to use spins that are passed to you.

[/ QUOTE ]
Exactly... he could just keep converting the passed spins into passable spins and giving them away to the people who had no chance.

I always wondered what the audience/other contestants/Peter Tomarken(host) were *actually* thinking during this episode. It is clear to anyone of reasonable intelligence by around spin #15 that he had the board figured out. Or put another way: what % of the people in attendance were ignorant enough to think that he was just really lucky?

I am really glad GSN did a story about this. As a huge game show dork (and game dork in general) I always found this fascintating and try to catch at least the episode footage when they re-run this special. The way they did it makes you feel like you are watching something evil... there is almost a cheesy Zapruder film feel to it with the slow-mo and timecodes. Maybe I'm just crazy.

-tpir

[tek]

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah...from reading about what a craphole of a life he lead after this show, it's almost sad he didn't hit this wammy.

[/ QUOTE ]

Craphole only because he was stupid enough to leave FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS laying around the house /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[astroglide]

god i wish i hadn't read that story. on the run, penniless, alone, dead of throat cancer. i wish it was a happily ever after thing.