If i could pick one game show...

to be a contestant on it would be Hollywood Squares.Jeopardy- too hard;weakest link-only 1 in 8 shot and if your too smart you get voted off; wheel of fortune/ family feud- to much luck. Hollywood squares strategy somewhat basic, questions usually commonsense and your ability to read the celebrities, can come back as returning champion, final prize cn be subtatiantial, and a good oppurtunity to win some money or a prize even if you dont win for the day.

For shear comfort - The Mole. Great food and a great game. To bad it'll be January before it's on again.

Hollywood Squares wouldn't be a good choice for me since I cannot stand all the chitter chatter and useless "funny" talk by Whoopy and the likes.

However, I have always been intruiged by the lottery weekly shows such as Illinois Luckiest or Flamingo Fortune (Florida). They usually have games where you can stop with what you've won or proceed to try and win more at a higher risk of failure. My wife always thought I was nuts figuiring out the Expected Value of each decision. The decision was always easy. Go for it. Usually the EV was greater then 40% since even when you lose you often only lose half your money. You have to buy scratch offs though to get on these so the overall EV is awful.

The Press Your Luck story always amazed me. Taking that show down was a great one-shot advantage play. I just wonder how the guy got on the air. Is it that easy if you live in LA to get on something?

How about Millionaire? Is it easier to get on now, has the application flood slowed down? Back in the first year I often would do the phone quiz, but I never got the final call to NY.

I forgot to mention Card Sharks. Granted, if you were on the show you didn't get enough trials to make an optimal strategy useful vs the variance, but many of the contestants were poor opponents.

Card Sharks would make a great casino game. Maybe I will contact a slot company and make one similar to Price is Right or Wheel of Fortune. Better yet, it could be a table game. I'll work on that and make sure an optimal strategy can beat the house. You all can thank me later on the www.cardsharkcounters.com board in a few years.

I'm surprised this game hasn't taken off. It seems much more fun than other popular games like casino war.

Foxwoods

I remember watching that show when I was quite young. Particularily funny was the way the host Peter Tomarken (I think that's right) started commenting early on about how Michael was "sure on a roll". Immediately, even at a young age, I knew he found something, because the odds of hammering as many $X + free spins in a row that he did were so small, plus he wasn't engaging in that ever annoying banter with the board. Yes, before there was "Is that your final answer?", there was "Big bucks, no whammies!" to annoy people with by using in everyday speech.

Someday, I'll finish my website I started, the "Advantage Player Hall of Fame", so guys like Michael Larsen can get the fame they deserve.

Incidentally, I believe Mr. Larsen was an ice-cream vendor from Michigan - he had to borrow money to buy a suit at a thrift store to get on the show. Sadly, bad investments in real estate eventually wiped out the money he had won.

M.

Granted, the skill element is less than in Jeopardy, but generally, the average skill level of the contestants on that show is SO low, you should be head and shoulders ahead of the whole crowd.

Besides letter frequencies, simply being smart enough to solve the puzzle on the first chance you have control of the board would make you quite a bit ahead of the average bear on that show, and it's not too hard if you have a good vocabulary..

M.

to time the spins? I was always suspicious of the game because I thought the potential for the game show to cheat was high. I thought maybe it wasnt random ; thay they could whammy contestants that they didnt want winning and not whammy contestants they wanted on.Can you give me more information on michael larson and press your luck this sounds very intriguing to me.

Someone posted this link here a few months back. It's a great story.

http://gscentral.net/larsen.htm

BTW, there could have been dozens of people who figured this out, but Michael happened to be the first one to actually get onto the show.

.. I mean, what the hell is the problem with that?

Yes, Larsen was apparently the first to have his hand in the cookie jar. It's sick that CBS would try and not pay him his money.

Don't mind me, I'm just in a surly mood tonite. But really, watching it unfold live was, with absolutely no exaggeration, a turning point in my life.. Even at 10 years of age, I hated luck and I loved strategy :)

M.