As others have already mentioned on here, I'd probably never have won the big money even if it was available to me. It's no secret that I had my eye on winning at least £20,000 - in fact, the banker said to me he'd read what I've put on this forum and knew that I wasn't a gambler, which was why he didn't make an extremely generous offer at 5-box. For that reason, I probably would never have got offers above £20,000, and I may well have felt forced to turn them down if they were bad for the board. And then I could've crashed to 50p which would've been horrible - just look at what happened to Colin recently.

If I'd had the Banker's Gamble offered on blue vs £20k then I definitely wouldn't have taken it. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have taken it even if it was offered on blue vs £35k, even though I knew mathematically I should've done. But the effect of "the money is already yours" kicks in at that point. Luckily that situation never arose though - I suspect, as others have said, that the banker is afraid of Banker's Gambles after Alice won £250,000 through one of them.

So my game went as well as it could've done given the way the boxes fell, and I'm pleased I didn't deviate from my system. The fact that I got to keep my box as well makes it all the more special (and no it won't be going anywhere near eBay!). I also found it quite ironic that it was box 4 and it had 50p in it... due to certain obsessions of forum members in the past. Selling a 50p box for £6,500 isn't a bad result and I got out at pretty much the peak of the game. What makes it sweeter is that it's technically one of the biggest banker beatings ever, as isn't he supposed to buy the box? Well he gave me the box too, so he bought nothing from me, hahaha...

There was indeed a 3rd banana which wasn't shown on camera (I think it said something like "Noel's Banana - The banker has run out"). I have some pictures of the bananas which I'll post on the forum later. As for the banker - Noel's impression of him is spot on. He's a very creepy sounding man, not necessarily someone you'd like to meet in the street to be honest. I still have no idea who he is or indeed where he is, but he's quite scary. He sounds a bit like Sir Bernard Chumley from Little Britain, actually! He's very posh-sounding but was slightly slurring his speech, which is why I asked if he was drunk! He replied and said he'd been having a "little French" in him, and would have some more after my game - I assume he was referring to a vintage wine of some sort.

It's great that the banker continues his character when he's talking to Noel and the contestants though. I was half-expecting him to drop his posh voice when he spoke to me or something, but he didn't. It's a tribute to the show that the banker's identity still remains unknown even after 1,000 shows and 3 and a half years of the show, and that he always keeps his persona up whoever he's speaking to.

I hope that David doesn't mind me doing this, but I was lucky enough to be in the audience for his game, and so I thought I'd give some of the thoughts I had while watching it, and mention some of the stuff that got cut out.

First of all, it was a massive shock to turn up and see him standing on the wings -- I had no idea at all that he'd even applied to go on the show -- and it was an even bigger shock when he was the person chosen to play! I think I must hold the record for the shortest amount of time between knowing that H was on the show to seeing his game -- about fifteen minutes! I managed to make myself known to him before recording started though, so he knew I was there.

During the first part of the game I was following the symmetry of his 'pairs' system and thinking that he was going to leave Stephen until last. So I really winced hard when he actually chose Stephen and the £250k was revealed!

It didn't dampen anybody's spirits though as the hilarious banter between David and Noel carried on, including one part where David nonchalantly asked Noel what underwear he wore ("designer silk boxers" was the response). You could tell that both Noel and David were loving the interplay between them both, and it was great to see.

At 8-box, David asked Lisa what the average was, but she didn't know. Because I did happen to know, I thought I'd be helpful and shout it out. David then turned round to ask me what I thought of the board and the offer, and I then proceeded to blind everybody in the room with a torrent of the relevant mathematical facts. Immediately the phone rang and Noel picked it up. "Are you Mister Al?" he then asks me, before claiming that The Banker had seen a post I'd supposedly made here claiming that I didn't like Noel's hairstyle and that I thought he needed a haircut! Obviously I'd made no such post, but before I could protest my innocence Noel had got out his red card and held it up to me! I had to leave the studio!

On my way out I passed David and said "well, good luck with your game then" to which David replied that he wanted me to stay so I could offer more advice to him. So Noel threw him out of the studio as well! We were both stood outside in the cold for a couple of minutes before Noel came to get us again. Apparently the Banker phoned back and admitted that he made up the haircut stuff, and that's why I was permitted to go back in.

David also asked for my mathematical advice at 5-box, although I didn't really do much more than back up what he was already thinking by giving him the probabilities of an all-red final two (10%) and an all-blue final two (30%).

I managed to have a quick chat with David as everybody else was filing out of the studio -- I had to stay behind to sign an additional release form in case they decided to use my contributions in the final edit -- and he told me that he was really happy with the way his game panned out. I apologised to him for gatecrashing his party, although maybe I needn't have bothered since the editors decided that they were going to cut me out of the final programme anyway. Ah well.

(David, if I've said anything here that you'd rather I didn't, then feel free to snip out any part of this post. I'm used to what I say being edited now...)

Sorry, who are you again?

Mister Al

What a shame that was cut out. That would have made the game even more surreal than it was.

Joking aside, it was great to have MisterAl in the audience and his post there is a fair account of what went on. I was pleased to be able to ask his advice and it confirmed to me that I was making the right decision. So thank you MisterAl!

(I was going to make a post on the subject of the influence of Noel and/or the audience / other players but I typed it out and can't find it. I shall have a look for it.)

Also I really liked the system used - but what I was wondering David - given that there was a "trio" at the board end of the west wing that had to be taken out together, I thought Stephen would have been left till the end as he was "opposite" your position - I was expecting you to go back to the other end with Jason/Rachael and Lesley/Thelma on the other side and work your way back up and finish with Graham and Linz. I probably only noticed becuase Stephen had the £250k, but was it your plan to take out the trio in one go?

aw i wish id of been there now but bristols too far to travel in a day sounds like it was a brilliant day

I had to leave the house unexpectedly at 4.30pm today (just around the time the forum crashed). Got back just before 5pm and was very careful to avoid the TV which was still on.

David - that was a great game - it was really fun and feel-good. You looked as if you were enjoying yourself - much more relaxed than your early games.

You certainly picked the wise time to deal - well done

Lol, the bit where you both got sent out sounds hilarious!

Not THE Ed from the crew but THE Ed who was on Pokerface in 2007.

I can't remember my thoughts behind the system, but I'd decided on it weeks in advance and so did it exactly how I planned to - so had no regrets. There were a number of ways of doing it. Rather than going down in one direction and then back in the other (as I did), I could've started from audience end to board end, and then worked back again from audience end to board end (if that makes sense) picking out the boxes I'd left.

I could've also left Stephen until the end or Jason. I decided to pair myself with Jason rather than pairing myself with Stephen - although there were justifiable reasons for pairing with either! (When I talk about Jason and Stephen, I really mean the positions they were standing in rather than the people themselves!). Had I left Stephen (which was a possibility but one I'd ruled out when I prepared my system weeks in advance), I'd have had £250k on the board at 5-box but I doubt the banker would've gone higher than £20k due to him knowing about my gameplay.

One disastrous scenario that could've happened is that I'd deviated from the system and left Stephen, and then realised my mistake and decided to take him out between 5-box and 2-box. If I'd turned down a probable £18k - £20k at 5-box, I'd have then crashed to a 50p vs £20k finish and may well have decided to go for it. In which case, I'd have turned down an offer of five figures and crashed to a blue win. That would've been horrible.

If I'd always intended to leave Stephen to 2-box rather than Jason, then I'd have had £250k in my final 2! Yes, that may well have got me a good final offer (if I was in active play) but if I'd have dealt at 5-box it'd have created a rather tense and horrible ending with probably a large proveout offer. As it was, I was able to accept a healthy offer which was good for the board and have lots of fun in doing so.

Yeah I spotted that you had the Wakey Box straight away! Wonder what his comments would have been...

How much other stuff about the forum (e.g. name checks, forum-invented terms) missed the editor's cut?

If he'd left Stephen to the end the best he could've hoped for was a £20,000 win and a guilt trip...

You can see his comments - read the posts by "thundercat" earlier in this thread...

Like I said earlier, I didn't use any forum-invented terms or names of other forum members etc. in any of the shows, as I thought it'd be rather pointless as most of the viewing public would have no clue what I was on about.

Congratulations on your win David! It really was a great show and you really gave it some originality. It was great to see you deal a decent amount of money and still retain the respect of the banker! Really good game, well done!

Im not the independant adjudicator, thats for certain

Am Iright in thinking that no non-£250k winner has even been allowed to take away their whole box before?. I remember someone being allowed to take away the money card from their box (a fireman if I remember correctly).

I think it was £35k Matt from early 2006. I think 1p Sally got hers as well?

And Adam of Floodgate fame got to keep his damaged box!

I guess about a wing system that you dream up beforehand, you gotta know where your wing position will be, and I bet Geordie for instance only decided at the last minute which "way" he wanted to go!