In a similar idea to the "Most depressing game" thread, I'd like to do the same thing with games where the player wins a blue amount but you do actually turn out to quite enjoy it in its own special way. I'll give it a week and see which ones I can put into the knockout like has been done before...

I'm making the criteria it has to be a win of less than (but not equal to) £1,000 - so you can include Wayne's £999 but not VENTRESS for instance.

My picks, in chronological order are:

1. Nick (1p) - the original 1p win - he did it in true comedy style!

2. Jim R (£500) - more for the contestant than the game in all truth.

3. Fadil (1p) - great to see someone be so decisive about such poor offers, allowed them to keep all the funny wing banter in, a really entertaining contestant who didn't seem upset at all, and a wife not bothered about him winning 1p "To hell with the money"!

4. Emi (£10) - she had me in stitches all the way through, especially when the last big value had gone and she was dying to win 50p!

5. Tingly John (£1) - Again a contestant with a great attitude, Noel pretending to whack Harry and the quote "I came with nothing, I'm going home with a POUND"!!

6. Ken (£750) - it actually felt like a good result after that game!

7. Igor (2p) - that deal was GENIUS, even though he should have gone on as he could gain a potential 8p but worse case scenario was half the offer.

8. Siobhan (£5) - again very funny due to the ciontestant in question, and in the best style, topped off by a bad swap.

9. Matty (1p) - it was funny seeing someone so cocky crash and burn.

10. Derek (£5) - if you're going to win a low amount, THAT is how you do it. Derek made it very easy to watch though.

Actually, except Matty, there's a very common theme there!!

Definitely Emi, Siobhan and Derek.

In chronological order too...some are because it was an entertaining game/character despite the disappointing result and some because I was actually quite happy with the result...

John G. (£10) - Er this is one of the latter, really didn't like him on the wings and then it was quite fun seeing such a massive gamble go spectacularly wrong.

Jim R (£500) - Some say it wouldn't matter if I didn't include him, but...you get the general idea.

Fadil (1p) - Had a really dramatic ending and it was the first time someone had won 1p when gambling for something a lot bigger so it felt much more exciting than the rest.

John (£100) - It was just funny how he completely butchered the board in the first three rounds, plus I wasn't really keen on him.

Emi (£10) - Absolute legend and one of the funniest games ever despite the rubbish outcome.

Ken (£750) - Ditto!

Thanh (£750) - Just a really interesting and unusual game with a really surprising gamble at the end.

Roy (£49) - There's no way I'm leaving him off this list...

Orry (£1) - One of the most dramatic/shocking endings ever.

Derek (£5) - *beep* hilarious, you just kept thinking "It can't get worse" and it always did!

Actually come to think of it, £100 John would have had a game just like Derek's if he'd have found the 75k a couple of rounds earlier than he did!

Just thought - does Orry even count as a blue win given that he technically won £1,001?

That's a difficult one becuase it was £1 in terms of gameplay, but did having the bonus £1,000 influence his decision?

I'll let it stand.

(If anyone wants to pick the farce that was PJ's game, BTW!)

*beep* no...

I liked Orry's game as well, for the tension..

In order of amount won (because I did this using my "lowest wins" thread ):

1p Margaret - it was a good show and she was good, just a shame about the final offer and the outcome...

2p Igor - the comedy deal was great

10p Lee - he just seemed so happy and bubbly throughout, even right to the end when he won 10p

10p Pete - he also took the 10p win very well, and I liked him too...

£1 Mike - I actually liked him and found his show quite amusing... although I seem to be in the minority there

£1 Howard - not so much because of him or his game, but more because it shows how a game can have a really strong start and just fall apart dramatically!

£1 Orry - because the end was so tense and unexpected

£5 Gloria - I found all the "lucky" stuff amusing... especially as it ended up not working one bit

£5 Derek - the worst game of all time was just so funny because it just got worse and worse... plus I liked Derek and he took his bad luck very well!

£10 Teresa - a funny show, shame she didn't win more...

£10 Judy - as above

£20 Geordie - one of my early favourite contestants... his game was unusual to say the least

£39 Robin - I really liked Robin and he had a shocker of a game, but at least got a comedy deal out of it

£500 Jim R - a great character and a great show

£750 Ken - a nice old bloke who took his low win well

I'd put Mike in there but it reinforced my opinion the show was one big fix so it stays out (Said opinion's pretty much gone, although the legacy lives on in my always-swap policy...)

There are two types of blue win I love: the self-inflicted trainwreck and the comedy calamity.

In the former category go John G, Triple-Swap Craig (shame that didn't nullify the post-Laura euphoria really!), Don (two offers over 90% of the mean and he turns them both down and then chases the money on a £35k/rubbish board), Dennis (duh!), 1p Tony (£13k at offer 2 on a £75k board?!?), Adam (Greenyist on the wings, Wakeyist in the chair - funniest telly moment of the summer), Ashok (£21k on a volatile board at offer 2!), probably a bunch of others I'm missing. I don't know whether to count Howard or not, but... oh heck, I will.

In the latter category go Jim R (duh), Derek (duh), Nick (the LTL comment was comedy gold), Igor (wish it'd aired later in the week when I was in Inverness ), Siobhan, Emi and I suppose Geordie counts.

Jim R and Matty were people you could generally laugh in their face. Igor definately.

Ehh. All blue wins are bad to me, whether bad luck has something to do with it or not. But it is nice to see how some people either laughed it off, or get punished for being too cocky. Lord knows how many of those kinds of games we've had on the US version. Some examples of cocky players that come to mind are $8 Brett Kurtz, and $5 Cheryl Jackson. A person who laughed off her low win was Julie Lonero, the first-ever $1 winner. A later video shows her with a $1 bill pinned to her shirt, and the DoND USA producers presenting her with a giant cheque for $1. Now that's what I call winning a whole dollar in style.

How about Heather?

Heather McKee best embodies how the game should NOT be played. I don't think she laughed off her record-breaking low win, though. Believe me, it would have been incredibly hard to. That game was not played for comedy value at all. I've been saying this forever; if you're left with a final two of right-side amount + crap, either take the last offer, or swap your case. 99% of people in this situation have said No Deal, refused to swap, and then won less than a day's pay. In Heather's case, it was less than a nanosecond's pay. Expect to see her return for a second shot at the game on the show's 500th episode, provided the show makes it that far. We're presently at episode 359 or something.

One disaster game that was played for comedy value was that of Janie Colosso on March 22nd, 2006. She lost all of the worthwhile amounts early on in the game, and her highest offer was only $16,000. After the entire right side of the board had been cleared, she basically said, "Let's just play on anyway. Screw everything else; this is just too much fun." She ended up winning the contents of her case, $750, but she had a fun time doing it. This was one of the unluckiest game in the show's history, but Janie managed to turn in into an enjoyable experience for everyone and laugh it off. Even I thought it was kinda fun to watch. Hey, at least she managed to take home our largest "blue" amount. Oddly enough, the contestant who followed her was none other than Mr. $8 himself, Brett Kurtz.

And the next contestant won $50, too! Me and J.R. ended up referring to that day as '$58 Friday'. I don't think any of us ever expected the ultra-generous US prize tree (and the nine-offer format) to produce three left-side wins in a row.

Hilariously, the $50 win was a Deal too, and both she and Brett had $5 in their cases, so neither were OBWs...

Ken, Emi or Siobhan?

Ken and Emi's games were my favourite out of those three.

Then... ermmmmm?!?! I guess (It's hard)

Ken! But Emi a very very close second.

$58 Friday may have been bad, but we once has a bunch of shows in a row last season where no one won more than $100. I then reccommended they augment the prize tree so that the highest amount would be $500. The show's title would have then been changed to "Who Wants to Win Grocery Money?" Of course, $58 seems like a fortune when compared to $1 Sunday (Julie Lonero), and Penny Wednesday (Heather McKee). I'm sure the producers all went out for drinks and got absolutely smashed after those games because those low-scoring contestants really saved their prize budget on those nights !

Emi and Siobhan for me. They both had a lovely dry wit and were hilarious in the face of some appalling luck.

Nick, Igor, Siobhan and Derek.