Hi Guys,

Just a little question that I've often mused over during the wee long hours. If a player deals, say around 20k at five box and goes on to two box and say has 50k and £500 (these figures are hypothetical by the way) and the banker says he would have offered the swap. The player states box number 13 is my cat's birthday so I'll bring that to the table, Noel does his swappy thing, and when they open the box on the table everyone is delighted that its £500. Is that technically a player win then? Personally I would be gutted it was on the table all the time, but in most games they seem to give the impression that a scenario like this would be a player victory .

I've always found the swap confusing in this situation. I think the easiest thing to do is to take into account what box the player had when they dealt. So in your example, if they'd dealt for £20k with £50k on the table then it's a banker victory, regardless of any swap.

Although, you could get really confusing and if the player dealt before 2-box, you could question whether they'd have no dealt the final offer if they'd got that far. If they would've dealt then the swap is irrelevant anyway.

Okay that makes sense to me and is probably the way I view it too. I think it just throws me when everyone is happy when the swap is not in live play as the box with the higher amount was still on the table when the deal was made.

Yes, it does seem rather odd. But I suppose Noel carries out the "hypothetical swap" (after the player's dealt) just to add an extra twist an added element of drama to the end result. I always had the attitude that I'd never swap - it makes things so much easier!!

Let's not forget that if the player has dealt the banker has bought the box amount on the table regardless. On that basis I think they shouldn't use the hypothetical swap.

Even if the player says they would've done the swap it's hypothetical so there's no guarantee they would have. In the pressure of live play with players and audience often discouraging the swap, they might have thought twice about swapping away 250K or whatever the amount is.

Exactly. I still think that, had Alice declined the banker's gamble, Noel would still have asked her if she'd taken the swap and she'd probably have said yes. She'd placed an emphasis on that box on the wings early in the game, so there was onus for a swap - the fact she eventually declined it proves how difficult it is to do the swap in live play.