Press Your Luck - Can't Win For Losing (Aug. 1, 1984)

Ya ever see 19 spins get passed around on Press Your Luck in 90 seconds? Champion Eric and challenger Adriana fight off a whammy infestation to gain some ground in the game. From episode 225.

[@Wolfman12395]

1:41 probably the only time you'll ever see someone that was glad that they hit a whammy.

[@SupermarketSweep777]

Well him and Michael Larson just to throw the judges off.

[@JoeyLamontagne]

If I was stuck with 7 passed spins, have less than 3 Whammies and only have $2750, I would be happy about the whammy too. I get control of the game instead of being controlled by the other contestant.

[@TommygunNG]

@Sheldon Cooper Plus, Larson's Whammy was in the first round. He'd obviously practiced more on the second round pattern, where the real money was. People never think about that part of the story.

[@guyfierimtwi]

@@JoeyLamontagne but if the other person surives they just pass back and you need even more money

[@guyfierimtwi]

@@JoeyLamontagne but you get a lot of moolah once you're done with the passed ones I guess.

[@tyreevongsaly]

4:05 Eric is the champion/winner of the game with $0.

[@TommygunNG]

EXPLANATION FOR THE LESS INITIATED: Guy passes ten spins to Girl. Passed spins MUST be taken by the recipient player, so that's ten chances for Girl (the recipient) to hit a Whammy. Normally, doing so would move the Passed spins to the Earned column for the player, giving the player flexibility. BUT--and this is crucial--she already had THREE Whammies. One more Whammy would put her out of the game, so any spins she had left, regardless of Passed or Earned, would simply disappear, and Guy would be Champion as the last man standing (third player had already Whammied out). He'd win with zero bucks, but he'd come back the next day with chance for more money. Guy played the odds: Unless your name is Larson, the odds of going ten spins without a Whammy are astronomical. And it worked.

[@marcpower4167]

Exactly it was the right strategy, but I would have at least considered taking 1 spin myself so I could get something then pass.

[@guyfierimtwi]

@@marcpower4167 The thing is he had 3 whammies too

[@dannydougin3925]

Eric is very handsome!

[@katieb777]

Peter tomarkn was cuter ( rip)

[@TimothyLittle13]

2:39 Stop at a trip to the Bahamas. With that money you can BUY the Bahamas, Michael!

[@mbdg6810]

Most hilarious win in game show history imo

[@kidfrombrooklyn66]

I think the odds for hitting a Whammy is about 1:6 - so passing 10 spins was a good idea.

[@shadowstarz3651]

I think the odds were changed a bit after the Michael Larson episodes, but might be wrong.

[@888jerm888]

18 squares X 3 different slides = 54 different total slides, divided by 9 WHAMMY slides = one WHAMMY every 6 spins.

[@CIFLWebMaster]

It's a lot more complicated than that. The board is random, the odds of hitting a whammy change with each rotation of the slides. There are some where there are no whammys to some where there are five or more. Plus consider the corner case (pun intended) where Pick A Corner could have a Whammy as a choice. Also consider that the board has to cycle through each square (psudorandomly) before a square can hit again. The board rotates one every third square as it's running. Calculating the true odds (from a statistical point of view) is enormously complex given all the variables. It would be fair to say that on average you would see a Whammy once in 6 spins. It would be interesting to capture the data and see what the standard deviation is.

[@DBR00]

4:03, the technical director in the booth started to slide the square the wrong way.

[@theedspage]

The 9th spin was the killer spin.

[@TommygunNG]

Damn spoiler!

[@brycelandon6387]

So I take it GSN is airing episodes from 1984 now? They've shown episodes up to Episode #696 from May 1986. Did they ever go further than that?

[@warrenduree9417]

Exactly why a whammy was always a possible and plausible choice with "Pick A Corner"

[@gowifb]

I never really thought about this but there is one other situation where I can think of where someone would voluntarily take a whammy. That would be if you end up in 2nd place on your last spin and the player in 3rd is the only one with spins left. If you take a prize and remain in 2nd then you basically have lost as the player in 3rd needs to beat your score in order for them to have a chance. You are basically a sitting duck. By going down to $0 you have a chance of a 3 way $0 ending.

[@DBradshaw25]

Simply put, I think it was a production error.

[@guyfierimtwi]

@@gowifb Unless that third place player plays the "2nd place will be your best friend option

[@bencalebrod]

He should've taken at least one spin so he'd win something! Being returning champion means absolutely nothing if you lose the next game, and the odds of him hitting a whammy in the next spin was 1 in 6 (16.7%) whereas the odds of losing the next game was 2 in 3 (66.7%)!

[@thechadmosher]

bencalebrod He already had a pile of winnings since he was the returning champion. His strategy was fine.

[@TommygunNG]

PYL was -- and I guess is -- all about, "Win it all, or lose your shirt." Guy already had $18K, of course, so there's that. BUT, the whole spirit of the game is to go for the big bucks. He was ONE Whammy away from losing his shirt finally in this one. Even the 5-in-6 chance of missing the Whammy was surpassed by the near-certainty of Girl hitting a Whammy in ten spins, and thus him coming back. I get your point, but with $18K already under his belt, he took the nearly-sure thing.

[@TommygunNG]

@@biruss And of course, he knew he'd lose. Hindsight's 20/20, dude.

[@TommygunNG]

@@biruss ​ When 1/3 is LITERALLY 1/3 (one chance in three total), as opposed to simply 33% of whatever number, the mind semi-rightly processes differently. Statistics was my worst class in college (got a B--79.6%, and professor rounded up), but I remember the concepts of how anomalies with a small set is far more normal than with a large set. Also, this is not entirely a matter of chance. Guy probably was thinking, given that the game play does have some knowledge and skill involved, as opposed to simply the spins themselves (Michael Larson notwithstanding), he had a good enough chance at winning the next day (and winning much more) that it overrode the slightly--slightly because of the small set (literally 1/6)--better chance of not hitting a Whammy in this game. In the context of a "one more spin" strategy proposal, Guy traded a chance at a relatively few dollars for a chance at a much larger amount. Given having already won $18,000 (a goodly amount back then), his call was sensible. And I'll say it: He was under a little pressure there, and probably didn't take pen to paper and calculate relative chances. In the past decade or so, with the Internet having influence, people are getting into evaluating others' actions as if the actor had perfect knowledge and perfect processing. It's an unfortunate trend, considering things like reality, but it does seem to be fading. Be part of that fade.

[@TommygunNG]

@@biruss Incorrect. The chance of failure in "one more spin" makes it arguably too risky. It might have worked, but that does not make a "good" idea. Just like how you "might" be able to run that red light in heavy traffic unscathed, but it's still not a good idea.

[@samsticka]

August 1st, 1984 - The day I was born.

[@AtWordsPoetic]

This was a Pyrrhic victory if there ever was one.

[@ShadowLinkxMaster]

This happened again on the latest episode of the Press Your Luck revival! Only this time, the contestant survived all 10 passed spins!

[@Naminski1a]

Who's here for tonight's episode of Press Your Luck Primetime on ABC?

[@stevekoenig3684]

I know that Peter wasn't responsible for the Whammies, and the risk is the contestants to take, but if all whammied out, I wouldn't have been surprised if they all went after him.

[@starskunk]

The thing is, the only way possible for all 3 contestants to whammy out is for nobody to pass in round 2, and two contestants whammy out, leaving the third contestant to play against the house where they can quit at any time. If the third contestant were to whammy out, it'd be their own fault for continuing on :P

[@Square1986]

That's bizarre!

[@krazyeman4]

I'm like "there's no way she goes through all 10" and when she got down to 3 or 4 I'm like "You're kidding me"

[@ThunderFist1978]

Is this the only time this happened?

[@Ally_Rayne6]

Ironic seeing that $0

[@nextbarker2702]

Was he the 1st solo player to win a game with $0?

[@wns808]

I’m sure there have been few that have won with $0 during the Tomarken era. This scenario also happened in October 1984 where Mabel had $0, passed her spins and her opponent whammied out and Mabel won with $0

[@sirharry13]

He was the first of four. Too bad $2,000 or Lose One Whammy wasn't available yet.

[@marcpower4167]

Happened once in the Todd Newton era, a lady won with $0, they brought her back on a future show (that era didn't have returning champs) on her return show she won with $1200, in an odd case of the 3rd place player passing the last spin of the game to the leader, leader whammies 2nd place player at the time won.

[@marcpower4167]

It also happened once in the current era, and unfortunately he bombed out in the bonus round too so he left with $0.

[@KoraggRules]

After this $2,000 or lose 1 Whammy was made I bet

[@PlumCrazyShaker]

Some people have no clue

[@sirharry13]

I guess Rich didn't become "rich" today!

[@wns808]

4:02 stopped the board a little too soon

[@PittsburghPenguin]

4:23 Sallllttttyyyyyy