Nick won £6000

Countdown just finishing, Des asking Paul Burrel what was the worst job he ever had, any Derek and Clive fan would have come up with a better answer.

Anyway, here we go, Monday's DOND finally gets under way. Nick was today's player, probably older than his looks, a gentle giant towering over Noel (but then who doesn't). He had faith in his God, and was known to frequent casino's. He felt his life had been lucky so far. Nick worked as a 'low cost draughtsman', a legal assistant whose purpose is to maximise expenses or lower fees depending on his client's position. As the game got under way Nick turned to the audience, he wanted people to be loud.

Round one: He started with his mother's birthday - 9th of March - box 9 gave £1, while box 3 opened to reveal £500. Then on to his Dad's birthday, the 19th November, £100,000 and 10p. Then his girlfriend's birthday to finish the round, number 7 - £3000. The banker made notice of Nicks behaviour over previous games and suggested that he was worthy of respect (while calling him a 'young scamp'). The offer was £6700, high for this point in the game. Nick commented that in his job he had to evaluate offers, useful experience for this game - Nick decided not to deal.

Round two: £1000, Aaron said 'he's going well isn't he', surely a kiss of death - the box contained £15,000. [Why did Aaron say that? Hopefully he will tell us, he comments in here from time to time.] Steve opened box 5 after the break to reveal 50p, Nick conducting the audience to cheer loudly. The board was evenly split between reds and blues, eight of each with only the 100k missing from the power five. The banker's offer was £11,700. Lucy advised Nick to go on, JT started a chorus of 'more money'. There was a momentum to continue that Nick could not ignore - 'No Deal'.

Round three: Janet opened £75,000, Noel stroking his chin. £75,000 next, the audience groaned, Noel looked across to Nick - 'this has suddenly become a one box game'. Nick's last box was £10. The banker phoned Noel to laugh, 'he had been singing less money' all the way through. The offer was £3600. This was a young man, a self prefessed gambler, he was never going to accept a loss of £8100 at this stage in the game. He said 'No Deal', he was going to chase the 250k.

Round four: £10,000 was opened to silence, Noel said 'yep, we're ok', he then had to repeat himself before the audience broke into applause. Birthdays over, he was now running on instinct, box 13 revealed £250, so now both the 1p and the £250,000 were still out there. Nick's face was turning red but his manner was still relaxed, able to smile and joke with his fellow contestants - this was a strong performance from this mature young man. After the break Noel predicted that Nick was going to go to the end with £250,000 in his box, 'that was the script', we would soon see. James opened his box to reveal 1p, so we were on script. Again the board was evenly split, smallest red was £5000, the banker offered £7000. Nick's response:'it would just be spending money for me'. An indication that the banker was nowhere near a life changing amount for Nick (unless he was bluffing?). 'No Deal'.

Round five: Jim opened his box, and we suddenly went right off script - it was the £250,000. Nick was philosophical, but his ambitions were now severly curtailed. The next box was £100, the crowd cheered, the final box of the round was number 22 - another blue, £750. The board had two blues, £5000, £20,000 and £35,000. The offer was £4700. Aaron's advice was that they he, Nick and Matt were all young, no real responsibilites, he should say 'No Deal', and Nick agreed.

Round six: Nick could lose everything in this round, the first box was £5000. Nick rationalised that as he had to pick three boxes one of them had to be red, and it was good that he had picked the lowest red. The next box he picked had £5, he'd found a blue box. Nick called down his girlfriend Kelly - this was building to a very exciting finish. He selected Cathy's box, and then the bubble burst, it was the £35,000. The banker curtly offered £6000. The amounts left were £50 and £20,000. What would he do? He dealt!

Surely this was the wrong decision? Kelly opened Nick's box to reveal £50, but if had said 'no deal' would he have then swapped? We'll never know. The man who evaluates offers for a living played it safe at the end, an anti-climax but I suppose it was predictable - a good lawyer never asks a question without being certain of the answer.