Tan's Game Report

Noel introduces us to Tuesday's game. The banker is in the ascendency, according to Noel, Simon lost it, he folded (I feel this is very unfair on Simon), the banker felt he had a memorable victory. Its now been two weeks since Gaz won £100,000, and no-one has won more than £20,000 following that game.

Today would hopefully be a blues day for a tanned Tan, for it was he who had to take the walk of wealth, with box 20. During the preamble Tan explained that he had a dream about box 20, and he had found a piece of confetti paper with the number 20 written on it (he claimed to have photo of it on his phone but we didn't see this) - so he felt lucky. To add to this sense of luck he took 3 hemitite stones (his birth stone) from his pocket, and two four leaf clovers - 'I'm not really a spiritualist' apologising his way through this, the audience laughed. Tan talked quietly, he reminded me of a hundred programmers I have worked with, but nobody who I could point you to...although we are assured by the girls that he was very handsome. Indeed Noel started digging a hole for himself by remarking on how nice Tan's eyes were - Tan became red. He was an IT consultant in web programming and graphic design. It took Tan an age to enter heis expectations from the game in the blue book and then something silly happened; May 16th is his birthday, so the audience sang Happy Birthday, but of course this was all recorded 2 months ago. Finally we were ready to get on with the game.

Round one: June box 5 - £20,000. Tan had a few numbers including 20, which were special to him, he decided to keep those numbers in play until the end. Next was Fran with box 10 - £10. Mark opened box 12 - £10,000. The boxes were being selected easily, Tan cool, pointing to each in turn. Simone box 19 - £100. Then gorgeous Sarah in pink (Tan also called her gorgeous, so I have competition eh?), box 2 - £1000. The banker's offer was £7400 - 'its good', said Tan 'but I think I will have to go on, No deal'.

Round two: 'Not one of the power five and we get to a really powerful position', said Noel. Of course this was the kiss of death, beautiful Becca opened box 14 - £100,000, and Rich had £75,000 in box 18. Jason opened box 3 after the break - £50. The board now contained eight blues against 6 reds - Noel said that there was a strange aura around Tan, and that he felt Tan really did have £250,000 in his box - surely this was in an attempt to talk up tan's position vis-a-vis the banker. The banker offered £2000, and Tan immediately rejected it, quietly saying 'No deal'.

Round three: Colin, the new guy, opened box 1 - £500. Noel turned to Tan, 'Really important to have an all-blue round now, great start'. Janey, box 6 - 10p. The audience were cheering loudly by this point, there seemed to be a momentum with this. Tan went to Peter, box 17. he tried to saying something, but eventualy settled for 'Good luck', and then lifted the lid - £250,000 - silence. 'Thats bad', said Tan, hand to mouth, shaking his head, puffing. Eventually the audience clapped to try to encourage him but Tan was damaged. 'Whose birthday was it, exactly' asked the banker. The offer was now £4700. 'Does that cause a problem?' asked Noel. Tan looked up to him, and leaned back in his chair, 'Yes, it causes a problem'. A woman in the audience shout out, 'Its not a good offer'. Noel went to her with the microphone, 'its not going to change anything is it, its just a holiday'. The rest of the audience joined in shouting 'no deal'. At this point the banker phoned back, declaring that this was 'the stupidist audience we have ever had'. Tan said 'No deal'.

Round four: Tan's voice was shaking now, the money was very important to him, he was desperate to avoid hitting the last two power five still in play (£35k and £50k), he went for James, box 21 - £1. The audience cheered, Tan was walking around his desk, the cool exterior cracking. Susanne, box 4 - £5000. The audience faltered at the red and then clapped, it was low. One more blue needed to make this the pivotal round, after the break he went to Tom with box 13, 'there's a blue in there mate'. Tom's record on predictions was not good and Tan recognised this but decided to go with it anyway - WRONG - £50,000. The studio groaned. The banker told Noel to say the offer slowly for the sake of the audience - £1700. Tan asked the audience to stand if they thought he should deal - no-one did. So Tan went with that - 'No deal'.

Round five: Drew, box 9 - £750. Raj was back (sounding hoarse) with box 7 - £15,000. Stevie, box 11 - £3000. The board now contained 4 blues against the single red of £35,000. The offer now was £1020. Aftre a while Tan was watching Noel writing something on the desk, 'Why did you write the amount down twice' he asked. Noel stopped, 'because I have nothing to do until you are ready for the question'. The laughter broke the atmosphere nicely - Tan clearly felt he had no option but to go on - 'No deal'. You may ask why I am not describing the tension in this game; maybe it was Tan's quiet voice, or his lack of expression, but there was no tension. There was however, a strong feeling of inevitability - this game was going to end up with pennies.

Round five: Lofty box 8 - 1p. Tan went over to shake his hand. Patricia, box 16 - £35,000 and that was it, game over. Emma opened box 22 to take away even the possibility of a good night out - £250, leaving 50p and £5. 'Why did you change your mind about box 16, it was your birthday?' asked Noel Tan couldn't answer. But surely Tan was going for box 20?

The banker's offer was £1.99, Tan rejected it and won £5 - the 50p was with Buzz in box 7. Tan was close to tears, 'A bad game' was his summary, 'its about belief, if you lose that even for a second, its all over'. In the book Tan had written that he had 'no expectations from the game apart from a great experience, because experiences are kept and money is spent', a statement that pulled this game back from tragedy, and gave us all something positive to take away - well done Tan.