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Michael Larson on Press your Luck-

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  1. dazedace dazedace is offline

    North Las Vegas, NV
    United States

    Posts: 895
    Joined: Nov 05

    Feb 8th, 2009 (2/8/2009 10:01pm)

    Im sure most of you know this story but ill post it for those who don't.

    Paul Michael Larson (May 10, 1949 – February 16, 1999) was a contestant on the American television game show Press Your Luck in June 1984. Larson's claim to fame was his winning $110,237 in cash and prizes, which he was able to do by memorizing the patterns used on the Press Your Luck game board.

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    Preparations-
    Through a careful study of the movement of the light used for the 18-square "Big Board" on the CBS game show Press Your Luck, Larson was able to determine that there were only five patterns used to determine the movements of the spinner used to award money on the show. He was able to discover this by using a VCR to pause a recorded episode of the game, and proceed frame by frame to learn the patterns. Armed with this knowledge, he found that it would be theoretically possible to go on the game show, watch the patterns carefully, and hit squares containing money consistently. Two of the 18 squares on the game board (usually referred to as 4 and 8) always contained cash in round 1 (square 4 held $1,000, $1,250, and $1,500, while square 8 held $300, $450, and $550), as well as cash and an extra spin in round 2 (square 4 held $3,000 + ONE SPIN, $4,000 + ONE SPIN, and $5,000 + ONE SPIN, while square 8 held $500 + ONE SPIN, $750 + ONE SPIN, and $1,000 + ONE SPIN). They never contained the Whammy, the character in the show who takes away all cash and prizes a contestant has earned. Therefore, Larson reasoned, if he used his knowledge of the board patterns to stop on only those two squares, he could play on as long as he dared, never at risk of losing his money. Larson arrived in Hollywood from Lebanon, Ohio for a contestant tryout on Press Your Luck, having virtually no money to his name and using most of what he had to make the trip. In his tryout interview, he described himself as unemployed, but an ice cream truck driver during the summer season, who wanted to be a contestant on the show. Press Your Luck's executive producer Bill Carruthers and contestant supervisor Bobby Edwards discussed whether to have him on the show after his tryout interview; Edwards was suspicious of Larson and his reasons for trying out—Carruthers was not. The final decision was to let Larson on the show. So Michael was booked for the show, for the fifth taping of the day, intended as a Friday episode. While waiting, he met Ed Long, a Baptist preacher booked for the fourth taping. They struck up a conversation. When it was Ed's turn to go on, Michael said to him, "I hope we don't have to face each other on the show." But Ed won $11,516 in his game, and so Michael would have to go against him as well as a dental assistant, Janie Litras.
     
  2. heavyj80 heavyj80 is offline

    West Babylon, NY
    United States

    Posts: 17,435
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    Feb 8th, 2009 (2/8/2009 10:06pm) in reply to dazedace

    lol i loved this when gsn premiered it. it was awesome how much ed's soul was into this, and it sucks that he had no chance in hell of winning.
  3. cmval cmval is offline

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    Feb 8th, 2009 (2/8/2009 10:25pm) in reply to dazedace

    repost go figure

    but yeah this guy pwned the game fo sure
  4. dazedace dazedace is offline

    North Las Vegas, NV
    United States

    Posts: 895
    Joined: Nov 05

    Feb 8th, 2009 (2/8/2009 10:38pm) in reply to cmval

    I love how he gets a whammy on his first spin, so no one suspects anything
     
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