[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'232098\' date=\'Dec 11 2009, 01:59 AM\'][quote name=\'Steve Gavazzi\' post=\'232092\' date=\'Dec 10 2009, 09:28 PM\']Secret "X": Should she happen to get this for a car, make sure to mark the bottom row. It's a Roger trick that I don't know if the current staff knows about, but every car playing for at least the last 10 years he produced had the secret X on the bottom.[/quote]
Out of a sample size of....?[/quote]
As a rule of thumb, the value of the prize is actually a pretty good indicator of where the X is going to be, since more people cover the top row than the bottom row. Cheap prize = X in the middle, expensive prize = X on the bottom, average prize = X will tend toward the top/middle.
Since anyone with three X's is required to cover the middle, it would be far too easy to win a car if they put the X in the middle. They know that more people cover the top row than the bottom row (for the same reason that Wheel of Fortune puzzles rarely use the bottom row of the puzzleboard), so they put it on the bottom for prizes they really, really don't want won.
[quote name=\'That Don Guy\' post=\'232232\' date=\'Dec 13 2009, 02:36 PM\']My suggestion: if you have an idea what the second digit is, make the first digit right but the second digit wrong.[/quote]
This. For Cover Up, start with your second guess for the second digit, not your first guess. You'd much rather be proved wrong about the second digit by accidentally getting it right than by accidentally getting it wrong.
Pass the Buck: Pick 1 and/or 6. The producers know that fewer people pick these two numbers than the other four, so the car is more likely to be hidden there. (A few years ago, it was so reliable that those two numbers held the $5,000 and the car that I would seriously consider picking again if I revealed the car with my first pick. I don't believe if it's still that reliable, but you still want to pick those two numbers.)
While we're along these lines, don't even think about punching a corner in Punch-A-Bunch.
Plinko: Always drop the chips from the middle of the board. Wherever the chip is dropped from, it's more likely to land in the spot directly under where it's dropped from than any other individual slot.
Clock Game: As a wise man once told me "Hundreds, fifties, tens, ones." If you have a plan, you'll win this every time, and here's the plan I'd use. Start with $800, and increase or decrease your bid in $100 increments until you've narrowed it down to $x00-$x99. Then guess $x50. If Drew says 'higher', guess $x60, $x70, $x80, and $x90 until you know the tens digit; if he says 'lower', guess $x40, $x30, $x20, and $x10. Finally, once you've got the $10 range, just say, for instance, "Eight ninety one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine" and you've got it.
Spelling Bee: Taking the money is never the right move statistically (in fact, with five cards, you will win the car roughly 75% of the time), but if you're just not feeling it, go ahead and take the cash. Don't let the audience sway you; it's your money, not theirs, and they don't know any better than you do what's on the other side of those cards.
Ten Chances (I know it's been posted, but this cannot be said enough): Always, always, ALWAYS put the 0 at the end. You're guaranteed at least two chances at the car at a minimum, and will actually win this game well over 50% of the time if you have any pricing acuity whatsoever.
Here's a tip not for any pricing games, but for Contestant's Row: If you're not the last bidder, never $1-up anyone else, but if you are the last bidder, your bid should always be either $1 or $1 more than one of the other three bids.
As for the cheat sheet itself, two things; first, put a screenshot of each pricing game next to the tip. That way, should they actually get on stage, they'll recognize the game immediately and be more likely to recall the tip.
Second...make damn sure that nobody actually takes one of these into the studio, or even the waiting areas outside TVC, for that matter. While not technically a 'prize list', the staffers probably wouldn't be too keen on seeing one of these floating around.
