[quote name=\'SamJ93\' date=\'May 5 2005, 09:20 AM\']For the '86 run and the tail end of the '78 run, was there any particular reason why CS mandated only one card change per row in the bonus game? Obviously, it's good strategy to do so even if it wasn't a rule, but why not let the contestants decide their own fate? Or was it to encourage more big wins?
--Sam
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About six months into the NBC run, the rule changed from being able to change only the first base card to being able to change the base card on each level. I suspect that was done to encourage bigger wins, which probably is why also the no win/no loss "Push" rule went into effect in 1980 on the NBC run and continued for the CBS/Syndie runs(saw a few tough losses due to a double two or a double Ace at the Big Bet, for example). For the first four or five weeks of the CBS run, a contestant could change any three cards they wanted, whether they were on the same row, or it was the same card three times, or whatever. That led to a lot of Money Cards wins of $10K+ in the first month of the CBS run, so at that point they changed it to the more common change one card per line rule.