Perfectly fine. It’s part of the game mechanic. Even if it wasn’t originally intended, the game show has been around long enough for them to change the rule if they thought it a problem. Clearly, they don’t, and bidding a dollar is embedded deeply into the gameplay.
It’s not purely random, either. The last player to bid has an advantage (I’d be curious to see the statistics on wins by bidding order). The replacement for the winning bidder then goes first in the next round.
Also, I think the first three contestants called at the beginning of the show can choose which podium to go to. You want to choose the one as far left (player’s left) as possible.
No, when the last bidder doesn’t bid $1 over I think “idiot!”
The “optimal” bid for the fourth bidder is almost always $1 over the highest existing bid. I’ve seen it enough that “highest bid wins” is more reliable than underbidding everyone.
Any bid other than $1 or $1 over some existing bid is idiotic even if you “know” the exact price.
Which brings us to, what’s the optimal strategy for the penultimate contestant?
I think both, but I’m a quibbler who likes to complain about people.
FWIW, the British have fixed this $1 bid dilemma by establishing the playing order of the Showcase Showdown with letting the player who bid closest to the price to win one’s own way on stage spin last. In the American version, the player who has the greatest value in winnings spins last.
I don’t think this is right. We watch a couple of these shows a week and I think they always go in order called, starting at Drew’s left. I’ll have to pay more attention now.
I have no problem with the last player dollar bid because it means the guy that was outbid for a dollar will be in the last bid position next round.
Speaking of strategy, I can’t believe that all these fans have have never picked up that on the mountain climber game, bidding $25, $35 and $45 will win every time. Almost always within $10.
@Robot_Arm is correct. Usually at the start of the show, the contestants just automatically start filling in Contestant’s Row from left to right (from the viewer’s perspective), but they can actually pick whichever podium they want.
I’d like to see a cite for that. I can’t recall ever seeing an episode where one of the first three did the smart thing and put themselves in the last bidding position. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have PA’s standing right there ready to “help” contestants fill in the spots from the host’s left. That part wouldn’t be shown on camera, though.
See Question #4 here:
http://www.golden-road.net/gr_faq/index.php?title=General_Questions
The first time I saw this strategy was when Barney Rubble used it to win by accidentally bidding two cents:
I have attended a number of TPIR tapings, haven’t been chosen to be a contestant though. After one on the tapings my wife and I got a chance to talk to George Gray for about 10 minutes. I told him my idea to change up bidding, give the contestants a keyboard numbered 0 to 9, all contestants punch in their bids then they are shown. In case of tie bids, the first person to enter the bid gets that bid, the other person has to rebid. He said it’s about 50/50 on bidding a dollar more but Drew likes it so that will stay. Bob didn’t like those kinds of bids so contestants were told to not to do it as a matter of fair play. He also said the keyboard idea was brought up once but the producers thought it would confuse too many contestants so that idea was scrapped. What I don’t like is the contestant the bids $1 more over and over. Saw this a few weeks ago, contestant 1 would bid, #2 went a dollar more. This happened in 5 of the 6 One Bid games, neither of those 2 made it up on stage. After not working for the 4th game in a row, Drew even pointed it out to that contestant that his strategy wasn’t working. He skipped it the next game by bidding just a $1 then went back to it for the final game. It was obvious the first bidder wasn’t happy, it looked like she made a rude comment to him, he just shrugged his shoulders.
At some point, I’d figure I wasn’t going to win anyways, and decide to screw with the guy by making a ridiculously high bid, like a trillion dollars.
No slight to you, but that page seems to be someone’s home made page made by copying various things he read on the internet. No cite at all, much less an official one.
This one matches your cite, but again, not official.
The order of the first four contestants called is NOT the same as the order they’re positioned. The first contestant called will usually fill the red position first, or the green position. Thus, the order called can be left to right or right to left; on some occasions the contestants get mixed up as to which podium they use. However, as soon as the host enters the stage, the contestants cannot change positions for the duration of the show, and whatever position they’re in during subsequent One Bids (unless they win their way up) is the one they keep.
Yep, the show isn’t exactly strong on contestants using strategy. The $1 bid randomly doesn’t really work as well as it does when you are the last bidder. I saw a lady a few weeks back that used $1 as the first bid. Twice. I hope she had someone with her to make sure she got home safely.
I wonder if there is a limit on how high you can go. Unless they can change the number size, it seems like $9,999 would be the limit.
During one of the last few years of Bob Barker’s tenure, there was an obnoxious contestant who thought he was being funny by bidding $420, $69, etc. Later on, he bid one million dollars. Bob was obviously annoyed with this contestant and did not try to convince him to change his bid. The million dollar bid stood, and the display in front of the contestant remained blank.
On a night time show a few weeks ago, they had a car for the One Bid prize. They had no problem with the 5 digit bids. The number boards now use a graphic display instead of a analog display like in the Bob Barker days. The still occasionally get the 5 digit bid on the daytime show. Drew always asks them if they are sure that is the bid they wanted.
He’s really good about that. People get excited and say $24 when they mean $2400.
I’d have liked to see that. How close was the winner? Was it a $1 bid?
They should have just tossed him, what a waste of time. People are there to have a good time, not put up with an asshole.
Was that the guy where the one time he decided not to bid $420 (which he had done every other time up to then), it would actually have won? Karma strikes again!
I’ve heard on Jeopardy they’ve banned certain amounts for bids for Final Jeopardy and Daily Double, including $420 and $69. I wonder if TPIR has put that in as well.
They incentivize attempting to get the exact price with a cash prize ($500 these days, I think?) Those who use the strategy are deliberately sacrificing that possibility, but the incentive is there.