Awake: The Million Dollar Game
It works like this:
Immediately before the on stage portion of the competition begins, the pool of 7 contestants spends 24 straight hours counting the quarters that they scoop from a container with $1,000,000 worth in the center of the room. They each keep their own secret count, but they all work in the same room which is equipped with a table, chair, and a wheeled cart for each player in a circle around the money pit. When the time is up, they secretly report their count to the producers as their cart of coins it taken away for verification. They then all are lead to the stage at the same time.
It is imperative that they put as many quarters as they can in their cart during the first phase, and keep an accurate count of their total, as the first two players are eliminated shortly after introductions. The first to go are the one with the least amount counted, and the one who is the least accurate. They get nothing.
With five players left on stage, a series of elimination "Minute to Win it" style challenges that require quick reaction time, hand-eye coordination, and/or fine motor skills are conducted with players performing the task out of sight of the others. At the conclusion of each elimination round, the winner of the challenge gets a pass to the next level, while the remaining players are offered a "buyout" to take a cash prize, or risk being identified as the worst performer and getting eliminated with no prize while the others move on. If no one takes the buyout, the worst performer is eliminated, and the others move on to the next challenge.
The buy out offer starts at $2,500 when there are five players, then goes to $5,000 when there are four; $7,500 at three; and finally $10,000 when there are just two players remaining.
When all the others are eliminated or bought out, the remaining player has some decisions to make:
1) Take the quarters he/she counted in the past 24 hours (usually $25k-$35k).
OR
2) Risk it and win the total of all the quarters everyone counted (around $150k).
The problem is, your prediction of your count must be within $500 of your actual total, high or low. If they are outside of that range, they get nothing.
If the player chooses the risk it, they are only informed if their count qualifies. They aren't told their verified total, because if they are within the high/low range...
They must choose to:
1) Take the new total and quit.
OR
2) Risk it all for $1,000,000
If they risk it, their count must have been within $25 high/low of the verified total, or they lose it all.
This game show has a lot going for it. I find the exhausted players who get goofy really entertaining. Some of the challenges were threading a series of needles, or popping balloons filled with cash and coins and trying to catch them money before it hit the ground. All things that are difficult to do when sleep deprived. They are not given a lot of time to make decisions on the buyouts, and when you think about how much is at stake, it is almost cruel to send the losers home empty handed. Almost.
My question for you is, "What is the best strategy for counting the most quarters while keeping an accurate count over 24 hours?"
Quote: Ayecarumba"Awake: The Million Dollar Game Show" is on Netflix. I enjoy it, since it is part physical / mental / sleep deprivation endurance and bluffing. There's no, "tune in next week for the playoff round" to see if someone wins the 7 figure grand prize, it is resolved every episode.
It works like this:
Immediately before the on stage portion of the competition begins, the pool of 7 contestants spends 24 straight hours counting the quarters that they scoop from a container with $1,000,000 worth in the center of the room. They each keep their own secret count, but they all work in the same room which is equipped with a table, chair, and a wheeled cart for each player in a circle around the money pit. When the time is up, they secretly report their count to the producers as their cart of coins it taken away for verification. They then all are lead to the stage at the same time.
It is imperative that they put as many quarters as they can in their cart during the first phase, and keep an accurate count of their total, as the first two players are eliminated shortly after introductions. The first to go are the one with the least amount counted, and the one who is the least accurate. They get nothing.
With five players left on stage, a series of elimination "Minute to Win it" style challenges that require quick reaction time, hand-eye coordination, and/or fine motor skills are conducted with players performing the task out of sight of the others. At the conclusion of each elimination round, the winner of the challenge gets a pass to the next level, while the remaining players are offered a "buyout" to take a cash prize, or risk being identified as the worst performer and getting eliminated with no prize while the others move on. If no one takes the buyout, the worst performer is eliminated, and the others move on to the next challenge.
The buy out offer starts at $2,500 when there are five players, then goes to $5,000 when there are four; $7,500 at three; and finally $10,000 when there are just two players remaining.
When all the others are eliminated or bought out, the remaining player has some decisions to make:
1) Take the quarters he/she counted in the past 24 hours (usually $25k-$35k).
OR
2) Risk it and win the total of all the quarters everyone counted (around $150k).
The problem is, your prediction of your count must be within $500 of your actual total, high or low. If they are outside of that range, they get nothing.
If the player chooses the risk it, they are only informed if their count qualifies. They aren't told their verified total, because if they are within the high/low range...
They must choose to:
1) Take the new total and quit.
OR
2) Risk it all for $1,000,000
If they risk it, their count must have been within $25 high/low of the verified total, or they lose it all.
This game show has a lot going for it. I find the exhausted players who get goofy really entertaining. Some of the challenges were threading a series of needles, or popping balloons filled with cash and coins and trying to catch them money before it hit the ground. All things that are difficult to do when sleep deprived. They are not given a lot of time to make decisions on the buyouts, and when you think about how much is at stake, it is almost cruel to send the losers home empty handed. Almost.
My question for you is, "What is the best strategy for counting the most quarters while keeping an accurate count over 24 hours?"
I would figure out exactly how many quarters are in a standard roll BY TOUCH, pressing the bottom of a stack into the heel of my hand hard, same place each time, then to the exact point on my middle finger, as the roll lies in my hand. Press hard to create a sense-memory. After a few times (or even by teaching my hand the sense ahead of time), I would be very accurate in getting exactly 40. Then I just load my hand, dump, count by 10s (or 1s and multiply at the end).
Pretty easy and quick to take a handful of quarters and line them up in your hand vertically, then add a few to get to 40. Rinse and repeat.
Caveat: haven't watched the show, someone might have a better way. But you asked how I would do it.
Obviously, on a forum where we debate whether 2.4 million is a significant amount of money or whether it's unusual to have a quarter mil in your checking account, most of you'd be playing this game purely for recreational purposes, perhaps not even bothering to pick up the prize.
However, $150k is going to have a pretty big impact on the lives of most people. $1million is better, but I think the producers did a great job of picking a point where diminishing marginal utility really kicks in.
Like, if one of those women goes from $50k in student loan debt to no debt and making a beefy downpayment on a home overnight, that is a really big shift in her circumstances. If you add to that, a BMW and a bigger house and whatever, that's great, but the actual impact on her life is less significant the more money you add.
Quote: Ayecarumba"Awake: The Million Dollar Game Show" is on Netflix. I enjoy it, since it is part physical / mental / sleep deprivation endurance and bluffing. There's no, "tune in next week for the playoff round" to see if someone wins the 7 figure grand prize, it is resolved every episode.
It works like this:
Immediately before the on stage portion of the competition begins, the pool of 7 contestants spends 24 straight hours counting the quarters that they scoop from a container with $1,000,000 worth in the center of the room. They each keep their own secret count, but they all work in the same room which is equipped with a table, chair, and a wheeled cart for each player in a circle around the money pit. When the time is up, they secretly report their count to the producers as their cart of coins it taken away for verification. They then all are lead to the stage at the same time.
It is imperative that they put as many quarters as they can in their cart during the first phase, and keep an accurate count of their total, as the first two players are eliminated shortly after introductions. The first to go are the one with the least amount counted, and the one who is the least accurate. They get nothing.
With five players left on stage, a series of elimination "Minute to Win it" style challenges that require quick reaction time, hand-eye coordination, and/or fine motor skills are conducted with players performing the task out of sight of the others. At the conclusion of each elimination round, the winner of the challenge gets a pass to the next level, while the remaining players are offered a "buyout" to take a cash prize, or risk being identified as the worst performer and getting eliminated with no prize while the others move on. If no one takes the buyout, the worst performer is eliminated, and the others move on to the next challenge.
The buy out offer starts at $2,500 when there are five players, then goes to $5,000 when there are four; $7,500 at three; and finally $10,000 when there are just two players remaining.
When all the others are eliminated or bought out, the remaining player has some decisions to make:
1) Take the quarters he/she counted in the past 24 hours (usually $25k-$35k).
OR
2) Risk it and win the total of all the quarters everyone counted (around $150k).
The problem is, your prediction of your count must be within $500 of your actual total, high or low. If they are outside of that range, they get nothing.
If the player chooses the risk it, they are only informed if their count qualifies. They aren't told their verified total, because if they are within the high/low range...
They must choose to:
1) Take the new total and quit.
OR
2) Risk it all for $1,000,000
If they risk it, their count must have been within $25 high/low of the verified total, or they lose it all.
This game show has a lot going for it. I find the exhausted players who get goofy really entertaining. Some of the challenges were threading a series of needles, or popping balloons filled with cash and coins and trying to catch them money before it hit the ground. All things that are difficult to do when sleep deprived. They are not given a lot of time to make decisions on the buyouts, and when you think about how much is at stake, it is almost cruel to send the losers home empty handed. Almost.
My question for you is, "What is the best strategy for counting the most quarters while keeping an accurate count over 24 hours?"
Thanks for the info. I've saved it for watching on my days off next week.
ZCore13
Quote: RSSounds interesting. I guess it really depends on how the quarter counting goes. Can you pile up your count however you want or does it have to be in a single pile, effectively forcing you to keep a huge number in your head? If you could do separate piles, then you could obviously just do something like piles of 400 quarters and once you get 10 of those, combine them for $1k. Then at the end of the 24 hours, count up how many piles you have.
In the episodes I’ve watched so far, they can definitely make stacks on the desk, but I haven’t seen anyone try to use the floor as a workspace.
After adding 40 quarters to your bucket, place one marker on top right. Keep doing that until you get 10, and then place one on top left. And work your way around the board while having a perfect count. This allows you to accurately track and count every coin you dump in the bucket while reducing the number of counters you need. $38,320 would be 3 in bottom left, 8 in bottom right, and 3 in top left, and 2 in top right. Most of board is clear while you can instantly figure out how many quarters you have thrown in barrel. Stacks or 5, 8, or 10 could be easily replicated and compared without much trouble. Never need to remember big numbers.
