B'ings: "Press Your Luck"

 

            Howdy, folks, welcome to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin, the blog of me, Tim Cubbin! So what we have here is a B’ing. What’s a B’ing to those of you who have never been here before, this is my own public complaint department where I share my personal opinion of mostly pointless things. I don’t expect you to agree with my opinions, you can either totally relate with it, or you might think I’m totally off base, your choice, I can’t control your mind, but I hope you can at least understand my point of view.

            Well, if you’re here, you’ve decided either to find out what a B’ing is or else want to see what I’m going to talk about “Press Your Luck.” This may be cryptic, so you must be informed I am talking about a television game show called “Press Your Luck.” I have a few points to elaborate about, so we’re going to start with the part of the game where you can earn spins on the Big Board to win cash and prizes. The host will ask questions and the contestants can try to come up with their own answer or a multiple choice answer. Now, the contestants can buzz in at any point in the question, and then the other two players can guess with either the buzzed in answer or one of two other answers of multiple choice. As I said, the contestant can buzz in at any point in the question, even if the question has not been fully read. This is foolish because the start of the question can sneakily seem to lead to the answer, but the question may be longer and trick the players into given the answer that ends up being part of the question and then you don’t earn spins. My point here is that it can be stupid to try to answer before the question is fully read which can actually give the full answer to the other players.

            Next we’ll talk about the Big Board. Now, as it comes to winning cash and prizes, you get to use your spins to try to win cash and prizes or to give your opponents spins at the big board. Here’s the thing, though. You only get to keep your cash and prizes if you have the most money in your bank at the end of round two. The other two players walk away with nothing. You also have to beware of the Whammy, who if you land on him will take away all your cash and prizes. If you hit four Whammys, you’re out of the game. Okay, this seems to be pointless, but there is a point. The players get so excited when they land on the Big Bucks or fabulous prizes. This is rather dumb because you have to have the most amount of money in your bank at the end of round two and not hit Whammys. So you land on the prize? That doesn’t mean it’s automatically yours because… I just said this, like, three times already. So you’re cheering because you landed on a prize which could just as easily be denied you because of the Whammy or the other players. It’s like buying a lottery ticket that you feel lucky that you will win, and then you don’t win and wonder “why did I even buy this ticket?” I know that seems a bit extreme, but essentially it’s the same thing. Not EXACTLY! But ESSENTIALLY. You could win, but you haven’t DEFINITELY won is my point. I hope my point is clear, because it’s my fault if it’s not and I feel bad. But if you’re with me, yay!

            And people also need to know when NOT to press your luck. For round one, if I were first to play on the Big Board, I would keep pressing my luck until I ran out of turns. After all, how can you build your bank without landing on the cash and prizes? If I played second, I’d use the same strategy. However, if I were third, and this is a HUGE advantage, I’d press my luck until I was in second place. You can pass your spins to the player in the lead. I’d build up to second place and then pass my spins. Why would I do this? It seems like I’m helping my competition. But I may actually not be doing that. I’d pass my spins and hope the lead player hits a Whammy and loses their money. Is this a guarantee? Obviously not, but you need to know when to press your luck and when not to. But, in round two, the player in the lead goes last, which, again, is an advantage so I’d really know when to press my luck. I’d build up my bank until I was in first place and pass the rest of my spins to the player in second place and hope they can’t get ahead of me. However, if I only had one or two spins left and am in second place and cannot possibly get the lead, I’d pass those last spins and hope my lead opponent lands on a Whammy, which would actually win me the game. It’s all about strategy. That’s how I’d play.

            The winner then goes on to the bonus round for a chance to win $1,000,000. If you can build your bank to $500,000, the game ends and you walk home a millionaire. You still have to beware of the Whammy. You get four Whammys, you walk home with your original winnings. The game goes after five rounds, which you can walk at the end of a round with your current winnings. You also get personal prizes that you can win. Each round adds more prizes and less spins, but you have to take ALL of those spins. Here’s where I B’ing. People get so excited to SEE their prizes get placed on the board, even though they haven’t WON that prize yet. I’d hold my excitement until I end the round with it. And some of the prizes actually benefit other people than me, such as trips to places they always wanted to visit or revisit and bring a certain amount of people to something truly meaningful to them or their people. Honestly, if I landed on the trip and finished a round with it, I’d be out of there. That would be more special than $1,000,000. There are also other special prizes depending on your profession. For example, say you’re a teacher or work at a school. Things like school supplies or other things special to your school might be a prize. If I finished a round with this prize, I’d walk. These prizes benefit the students. THINK OF THE CHILDREN! This ISN’T a prize for you! If you squander that prize, you are a TERRIBLE person. You’d deserve the Whammy, but the children wouldn’t. To some people, $1,000,000 is more important than these wonderful prizes. It shouldn’t be. Also, winning the million is difficult. It’s totally NOT impossible, but I’ve yet to see anyone walk away a millionaire. It’s statistically possible. But if you’re greedy for that and not your wonderful prizes, you deserve the Whammy, but not the others involved. These prizes aren’t for YOU, after all, or are the best vacation you will EVER get in your ENTIRE LIFE! Take it! It just makes me so angry. If I landed on a trip for myself and my five other family members who I’m super close with to Disney World for a whole week with all expenses paid, staying on site and full access to all four parks and had it at the end of a round… poof, I’m gone. That’s more important to me than $1,000,000. Would being a millionaire be great and help me with expenses in my life? Yes. But Disney World is a prize I most likely would never be able to afford, so THAT would be more important to me and my family. So again, you need to know when to walk, and when to press your luck.

            Wow have I gone on incessantly about a game show. If you’re still here at this point of my post, seriously, you are THE BEST! I totally love your support to my work and deeply thank you. So if you ever want to see me make more pointless points, keep coming back here, I totally have so much more to offer you. You’ll see short fiction, short nonfiction, poetry, essays, book reviews, editorials, and of course, more B’ings. If you’ve found this on Twitter, follow me, tell your friends about me, retweet, comment, and give me suggestions on what else you want to see here, I’ll totally try to accommodate you as soon as I can. And now, I bid you goodbye. Tim Cubbin… out!