Never underestimate the stupidity of the general public

[David Healy]

So I was in a bar in a student area, playing Quizmaster (the game, not the person) and I got the next game bonus. I got a bit lucky and made it up to the £10 and my bonus was............same questions! Even more surprising was that the jackpot for the next game was £10 and it didn't even increase the number of questions in the final round, so that was nice. My question is just how much money must have gone through it to get it in that kind of mood? Reminded me of the bonus continue you used to get on Cluedo after solving the murder.

This was the same bar where I actually got hustled off the machine a few weeks ago. While I was playing, some bloke came up and started chatting. I tend to humour people like that with monosyllable replies hoping that they get the message and go away, but this guy was persistent. He told me he could get up to the 8th round of Million Pound Drop all on his own, the implication being that if we played together we would surely win. I had only just arrived and at that point didn't have any credit in the bank. He leaned over and put a pound in - we were now going "halfers" apparently. I thought, OK, we'll play £2 and then, like a good News of the World reporter, I'll make my excuses and leave. My only concern was that the game would be in easy mode and it would be difficult to get an answer wrong. I needn't have worried. During the first game, when still in 50:50 mode, he thought that Prince Smarmy was in Cinderella and Lord Lucan won the Grand National. I couldn't bring myself to get those wrong, but allowed him to get a fairly obvious motorway question wrong later on. He then went to the toilet after three games and I did consider if I could play the last 50p myself, win the jackpot and collect before he came back. However, I did the honorable thing and waited for him to come back. We played out the last game and I then left him to it. It only occurred to me afterwards that he had just hustled me to get the machine to himself; if so, he had played a blinder.

[Topical2009]

Nice work (possibly by both of you). There again, stupidity comes in many forms. I'd been playing Paragons for literally years, and regularly tutting at the insanely loud volume of some cabinets, until I found out you could turn them down from the screen. Quite the expert, me.

[QuizMaster]

I have made some basic errors of judgement which are laughable now in hindsight. Like playing Word Soup once.

[messiah]

QM - Love and hate are 2 sides of the same coin. When will you see the light?