Golden Balls

Synopsis

What stud poker would be a bit like if there was a giant lottery machine involved, and the Prisoner's Dilemma.

Four players are dealt out balls worth varying amounts of money (from a tenner to £75,000) and some "killer balls". Two of each player's balls are on show, the rest are known only to each player. The aim is to eliminate the players with the Killer Balls whilst keeping the big money in play, with a The Weakest Link style vote. Obviously players dealt weak balls have to fast talk their way into the next round. The final two players aim to build as big a pot as possible, and then inevitably go home with nothing because they're both very selfish.

In round one, 12 balls come from the big machine and 4 killers, and each player has four each, two on the front row, and two on the back. Then they open the front ones and after that they have a little discussion on which are on their back row, but they don't open them yet. Then we have the vote, with some stylish cards that are put on stands that can be turned round for Jasper's "The first/second/next/final vote is for..." If there's a tie between two players, the other players discuss which one to save. The player who is voted off then has to "bin" their balls (a.k.a. drop them down a chute). All the other player's balls go in to the massive roulette wheel thing, with two more balls from the ball machine and one more Killer, so we have 15 balls, 5 to each player, 2 on the front, 3 on the back. Repeat the last round.

The remaining two players bring their balls through to the money making round, along with another Killer ball, making 11 in play for "Bin or Win". Each person picks a ball to get rid of (Bin) and other to add to the jackpot (Win). If you pick up a killer to win, then your total is divided by 10, so if you have £10,000, your total drops to £1000.

After they make up their row of five winners, they are given two more balls each: Spilt and Shaft Steal. If both choose Spilt, they share the remaining cash. If one says Spilt and the other says Steal, the stealer gets all the cash. If they both say Steal, they both go home with nothing.

Trivia

In the unaired pilot, the top ball was worth £200,000, and there were £100,000 balls also.

Music

Marc Sylvan

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