“Take the deal! Take the deal!” 30 highly stressed student spectators shouted in the Wicomico Room late Saturday night.
After almost two hours of game play, final contestants seniors Hannah Wiltshire and Justin Onwuegbu, and junior Destiny Herring huddled together as they debated whether or not to take their offer of $150 or to keep playing for the chance to make $200. After all, they were running the risk of having chosen the case with only $25 in it.
This past Saturday, March 9, SOAP held their version of "Deal or No Deal," dubbed "Cash Attack," in the Wicomico Room of the GSU at 8 p.m. Much like on "Deal or No Deal," contestants were selected from the crowd to come up on stage and pick the case they believed held the top prize of $250.
From there, the teams had to blindly select other cases to open that they believed didn’t hold the $250, and the more likely it seemed that they had selected the case with $250, the higher the dealer’s offer got to “buy” their case off of them. The only catch was, if one of the cases the teams blindly selected held one of the 3-letter “X”s, they had to forfeit their turn and leave empty-handed.
Throughout the night, there were plenty of disappointments and some pretty impressive deals. By accepting the dealer's offer, some teams managed to make a just few extra bucks, while others made almost $20 less. It was a game of chance, but with the prize being real cash, the students were more than willing to risk it.
As the night closed, there had yet to be a winning team to walk away with an amount in the triple digits.
“Come on guys, I really want to give away some real cash here,” dealer Derrick Knopsnyder said, looking eager to keep the game up.
The final round lasted almost 40 minutes as the two original teams both drew an "X." Then Wiltshire, Herring and Onwuegbu took their turn. They played the game well, always selecting the cases with the lowest amounts, and by the time there were two cases left, it was apparent that they were either about to walk away as the big winners of the night, or be the greatest letdown story of the evening.
“We were a little stressed, but we came in with an ‘all or nothing’ attitude, we didn’t expect anything,” Wiltshire said.
“I’d like to think of myself as kind of a team captain,” Onwuegbu said, smiling. “I was all ready to just keep pushing through, but then I lost my confidence. I would have laughed so hard if we walked away with only $25 between the three of us.”
“I was thinking I’d rather not go below $100,” Herring added.
After quite a few minutes of deliberation, the three ultimately decided to take the deal. For good measure, Knopsynder opened the remaining case to reveal the $200, proving the trio had held the case containing only $25 all along. They turned a $125 profit, making them the richest group in the crowd.
When asked what they were going to each do with their respective $50, each had their own answer.
“I’m going to Chipotle,” Wiltshire said, beaming.
Herring, on the other hand, noted that she is saving her winnings for future travel.
“And I’m going to spend it at my favorite stores,” Onwuegbu added contently.
By GILLIAN VAN DITTA
Staff writer
Featured photo: Gillian Van Ditta image.