For a game that consists of dropping chips down a pegboard, Plinko is sure resilient.
But don’t ask Drew Carey why.
“I have no idea,” says the “Price Is Right” host about the game’s popularity on the show. “It’s not a big-money game.”
Regardless, the game celebrates its 30th anniversary this year with a special all-Plinko episode next Friday at 10 a.m. (CBS).
If you’re somehow unaware, in Plinko, contestants are given one free chip and must guess the retail price of four display items to win extra chips, which they then can drop down the board.
Plink-Plinko-ing down, the chips land in various cash-prize slots. Simple as that.
Maybe it’s the big $50,000 payday that keeps the game going?
“Nobody ever wins it,” says Carey, noting most Plinko players cash out between $4,000 and $11,000. He recalls one poor soul who lost his bid for all four extra chips, only to drop his solitary free chip on a $0 slot. Ouch.
“You have to be super-lucky to win $50,000,” says Carey.
Maybe it’s this luck factor that has more contestants showing up in Plinko-themed shirts than ever, praying they’ll get a chance to drop a chip — let alone make the coveted “come on down” walk.
Despite its status as a game of chance, Plinko has some contestants approaching the board with a strategy. Carey also has one, if he ever scores a spot atop the Plinko board.
“I would drop the chip down the center every time,” says the host, though he admits that doesn’t make it easy. “Bowling would be easy if people could remember with muscle memory exactly how they shoot every time they get the strike, but no one can remember.”
For whatever reason you love Plinko, see the randomness ensue Sept. 27 on CBS.
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