No, he didn't cheat, he figured out the pattern. When that computer lit up the upper right corner, then went to the big bucks, that's when Michael would press it immediately! If he hesitated, he might had hit a whammy. He had to be quick like a jack rabbit, to constantly land on the big bucks space.
Man, that was sure insane for michael larson and very unusual. the 5,000 plus an extra spin is the best. man, if i would've hit that all the time. it's really great. Too bad the computer does its own random pattern. i mean if i had the control of the pattern that would have been perfect for me.
You forgot to say "To commemorate his death, Whammy, or the all new Press Your Luck, brought Larson's two original opponents to compete against Larson's son, who also won but not nearly by as big a margin."
"Here we go! seventy nine thousand three five one thirty three spins four thousand dollars; I don't believe it! four thousand dollars" Peter's look, priceless man... just priceless.
The reason he won all that money is because he was unemployed and he had nothing to do but study the patterns of the press your luck board. Genious though. He won alot of money but lost everything. Kinda sad.
You give a man everything when he's used to nothing and he'll lose it all. Happens all the time (look up lottery winners- they usually end up blowing their cash before they know they had it).
yeah I use to watch this show relentlessly when I was a kid, at that time I was about 9-13 years old and even I remember seeing a constant pattern developing on the gameboard after a while, CBS should have known that it wouldn't take long before someone figured out the pattern and could never lose barring a mental breakdown, hell even I would have done the same thing had I been old enough to get on the show at the time
@Thedudewiththepiano Right. He taped an episode and rewound it back and forth. That's how he learned the pattern, and was able to stop on what he wanted, when he wanted, minus that whammy.
Yeah, how is this cheating? I just watched this for a few minutes and I can already see a pattern. This guy was an avid watcher of the show. Guy won fair and square. Shame he didn't spend it properly
Uncle Paul is a character from the Opie and Anthony show and you would really need to listin to the show to understand. but they talked about this show on there show
No offense to those who kept posting "Uncle Paul" comments, but although I understand your heart towards "Uncle Paul," I am totally confused on who you guys are talking about, and I am tired of not hearing who this guy really is. Until I know for sure who "Uncle Paul" is, I cannot accept those kind of comments anymore because I don't want any confusion going on. Sorry for any inconvenience
I know CBS tried to sue him because they thought he was cheating. Believe it or not, it took him weeks to memorize the board and know the pattern of it. Very smart but sad what happened to him after the show.
I love how he cheered exactly as he stopped, not allowing his mind to register where exactly he was landing. As for the rest of his fate, looks like lady luck was never on Michael's side.
this guy found the pattern. That's how he was able to rack up so much dough. After this the programmer changed the pattern to make it look more random.
THE WHAMMYS WERE IN FIXED POSITIONS ON 3 DIFFERENT FLASHES I BELIEVE SO AS LONG AS YOU GET IN THAT UPPER RIGHT CORNER YOU CAN NEVER HIT WHAMMY AS LONG AS YOU TIME IT LIKE MICHAEL DID.
@WestVirginiaRebel Exactly they caught on after he won his loot. I believe after this they totally redesigned the board and made it so the selecting square was totally random.
@BoBtheparrot7 At the time, they couldn't make it truly random, so they added many more patterns after the Larson incident. Now on the other hand, Whammy (the new version) was completely random.
at least he was lucky enough to have the time of his life before everything went down hill. life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. rip.
I sought this out because Michael Larson was featured on This American Life on NPR. He apparently spent months watching the show and memorized the patterns. He taped the episodes so that he would have a record of every successful pattern that a contestant would "hit." Then he got himself on the show and the rest is history. What he did isn't really really cheating. He just figured out how to take advantage of a simple technology that was pretty easy to beat.
The additional comments added to the video does not take away from his superstar moment. You don't need a college education to be a superstar in life....we all are.
fyi his wife left him because he was blamming her for stealing the money. So she took the kids and left and told him to get the hell out of her house.
NPR re-ran the episode today of "This American Life" with the Larson story in it. It compelled me to see the video of PYL myself. Brrrr, radio story is even creepier after watching this.
He really was an intelegent guy to actually notice the algorithm that the wheel runs. Once he knew how it works its was easy to just to use his hand eye coordination skills to get the prizes he wanted.
By my count he won 100k+ in 47 spins by stopping on only 5/18 squares. Not counting the missing 22nd spin - by my nomenclature: he stopped on 4T - 24X, 3R - 16X, 3L - 3X (first a whammy), 2R -2, and 1R -1. Agree with poster but not host on (5:17 - 25X) and (5:27 - 31X),
He didn't cheat - he just did his homework!
I've read the theories about memorizing 5 patterns but all he needed was 4T and 3R. Nice talent for stopping on those!
This dude is my Hero! but i do have to say this..... No wonder he got throat Cancer he yelled STOP! 47 times and won 100,000 Dollars! sorry if this is a spoiler.
@Dancinmoonkin I don't think it's a spoiler, but I don't think you can get throat cancer by screaming so loud, at least that's what I've been told. I'm told you can get throat cancer from smoking, in addition to lung cancer. It looks like research may have to be conducted to see if screaming that loud can cause throat cancer
@italiandom7221991 Yeah but that would be boring! I'm so glad he went ape shit because its an amazing story. Its kingly. Its remarkable hence all the posts and videos. If he took his time what would happen? There would hardly be any publicity over it like he obviously wanted, and he'd earn a decent amount of money to use to what? keep up with the joneses? Buy a fuckin jet ski? Back Massager thing from Sharper Image? Take a trip to the Bahamas and fart in all the chairs? This guy WON.
The rest of his story is outrageously sad. He invested in a ponzi scheme and then had $40,000 in $1 bills stolen from his residence. Go read wiki - very, very sad.
this guy did know the patterns to stop on certain squares he wanted, they made a documentary for it, also its quite obvious 90% of his spins landed on the big money+spin and the small money+spin. It was not neccesarily cheating, they shouldn't have had the board make the same patterns if they didn't want it to get figured out.
@reileyb It wasn't that they couldn't prove he cheated, it was ruled that what he did wasn't cheating, since all he had done was watch the show and work out what was there for all to see.
I love how the crowd just gets eerily quiet as the amount got higher and higher. You could really feel the tension and a sense of panic that he was going to hit a whammy at any time and lose everything.
He earned the money if you ask me...he was clever enough to crack the code, and he deserved the money....CBS was lucky that he didn't press his luck to $1 million bucks. He could have kept going all day and night if he wanted to. Sorry to hear he passed away.
@2taxedout actually, at the time, CBS had a winning limit of $25,000 for all its game shows. The contestant would retire as a an undefeated champion. If anyone won more than that, they'd keep the $25K and either forfeited back to CBS or donate it to charity which, I believe, that's what Michael Larsen did. But in the subsequent years, the winning limit was raised ($50K, $75K, $1M) until it was completely done away with in 2006.
@Invincible0426 , they did notice this in the control room while the game was still running, largely because he kept stopping on the same winning squares. Also, he seemed to be thinking pretty hard during some of the spins. But they couldn't stop the show because he wasn't breaking any of the rules. In a "This American Life" program (NPR) called "Million Dollar Idea" they described Michael Larson and how he found his way into figuring this game show out.
you know what yes he did do something wrong he scammed press your luck out of thousands of dollars when he died you know what bad things happen to bad people plain and simple
5:30 Peter is speechless. I remember when this happened. For the longest time the producers would not allow these to be re-aired due to practically being duped. The guy was smart you have to give him that but after these aired PYL changed the layout of the pattern so this couldn't be repeated. Peters reactions are priceless. R.I.P Peter.
actually, there was no spin edited out. According to a producer, the scoreboard operator accidentally added $2,000 to his total when in fact he only hit $1,000
I've seen a special about this. His trigger square is the 2nd one from the top left. Once that square lit up he knew the patterns to the squares on the side or the Big Bucks.
@RockinMan09 I totally agree. The man did not cheat. He beat the system. He didn't "fix" the game. He mastered the patterns and he conquered. It's the same for counting cards. It's not cheating. It's knowing. The only thing you can do to someone like Michael or a card counter is not allow them to play. That's all. But they're not cheating.
I can just imagine the chaos going on behind the scenes with the executives scrambling to figure out what was happening. If everything is true about him, including all the personal issues he went through, there is a really compelling story here for a movie. I thought Quiz Show was a very good movie. I think this man's life story could be even better.
Cheated? The guy exploited the game that the producers put together. He was dedicated enough to put in the time and smart enough to figure it out, not to mention cool enough to keep his shit together for that long and not choke. The fact that he was involved in numerous other scams doesn't take away anything from what he did here.
@RedJoker9000 even if you found the pattern, the game knew that he knew the pattern and made the board "pseudorandom", meaning nobody knows where it will land and when!
@GHRockotron3000 No the game followed the same pattern over and over for example, if you hit the center left one you will land on the center right one and it will be a prize, if you hit the second to top and second to the bottom on the right side you will get a prize. Watch the video and see.
It must sucked to be one of the other contestants, not so much that they werent gonna win, but having to sit through all that with a Camera in their face
By my count he won 100k+ in 47 spins by stopping on only 5/18 squares. Not counting the missing 22nd spin - by my nomenclature: he stopped on 4T - 24X, 3R - 16X, 3L - 3X (first a whammy), 2R -2, and 1R -1. Agree with poster but not host on (5:17 - 25X) and (5:27 - 31X),
He didn't cheat - he just did his homework!
I've read the theories about memorizing 5 patterns but all he needed was 4T and 3R. Nice talent for stopping on those!
If you watch the board, the two squares he hit the most often never got whammies. The one at the top that was always $3000-$5000 + A SPIN and the one on the right that was always $300-$750 + A SPIN. That is how he got so much money.
It is really the responsibility of CBS that Press Your Luck cannot be defeated. I do not see anything wrong with what he did. There were only 5 patterns that the board followed. There were also "safe" spaces that did not contain a whammy. If you notice he always hit that 4th space on top that always contained money and an extra spin. He also would land on the 8th space which contained less money and a spin. He screwed up a couple of times but lucked out. No whammies.
This is what happens when you put all your points into LCK.
werebee 6 days ago
rip legend
jubwervouk 1 week ago
5:07 :D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NWO41508 1 week ago
@NWO41508 he knew he won before peter markin did!
x96halaris 1 day ago
No, he didn't cheat, he figured out the pattern. When that computer lit up the upper right corner, then went to the big bucks, that's when Michael would press it immediately! If he hesitated, he might had hit a whammy. He had to be quick like a jack rabbit, to constantly land on the big bucks space.
001GenLee 1 week ago
@001GenLee Float like a butterfly, press the button like a Michael.
werebee 6 days ago
I dont consider it cheating. it was just skill, he knew when to hit to avoid the whammy.
costmo69 1 week ago
Man, that was sure insane for michael larson and very unusual. the 5,000 plus an extra spin is the best. man, if i would've hit that all the time. it's really great. Too bad the computer does its own random pattern. i mean if i had the control of the pattern that would have been perfect for me.
tpark12 2 weeks ago
This american life brought me here :)
kevinluu2003 2 weeks ago
You forgot to say "To commemorate his death, Whammy, or the all new Press Your Luck, brought Larson's two original opponents to compete against Larson's son, who also won but not nearly by as big a margin."
somerandomguy365 2 weeks ago
"Here we go! seventy nine thousand three five one thirty three spins four thousand dollars; I don't believe it! four thousand dollars" Peter's look, priceless man... just priceless.
Clemdawg2k 2 weeks ago
The reason he won all that money is because he was unemployed and he had nothing to do but study the patterns of the press your luck board. Genious though. He won alot of money but lost everything. Kinda sad.
chapshooter16 2 weeks ago
@chapshooter16
You give a man everything when he's used to nothing and he'll lose it all. Happens all the time (look up lottery winners- they usually end up blowing their cash before they know they had it).
sciences8 2 weeks ago
How the hell does he do it?
AftershockXXI 2 weeks ago
icarly
sam
freddie
press your luck john cena 2012
nexusD1 3 weeks ago
fsadfdafaa
LickMikeHawk1 3 weeks ago
tss This guy keeps spinnin' and winnin' or somethin, i dunno
harborwolf22 1 month ago
Anyone notice how out-of-sync the board is by the end?
greenday61892 1 month ago
This episode should've been renamed "Press Your Talent". That was no luck here lol
RejectedSpiritX 1 month ago
He died in 1999 at age 49...he was 34 years old in 1984 when this was filmed. When I first saw this, I thought he was in his 50's during this taping.
mikefly562 1 month ago
@mikefly562 Don't believe everything you read on Wikipedia.
ejflor1313 1 month ago
hssss..hssss....STOP!! hss....hss...
Thedudewiththepiano 1 month ago
Brought here by cracked and damn this dude got lucky XD
RogueCrockett 1 month ago
yeah I use to watch this show relentlessly when I was a kid, at that time I was about 9-13 years old and even I remember seeing a constant pattern developing on the gameboard after a while, CBS should have known that it wouldn't take long before someone figured out the pattern and could never lose barring a mental breakdown, hell even I would have done the same thing had I been old enough to get on the show at the time
crackalacs 1 month ago
it isn't cheating, it is the show's fault for not making it random.
rebecca201021 1 month ago
@rebecca201021
Agreed, he figured out how to win and used this to his advantage.
He wasn't cheating.
Thedudewiththepiano 1 month ago
@Thedudewiththepiano Right. He taped an episode and rewound it back and forth. That's how he learned the pattern, and was able to stop on what he wanted, when he wanted, minus that whammy.
RejectedSpiritX 1 month ago
Yeah, how is this cheating? I just watched this for a few minutes and I can already see a pattern. This guy was an avid watcher of the show. Guy won fair and square. Shame he didn't spend it properly
Inderption 1 month ago
at the end of the show the producers killed him to not go bank rupt.
MMAbadassbrett 1 month ago
Rest in Peace, Michael Larson.
RejectedSpiritX 1 month ago
I know he is a creepy old man, but he beat the game, and i'm proud of him
sorryboss101 1 month ago
LIKE A BOSS
JustSayNo420 1 month ago
STOP!
EddietehFace 1 month ago
You put 35 (which I just read is correct) and Peter said 31. Even Peter was wrong, LOL.
xHEDGEHOGMAN1x 1 month ago
Wow, he said 31 and I just read that your Spin count was correct, LOL.
xHEDGEHOGMAN1x 1 month ago
this guy was 34 when this was made in 84, that's a hard ass 34!!
therealfranknitty26 2 months ago
Uncle Paul is a character from the Opie and Anthony show and you would really need to listin to the show to understand. but they talked about this show on there show
jpreziose 2 months ago
@jpreziose I had never heard of that show until now, but I get the picture of it now. Thanks for clearing that up
mtiller2006 2 months ago
No offense to those who kept posting "Uncle Paul" comments, but although I understand your heart towards "Uncle Paul," I am totally confused on who you guys are talking about, and I am tired of not hearing who this guy really is. Until I know for sure who "Uncle Paul" is, I cannot accept those kind of comments anymore because I don't want any confusion going on. Sorry for any inconvenience
mtiller2006 2 months ago
@mtiller2006 just google/images it and im sure ull figure it out
RoyMunsoned 1 month ago
@RoyMunsoned I got it figured out prior to the comment you posted, so it's all right now
mtiller2006 1 month ago
4:15 hahahaha
pursegrabbinpukes 2 months ago
STOP yelling stop!
CVargas 2 months ago
I know CBS tried to sue him because they thought he was cheating. Believe it or not, it took him weeks to memorize the board and know the pattern of it. Very smart but sad what happened to him after the show.
natedogg827 2 months ago
Funny the ending so funny and weird.
RyeBai 2 months ago
I love how he cheered exactly as he stopped, not allowing his mind to register where exactly he was landing. As for the rest of his fate, looks like lady luck was never on Michael's side.
ShadowMantis9 2 months ago
It was easy, he just bought the patterns from Ted Shecklers pattern emporium.
davenow 2 months ago
All he did was figure out the pattern. Press your luck only had 6 different game boards back then. That was on them, why was CBS hating on him?
Shaytheray 2 months ago
RAAAAAAAAMOONNN get this fuck off the stage he is fucking us!
mranostay 2 months ago
he reacted way to quickly. no wonder he got caught
TheWiiPlayr 2 months ago
How in the hell is he 34 years old here?
LtStarkiller 2 months ago
tsss
eastbaybochat 2 months ago
110,237.00 which is how much Mike Larson won in 1984 is worth $240,727.26 in 2011... So buy some silver everybody ;)
HillcrestCapital 2 months ago
this guy found the pattern. That's how he was able to rack up so much dough. After this the programmer changed the pattern to make it look more random.
Penfold8 2 months ago
@red lol
Chipchippah 2 months ago
fuck, I wanted to think this guy just cleaned them out and ran off and had a great life but his life was horrendous after that :/
biz20 2 months ago
tss tss he had a lot more money at the end than he did at the beginning, maybe he's like a bank or somethin'.
pyrokid08 2 months ago
if you found this cus of o & a thumbs up
NealMegaChan 2 months ago
He was only 35 in this video? Really? He looks 55
jediclone 2 months ago
tss more like wins of terror or sumpthin i donno
mikeshaw1055 2 months ago 8
At least he had his moment.
max725power 2 months ago
@TheCooterpuppet he used to babysit me, changed my diapers
caltrof 2 months ago 3
This guy rules.
liquidalloy 2 months ago
Sad story to his aftermath of losing his money and then being on the run with cancer.
10zamoro 2 months ago
I remember watching the scandal special on GSN. This guy was ca-rayyy-zy
Kari2025 3 months ago
Producers: Oh shit. :(
BrubandJfowl 3 months ago
stumbled upon this
eaglesman310 3 months ago
"STOP!" *raises hands before it even shows what prize it is*
glenaladar 4 months ago 2
It surprises me that he was only 35 here, he looks about 55.
parlet 4 months ago 4
@parlet
I think people were less concerned about themselves back then.
Shaheeda4ever 6 days ago
Lucky Ed Long and Janie Litras got front row seats to this awesomeness!
ijuakos 4 months ago 2
@ijuakos and a ticket to the reunion on todd newton's version in which they lost to michael's brother
TheFremantleMedia 3 months ago
Sweet!!
hostillicus 4 months ago
THE WHAMMYS WERE IN FIXED POSITIONS ON 3 DIFFERENT FLASHES I BELIEVE SO AS LONG AS YOU GET IN THAT UPPER RIGHT CORNER YOU CAN NEVER HIT WHAMMY AS LONG AS YOU TIME IT LIKE MICHAEL DID.
BoBtheparrot7 4 months ago
@BoBtheparrot7 You couldn't do that in the new Press Your Luck as the board was computerized, but yeah he did figure out how to "Beat" the game.
WestVirginiaRebel 4 months ago
@WestVirginiaRebel Exactly they caught on after he won his loot. I believe after this they totally redesigned the board and made it so the selecting square was totally random.
BoBtheparrot7 4 months ago
@BoBtheparrot7 At the time, they couldn't make it truly random, so they added many more patterns after the Larson incident. Now on the other hand, Whammy (the new version) was completely random.
tbeals46 3 months ago
Comment removed
johnnycajxrt 4 months ago
Welcome, 6 of Janie's relatives.
LaBriolaMe 4 months ago
Beating the system at its absolute finest.
WhoFan2020 5 months ago 8
@WhoFan2020 how do you cheat at Press Your Luck..?
AftershockXXI 2 weeks ago
at least he was lucky enough to have the time of his life before everything went down hill. life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. rip.
drinny26 5 months ago
he nwver saw 2000
flipboys101 5 months ago
Was this a hatchet job?
SaleGuy 5 months ago
RIP
CrownFLA239 5 months ago
Heard on this American Life. Say what you will, he deserved it after all of those months.
ProffesorQuigs 5 months ago
I sought this out because Michael Larson was featured on This American Life on NPR. He apparently spent months watching the show and memorized the patterns. He taped the episodes so that he would have a record of every successful pattern that a contestant would "hit." Then he got himself on the show and the rest is history. What he did isn't really really cheating. He just figured out how to take advantage of a simple technology that was pretty easy to beat.
muddstrosity 5 months ago
hahahahahahahahahahaha man im fuckin hiiiigh an this dudes fuckin made my day. STOOOP. ahahaha man you lucky bastard, hahaha
isellmarijuana 5 months ago
Also heard it on This Americal Life. This is nuts.
somorejuicy 5 months ago
Heard it on This American Life. This dude is badass.
chrismasonyerblooz 5 months ago
Brought here by This American Life Podcast, i had to see this for myself
Hededo 5 months ago 18
@Hededo Me too! My father-in-law mentioned some guy having beat the system, but when I saw it on that podcast, my next stop was Youtube.
gregturnquist 5 months ago
The additional comments added to the video does not take away from his superstar moment. You don't need a college education to be a superstar in life....we all are.
evacheri100 5 months ago
fyi his wife left him because he was blamming her for stealing the money. So she took the kids and left and told him to get the hell out of her house.
biggwheel1983 5 months ago
It's easy to win on a Game Show if you have broken it down to a science.
Jiltedin2007 5 months ago
NPR re-ran the episode today of "This American Life" with the Larson story in it. It compelled me to see the video of PYL myself. Brrrr, radio story is even creepier after watching this.
YellowSarong 5 months ago
He is an icon of modern capitalism.
Miketar2424 5 months ago 2
@Miketar2424 no hes not at all, all he did was find a way to scam a quick buck of a dumb gameshow
ZimmermannWill 5 months ago
He really was an intelegent guy to actually notice the algorithm that the wheel runs. Once he knew how it works its was easy to just to use his hand eye coordination skills to get the prizes he wanted.
patd326 5 months ago 2
With all those spins he accumulated , he should have asked for his own show. Get it "spin off"? But seriously...
feck2112 6 months ago 2
STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ipodnano4334 6 months ago
By my count he won 100k+ in 47 spins by stopping on only 5/18 squares. Not counting the missing 22nd spin - by my nomenclature: he stopped on 4T - 24X, 3R - 16X, 3L - 3X (first a whammy), 2R -2, and 1R -1. Agree with poster but not host on (5:17 - 25X) and (5:27 - 31X),
He didn't cheat - he just did his homework!
I've read the theories about memorizing 5 patterns but all he needed was 4T and 3R. Nice talent for stopping on those!
Sorry for the sad ending though.
Arthur badly for Armstrongs.
BJ29035 6 months ago
This dude is my Hero! but i do have to say this..... No wonder he got throat Cancer he yelled STOP! 47 times and won 100,000 Dollars! sorry if this is a spoiler.
Dancinmoonkin 6 months ago 9
@Dancinmoonkin I don't think it's a spoiler, but I don't think you can get throat cancer by screaming so loud, at least that's what I've been told. I'm told you can get throat cancer from smoking, in addition to lung cancer. It looks like research may have to be conducted to see if screaming that loud can cause throat cancer
mtiller2006 6 months ago
@mtiller2006 That was God showing his power... STOP!
LeonSK96 4 months ago
@mtiller2006 I'm pretty sure he was joking:L
UndeniableOctopus 4 months ago
@mtiller2006 Oh literal Jim.
HillcrestCapital 2 months ago
After his 4th spin, He didn't yell "Stop."
indianamerican10 6 months ago 2
@italiandom7221991 Yeah but that would be boring! I'm so glad he went ape shit because its an amazing story. Its kingly. Its remarkable hence all the posts and videos. If he took his time what would happen? There would hardly be any publicity over it like he obviously wanted, and he'd earn a decent amount of money to use to what? keep up with the joneses? Buy a fuckin jet ski? Back Massager thing from Sharper Image? Take a trip to the Bahamas and fart in all the chairs? This guy WON.
greyshell77 6 months ago
Bring back PYL.
Angie2343 7 months ago 4
This guy takes press your luck to a whole new level..
mightyjoe911 7 months ago 2
That Michael Larson guy has got gut's to try to risk all of his money for more.
A07Nick 7 months ago
classic - saw it live.
The rest of his story is outrageously sad. He invested in a ponzi scheme and then had $40,000 in $1 bills stolen from his residence. Go read wiki - very, very sad.
myrtlebox 7 months ago 2
haha i WATCHED this when it was happening back then. they had to continue to the next day!
the drama was better than any daytime soap opera. i miss the old days of game shows on during the day. now we just have court rooms and dysfunction.
Merely 7 months ago
if i was the other contestants i would have been like, WHEN IS IT GONNA BE MY TURN?! 100hrs later... lol
jovm1019 8 months ago
@Norman7sev CBS tried to get the money back but he spent it up,
HEBisreal 8 months ago
this guy did know the patterns to stop on certain squares he wanted, they made a documentary for it, also its quite obvious 90% of his spins landed on the big money+spin and the small money+spin. It was not neccesarily cheating, they shouldn't have had the board make the same patterns if they didn't want it to get figured out.
reileyb 8 months ago
@reileyb It wasn't that they couldn't prove he cheated, it was ruled that what he did wasn't cheating, since all he had done was watch the show and work out what was there for all to see.
hyphz 7 months ago
@Norman7sev NOPE CBS DIDNT
HEBisreal 8 months ago
I love how the crowd just gets eerily quiet as the amount got higher and higher. You could really feel the tension and a sense of panic that he was going to hit a whammy at any time and lose everything.
midnightsocietynyc 8 months ago
STOP!!!!!
atl1503 8 months ago
lol dam this guy was like 35 when this aired. only sparky anderson looked older at that age!
bacardibum 9 months ago
He earned the money if you ask me...he was clever enough to crack the code, and he deserved the money....CBS was lucky that he didn't press his luck to $1 million bucks. He could have kept going all day and night if he wanted to. Sorry to hear he passed away.
2taxedout 9 months ago
@2taxedout actually, at the time, CBS had a winning limit of $25,000 for all its game shows. The contestant would retire as a an undefeated champion. If anyone won more than that, they'd keep the $25K and either forfeited back to CBS or donate it to charity which, I believe, that's what Michael Larsen did. But in the subsequent years, the winning limit was raised ($50K, $75K, $1M) until it was completely done away with in 2006.
lakebay972 8 months ago
STOP!
SageTheAtheist 9 months ago
This guy is an idiot though... ended up blowing all his money on a bunch of Ponzi schemes and other various scams.
hornplayerchris 9 months ago
wow he was only 35 i thought he was around 60 years old
rorostar123 10 months ago
i wonder if he was trying to get that NY trip amongst all the other loot
disneydanny2 10 months ago
this guy died unfortunately running from the law in 1999.
But you have to admit that this man, no matter his mental psyche, had made the modern gameshow what it is today.
wiithepeople2 10 months ago 2
Learned knowledge of the board?
Wow- all I would have done had I been on that show is make sure you knew the questions to get the spins and avoid Whammy's ASAP.
chrisuncleahmad 10 months ago
who won the rwenmatxch that they had on Whammy between (I THINK) Michael'a brother was it? along w/ the other two players seen here
disneydanny2 11 months ago
At one point I thought I could hear some voices besides the audience cheering and Peter talking. Perhaps it was something from the booth.
bluebear1985 11 months ago
I LOST TRACK OF HOW MANY SPINS HE HAD OVER 24
port753 11 months ago
haha wtf the ending is so jacked up
WalrusSkateboarding 11 months ago
you would think after maybe 20 spins if that they would notice all of his stops were at only three spots
Invincible0426 11 months ago
@Invincible0426 , they did notice this in the control room while the game was still running, largely because he kept stopping on the same winning squares. Also, he seemed to be thinking pretty hard during some of the spins. But they couldn't stop the show because he wasn't breaking any of the rules. In a "This American Life" program (NPR) called "Million Dollar Idea" they described Michael Larson and how he found his way into figuring this game show out.
coffeenottea 9 months ago
Comment removed
coffeenottea 9 months ago
you can tell he is cheating hes on auto clap mode he says stop and starts clapping right away
Invincible0426 11 months ago
you know what yes he did do something wrong he scammed press your luck out of thousands of dollars when he died you know what bad things happen to bad people plain and simple
perezynkrs1 11 months ago
5:30 Peter is speechless. I remember when this happened. For the longest time the producers would not allow these to be re-aired due to practically being duped. The guy was smart you have to give him that but after these aired PYL changed the layout of the pattern so this couldn't be repeated. Peters reactions are priceless. R.I.P Peter.
MrVosslerAzelas 11 months ago
actually, there was no spin edited out. According to a producer, the scoreboard operator accidentally added $2,000 to his total when in fact he only hit $1,000
blozier2006 11 months ago
I've seen a special about this. His trigger square is the 2nd one from the top left. Once that square lit up he knew the patterns to the squares on the side or the Big Bucks.
vuftbl1 11 months ago
wait so he lost all his money to real estate
kxlover26 11 months ago
This man watched the shit out of this show
TheMacroRevolution 11 months ago
@RockinMan09 I totally agree. The man did not cheat. He beat the system. He didn't "fix" the game. He mastered the patterns and he conquered. It's the same for counting cards. It's not cheating. It's knowing. The only thing you can do to someone like Michael or a card counter is not allow them to play. That's all. But they're not cheating.
40Midlander 11 months ago
I can just imagine the chaos going on behind the scenes with the executives scrambling to figure out what was happening. If everything is true about him, including all the personal issues he went through, there is a really compelling story here for a movie. I thought Quiz Show was a very good movie. I think this man's life story could be even better.
40Midlander 11 months ago
pro
lifeiswonderful22 1 year ago
Cheated? The guy exploited the game that the producers put together. He was dedicated enough to put in the time and smart enough to figure it out, not to mention cool enough to keep his shit together for that long and not choke. The fact that he was involved in numerous other scams doesn't take away anything from what he did here.
tonyleva35 1 year ago
maybe spin 22 was a whammy and they lied about michael winning that much.
GHRockotron3000 1 year ago
He stops it at the same damn spot. No wonder he cheated.
TheSletourneau 1 year ago
i watched this twice and found out the pattern to the winning. if you want me to tell you reply to this.
RedJoker9000 1 year ago
@RedJoker9000 even if you found the pattern, the game knew that he knew the pattern and made the board "pseudorandom", meaning nobody knows where it will land and when!
GHRockotron3000 1 year ago
@GHRockotron3000 No the game followed the same pattern over and over for example, if you hit the center left one you will land on the center right one and it will be a prize, if you hit the second to top and second to the bottom on the right side you will get a prize. Watch the video and see.
RedJoker9000 1 year ago
the credit music was surprisingly upbeat...
dragonmaster951753 1 year ago
This episode had to last longer than the 30-min time slot LOL
LadyTyger51ne 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
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tiblon1 1 year ago
It must sucked to be one of the other contestants, not so much that they werent gonna win, but having to sit through all that with a Camera in their face
Papawill13 1 year ago
After watching this entire video and then seeing the end, I realized that this video sums up one word: LIFE.
larrysg1 1 year ago
What was #22 worth anyway?
duperhero2 1 year ago
@duperhero2 i guess a $1000 and a spin
David9788 1 year ago
amazing how he memorized like 5 patterns...
metalsnake27 1 year ago
Very good editing.
FRANK172 1 year ago
Just think, if he had won that money in today's world he could get a Starbucks coffee.
Hallinilla9 1 year ago
What really gets me is that I looked up this guy, and saw that he was born in 1949.... making him 35 at the time of this taping.
But he looks like my freaking GRANDPA!!! lol
rworthington4697 1 year ago 25
@rworthington4697 well he did spend his life on his couch in front of a tv watching episodes of press your luck
LolaliciousSmiley 1 year ago
@rworthington4697 You gotta figure this guy was a big time tweeker. An unemployed ice-cream truck driver figured the pattern out? Tweeker! LOL
666reasons2killU 1 year ago
@rworthington4697 I know, that is completely insane... I would even say he looks older than 55
WarEagle0Z0 10 months ago
@rworthington4697 yeah
kingofchaosful 7 months ago
@rworthington4697 That's what cancer and…yeah, just that…does to a person. =0
DarkMario1000 7 months ago
@DarkMario1000 Dude....he wasn't diagnosed with cancer until 15 years later.
rworthington4697 7 months ago
@rworthington4697 Lol, yeah…forgetful memory, there. Oh, and it was 10 years. =P
DarkMario1000 7 months ago
smart guy for figuring this out
corey3139 1 year ago
RIP Peter...
DBR00 1 year ago
omg THAT was AWESOME AND THEN ALL THOSE DETAILS
THEdestroyedONE 1 year ago
STOP. WOOOOOOOOO! STOP. WOOOOOOOOO! STOP. WOOOOOOOOOOO!
cris7793 1 year ago
You knew something had to be up when he would start clapping and going wooo before he even knew what he hit xD
furydeath 1 year ago
By my count he won 100k+ in 47 spins by stopping on only 5/18 squares. Not counting the missing 22nd spin - by my nomenclature: he stopped on 4T - 24X, 3R - 16X, 3L - 3X (first a whammy), 2R -2, and 1R -1. Agree with poster but not host on (5:17 - 25X) and (5:27 - 31X),
He didn't cheat - he just did his homework!
I've read the theories about memorizing 5 patterns but all he needed was 4T and 3R. Nice talent for stopping on those!
Sorry for the sad ending though.
rabbit605 1 year ago 8
If you watch the board, the two squares he hit the most often never got whammies. The one at the top that was always $3000-$5000 + A SPIN and the one on the right that was always $300-$750 + A SPIN. That is how he got so much money.
adhfan75 1 year ago
It is really the responsibility of CBS that Press Your Luck cannot be defeated. I do not see anything wrong with what he did. There were only 5 patterns that the board followed. There were also "safe" spaces that did not contain a whammy. If you notice he always hit that 4th space on top that always contained money and an extra spin. He also would land on the 8th space which contained less money and a spin. He screwed up a couple of times but lucked out. No whammies.
lpr5269 1 year ago
A genius!
ChromeOC 1 year ago