As an avid viewer of The Price Is Right who has evaluated viable strategies for games and previously called out Drew Carey for one habit he has with contestants, I was excited to learn this informative tidbit, and am just as excited to pass it along. We now have a fan who has shared the ultimate strategy for maximizing earnings in Plinko, and it's an easy strategy to remember.
Comfortable_Tutor_43 on Reddit posted a video explaining the science of Plinko, and it's quite fascinating. By using a normal distribution generator, he demonstrates how several beads dropped down a Plinko board will respond if dropped directly down the middle each time. As the video plays, he explained what we see on screen:
Now it's not very likely that they're going to go to the right every time, and so you have very few all the way to the right, and the same with to the left. It's more likely that they'll just come all the way straight down and you get the bulk of the beads right in the middle.
He goes on to explain how this model is used to predict how sample sizes will turn out in surveys, but the headline here is that if you drop a plinko chip straight down the middle, you have the best odds of getting lots of money in The Price Is Right game. It isn't any more complex than that, so if you're ever on the show, send them straight down the middle!
I wonder if this is one of those trade secrets Drew Carey has known, considering he intends to host the show forever, or if the late Bob Barker knew about this. Given at how consistently these balls fall in the exact pattern described, I would imagine they had to pick up on it, but then again, Plinko is a game you could probably host whilst daydreaming about what the showcase that day will be. For those curious about the full story behind this device, check out the video below:
What is the science behind Plinko? from r/ThePriceIsRight
I'd love to say this encouraged me to challenge the theory, and I binged old episodes with my Paramount+ subscription to see if it held water, but truthfully, this is just a handy strategy for an already easy game. Out of all the games one can play on The Price Is Right, I would say Plinko is one of the easiest to win a good deal of money on, provided you can get enough chips to maximize your cash.
Now, if this guy could get to work on how to beat "That's Too Much" I would be thrilled! I don't think there's any denying The Price Is Right is one of the best game shows of all time, but there is a wild difficulty spike on a contestant's experience depending on the game they have to play depending on the showcase. It's not exactly fair all the time, but then again, the game show never claimed to be.
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Which is why I think it's entirely fair for fans to use any advantage they can get, including this Plinko strategy, to get an edge on the game show before they even get to step on stage. Not that I think Drew Carey is out to screw everyone out of money, and I've suspected he's often tried to help people win more often than not.
After all, The Price Is Right is at its best when people are winning, in my opinion. Sure, seeing someone fail tremendously at getting a correct answer will create a viral moment, but I ultimately live for seeing people get some extra money and occasionally a new car! That said, I've heard that most people end up not getting the car due to the rules requiring a tax to be paid before acquisition, so it does bum me out sometimes how excited people are when they win one.
If reading all this made you want to watch The Price Is Right, it's on CBS on weekdays at 11:00 a.m. ET. It will forever be a midday classic in my household, and those questioning why should give it a watch if they haven't in a while to see why.
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