What about Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Obviously there was the cheater, but there have been a few genuine winners, one of whom went on to become an "Egghead" (for those who don't know, a team of big winners on TV quiz shows considered to be the top at their game, so to speak, against a team of family or friends). Or don't you consider game & quiz shows to be the same thing? Just curious, btw. IMHO they're much the same but I can see that there is a bit of a difference. Skill over knowledge for the former. Whatever, a very interesting story. I'm not sure if I feel bad for him or not - I reckon he deserved the win, that was plain skill, but the rest of his life made him sound like a right jerk.
The man did the equivalent of card counting, which is not illegal. He understood the game, studied it and got a strategy to beat it. He won under the rules of the game.
Cards are relatively easy to predict once you know enough about the game. Casinos feature so many slot machines in their advertising because that’s what they want people to do, come in and dump thousands into a machine they completely control. You can’t do that with a card game, and they aren’t happy about it
@@andyn46 They'll get rid of them eventually. The slot machines are big. I'm surprised they haven't pushed pachinko here. They're far more dopamine producing than slots.
@@Krystalmyth I think card enthusiasts will always have a spot but I think high stakes professional card playing is coming to an end. The skill ceiling is too low. You do need tremendous skill to be great at cards, but you can learn that relatively easy compared to something like basketball
This man absolutely did not cheat. He simply played the game better than anyone else because he studied ahead of time. And it didn't even go perfect for him. He made mistakes, but just outplayed the game. Memorization is not cheating. Having a good memory, skill, and excellent timing is NOT cheating. Blame the lazy game designers. But, this man was brilliant and earned what he won.
I'm not even mad at this dude. That's completely CBS's fault for using the same board. It's to be expected that someone will eventually study it and exploit it to earn a fortune.
this ^^. If their master plan for some great new game show used the same exact logic for each game play, that's just begging for somebody to memorize the pattern and spank them. He didn't do anything illegal - they simply had astonishingly inadequate security in their game board design. If only they had made it like an Enigma, to introduce an extra amount of randomness, this would not have happened.
@@chouseification The execs probably never bothered to understand the actual implementation of the game by the programmers. Games go brr and they happy. Until this happens.
Yeah this was a mechanical board so it's only got so many variables due to the way it was designed and built and all electronics is doing is hitting the 'spin' button, it stopped on its own. "Press Your Luck" was a late 70s game show so no computers, no endless randomizers, it had a finite amount of combinations because it was a physical board. I work on trivia shows and we have built in tricks to track if we have a repeat or similar question now and we can just move it to another episode.(this happens LONG before it hits the stage, this is in no way 'rigging' or '50s Game Show Scandal'. I sit right beside Network game police and Game play lawyer and never meet a contestant, unless it's after their episode has been shot, a good player deserves a shout out from the crew.) None of this was happening in the 70s. Shows like "Press Your Luck" that had a mechanical board are open to a clever player. He did it. (and this is why you don't see a lot of 'hit it and stop it 'slot machine' shows or pull a Rain Man and memorize the price of everything and how randomly it shows up in a Showcase -- because the "Prize" coordinators are pretty much crying and drinking across the street half the time. (Be the "right" or "wrong" sound effects buzzer person. It can go South hard too, but not that often.)
@@alan5506 Afaik the simpliest implementation is to use pseudo-random numbers, which are still very hard to predict. It is unlikely that programmers messed this up.
@@mxdwnfrcemdia pretty ironic for a game called "Grand Theft Auto" when in online you cant save a sports/super car from the street and save it in ur garage
For real, Ed was a good sport wether he realized what Larson was doing or not, the hug is so wholesome, just two dudes, on is finally accomplishing his goal and the other is just happy to witness it 😂
I have developed a fool proof way to cheat on any test without ever getting caught. Most classes will give you the information or way of solving questions ahead of time. THIS INFORMATION IS PUBLIC. Seriously you can look it up. But where do you keep that information so you can use it on the test? You can hide it in the neurons in your brain. They won't be able to read your mind to see that you have that information. Problem is, you'll need to slowly put it in your brain over a matter a of a few weeks. If you can pull this off, you'll never be found out.
@@clukskin How is it unfair, anyone else could've done the same. If you put it in that much work than I think you deserve the money more than someone who gets it through just luck
Press Your Luck first aired in 1983. Back then, it was relatively expensive to hook up a computer with a randomizing program to control a game board. So the producers went with an electro-mechanical system that had a few pre-determined patterns. After Larson picked their pockets, they sprung for the randomizer.
@@Pyrotech56 So did most home computers from the late Seventies onwards. Sloppiness rather than lack of money is the only reason for the producers' lack of randomising.
He literally didn't cheat, he just religiously studied the show. That's something you should expect of anyone who wants to get on a show. This is the least con-y thing a conman could ever do.
Exactly like his scheme of making a fake company under a family member's name, hiring himself and then firing himself to collect unemployment pay is much more impressive if we're talking about scams. This gameshow trick is just knowing how to play the game
Honestly huge respect for this guy. Using "cheating" is using the word very loosely, and i think this was pure skill. He studied the tv for months, because of his dedication. RIP Michael Larson you legend
Yes and no. The spirit of the game does count, although legally it cannot be proven. The UK loses hundreds of £billions every year to legal loopholes - which are within the rules. Unfortunately those rules are set by those making the money.
He didn't cheat. Anyone watching the show would pick up on the fact that the patterns weren't as challenging as they appeared. Heck, I've picked up on the new version of the 80s show and found at least 1 pattern without a Whammy
To me it reminds me of when I got the game "Pop-up Pirate" as like an 11 or 12 year old or around there... It was a game where you had a plastic pirate and plastic barrel, you put the pirate into the barrel and then you stick plastic swords into slots in the barrel taking turns... Whoever puts the sword into the slot that triggers the pirate to pop out of the barrel loses (it's kinda like Russian roulette (which you can also slightly rig), but child-friendly)... I took the game to my room for like half an hour or so and discovered something... Turns out, the pirate would only pop out of the barrel if you put a sword into a slot that was just below one of his ears (I forget if it was the left or the right)... So I pretty quickly had figured out how to avoid losing and we never played Pop-up Pirate again xD
The funniest part is that the engineers that designed the system saw it coming and tried to warn the network but CBS didn't want to put anymore money towards the system and basically ignored em
"This was not luck, this was skill." That's fact and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. He didn't cheat he mastered the game. He was a winner, not a cheater. Suggesting otherwise is foolish. An interesting but flawed analysis this is.
@@Helperbot-2000 Well, helperbot 2000, I see you aced all your exams. How is that possible? I put the hours in, I studied, and I mastered the subject. Hmm...sounds fishy...cheater!
@@Helperbot-2000 I think both sides are right to an extent. On one hand, its not how youre supposed to play the game. But on the other hand, if youre not even going to bother to fix the loophole, you basically deserve it.
Seriously wtf? If I would've somehow watched this when I was 10 I would've figured it out. I was weirdly good at rythm games and hitting things on the write timing. DDR / Star matchup in mario bros was always 100% for me. now as an adult, its much harder!
If you go to a gas station long enough you'll start encountering those old people, the ones who stay at the counter while they scratch off lotto tickets despite forming a line, and you'll learn to dispise them by the 10 minute mark lol
They brought back the other 2 contestants for some special to have them learn the original pattern and see if they could beat larson's score. They both did. So as many others have stated, this wasnt cheating, it was just preparation.
Difference is that Larson probably could've gone much longer. Comparing someone with $110k at risk to people just trying to beat a score like a video game vs irl
What about the guy on Millionaire who didn't use any of his life lines until the million dollar question which he used to call his dad and he said "hi dad, I don't really need your help, just wanted to call and tell you that I just won a million dollars... C, final answer" now THAT is what a legend looks like
I’ve watched this video a good handful of times and Lardon’s pure joy in the freeze frame near the end makes me smile every time, that’s a man who put his mind to something and accomplished his goal pure joy on his face, also I find it hilarious that his brother James also won
Old people should be barred from buying/redeeming lottery tix during the morning rush, lunch break, and hometime rush. They've got all day to stand there and be indecisive about which one scratch ticket they want, don't do it while i'm trying to buy the energy drink I need to not hit the ditch on to way to work in the morning, eh.
@@j.peters1222 If my losing ticket contributed to some 90 year old winning $5mil, I should at least get to watch their family fight over it when it's all willed to the cats or a charity.
@@Y2KNW that's the beauty of that generation, they would literally burn the world down to upset their offspring and family. Nothing is worse than a Boomer.
If he didn’t break the rules, he didn’t cheat at shit. Dude would have been a multimillionaire if he had applied himself in different ways. While scam artists are often despicable for their actions, or scams, often their ingenuity is beyond compare. It’s sad really that we live in a society that can’t recognize that from an early age. I’m sure all the signs are probably pretty easy to spot in a child, and if given proper guidance, those children could be the best a brightest, or at the very least not live a life of criminal entanglements. Thanks for the video sir, still waiting on some more based in my home town of Cleveland Ohio.
He'd have had wanted to apply himself in other ways, no amount of outside pressure and guidance can put him on the proper path if he doesn't want to walk it.
Apparently he almost didn't get on the show. Imagine if he didn't and later saw someone else go on and crack the pattern "In May 1984, Larson used most of his savings to fly to Los Angeles to audition for Press Your Luck. Contestant supervisor Bobby Edwards was suspicious of Larson's motives when he interviewed Larson on May 19, and was unwilling to allow him on the show, but executive producer Bill Carruthers viewed Larson's claim to be a "small-town plebeian desperately in need of a chance to win some money", as a good sob story for the show, and overruled Edwards. Carruthers would later regret this move.[3]"
now that I think about it, whos to say that wasnt just literal prerendered video of an interactive game? it certainly seems doable if its just an actual mp4 file, just pause and play for a video of a moving square. no need for it guys lmao
There was a similar loophole in the UK version of Deal or No Deal. The random system they used to decide what box contained what value was not random. In reality it was picking one of a handful of sequences, and just offsetting the numbers. So, for example, the 1p would always be 3 boxes up from the 10p. So once 2 boxes had been opened, it was possible to work out exactly what was in all the other boxes, assuming you memorised the system. Therefore, assuming you missed the £250,000 in those two boxes, you could win the top prize every time. This came about because of people on forums who worked it out and discussed it. They fixed the loophole, and as far as we know, no contestant ever used it.
Michael wasn't cheating, he didn't break any rules of the game. The only thing he was guilty of was being smart and studying hard. If anything, this seems like an inspirational story of how hard work and studying can pay off.
They weren't right. He didn't do anything wrong. I mean, not saying he wasn't a creep like that woman said, but in terms of the game show, clean character as far as I'm concerned.
@@Rwnds7967 uh, he was a con man who conned a lot of money out of a lot of people. forget the show, what he did to other individuals is rotten, period. anyone who got a bad vibe from him were 100% right.
I should imagine the robbery with the 50k was a fraud too, probably realised he couldn't find the correct serial number he went on to claim 50k+ in insurance fraud.
That picture of Larson with his arms out and the other contestants laughing with their heads in their hands is beautiful. That should be a poster you can buy. Id frame it on my wall as motivational art. Anything is possible with determination.
Reminds me of that time that I won a 5k race. I studied how long the race was, how to run it, and how fast my opponents would be. I trained for many months to prepare, which my opponents didn’t do. For some reason they showed up and just tried to yolo it. Anyway, easy win.
Imagine being those executives and having the potential to air a legitimate showing of an episode so unique that it had to be a two parter, and then deciding "hey lets just never make our money back, my feelings got hurt and the only people who'd ever be mad at me would already know about it but despite that lets avoid showing what would basically be a game show superbowl"
Yeah, it kinda shows there may not be anything presented that actually offers enough of a challenge, dignity, etc in their path in life, and they chose a criminal side instead of an socially disruptive but innovative side.
This isn't cheating, it's an exploit. He didn't divert from the game's mechanics, he just used those built in mechanics to his advantage. Huge difference
I've always said that this is like saying studying for a test is cheating. He put in his homework and it paid off. He studied the game and won - no cheating there.
Simply no brakes on the Larson train…. Great line. This is why I love your channel and these episodes. My favorite is the Kill-Dozer story. Epic, man. Keep up the great work.
this is the sad nature of human behavior, everybody loves a winner.....until they win too much, theres no rhyme or reason to it, peoples emotions of cheering for the underdog quickly sift to treating them like a rat fink with no change in between. People are just odd that way
Well said. It's like the people who cheer on small businesses like mom 'n' pop shops, but as soon as those small businesses grow into corporate giants like Amazon and Walmart, all the cheering is replaced by bitching and complaining. Jealousy is a motivator in a lot of people.
@@shrekonion8307 the only people who noticed that at the time were the ones who were dreading paying the money they were contractually obligated to give, the fact they couldn't weasel out of it is proof that he wasn't cheesing the system if the system had a flaw to be begin with, its like someone in the comments mentioned about calling it cheating to study for a test instead of going into it blind.
@@AidenRKrone thank you :3 ive never gotten a comment reply that was actually a complement before ^_^ people always wanna argue the views of others, its nice to see someone be nice about it :3
@@Gojiro7 how could someone not notice a guy """"randomly"""" getting tens of thousands of dollars from a game show? no way could someone get that lucky and not be cheating in some way
His name was Michael Larson. This is like a Phoenix Wright character. The universe planned for him to be someone looking for easy money with Larson as part of his name.
It's not exactly cheating if you figured out a simple strategy that everyone could do if they tried. Games are all about strategies. Cheating would be hacking the board to let you win indefinitely.
Dudes, I saw this as part of a Game Show documentary about a decade ago. They opened it by showing Michael repeatedly winning for about 30 seconds. What a wild tale. What a wild man. It's a shame he died so young.
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yo do you have discord
nvm
hey nice video keep up the good work
@Wallnut57 YO
Always brings me joy to see a fellow Ohioan run a scam like this.
What about Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Obviously there was the cheater, but there have been a few genuine winners, one of whom went on to become an "Egghead" (for those who don't know, a team of big winners on TV quiz shows considered to be the top at their game, so to speak, against a team of family or friends). Or don't you consider game & quiz shows to be the same thing? Just curious, btw. IMHO they're much the same but I can see that there is a bit of a difference. Skill over knowledge for the former.
Whatever, a very interesting story. I'm not sure if I feel bad for him or not - I reckon he deserved the win, that was plain skill, but the rest of his life made him sound like a right jerk.
This wasn't cheating. This was ingenuity
I agree! This man was a genius. It's not Larson's fault he knew how to win. He got gud, learned the game and won fair and square.
Yeah idk why qxir or anybody at all would consider it cheating
@@UUdoubleU , probably just a little bit of clickbait
Agreed
The man did the equivalent of card counting, which is not illegal. He understood the game, studied it and got a strategy to beat it. He won under the rules of the game.
This is like the way casinos call card counting "cheating" It isn't cheating. It's being better at the game than the house.
Do that in Vegas and they'll throw you out lol
Cards are relatively easy to predict once you know enough about the game. Casinos feature so many slot machines in their advertising because that’s what they want people to do, come in and dump thousands into a machine they completely control. You can’t do that with a card game, and they aren’t happy about it
@@andyn46 They'll get rid of them eventually. The slot machines are big. I'm surprised they haven't pushed pachinko here. They're far more dopamine producing than slots.
@@Krystalmyth I think card enthusiasts will always have a spot but I think high stakes professional card playing is coming to an end. The skill ceiling is too low. You do need tremendous skill to be great at cards, but you can learn that relatively easy compared to something like basketball
@yossarian Officially. Vegas has a lot of strange people. You might bump into someone. Lol
This man absolutely did not cheat. He simply played the game better than anyone else because he studied ahead of time. And it didn't even go perfect for him. He made mistakes, but just outplayed the game. Memorization is not cheating. Having a good memory, skill, and excellent timing is NOT cheating. Blame the lazy game designers. But, this man was brilliant and earned what he won.
I'm not even mad at this dude. That's completely CBS's fault for using the same board. It's to be expected that someone will eventually study it and exploit it to earn a fortune.
this ^^.
If their master plan for some great new game show used the same exact logic for each game play, that's just begging for somebody to memorize the pattern and spank them. He didn't do anything illegal - they simply had astonishingly inadequate security in their game board design. If only they had made it like an Enigma, to introduce an extra amount of randomness, this would not have happened.
exactly. thats like wheel of fortune using the same phrases every episode
@@chouseification The execs probably never bothered to understand the actual implementation of the game by the programmers. Games go brr and they happy. Until this happens.
Yeah this was a mechanical board so it's only got so many variables due to the way it was designed and built and all electronics is doing is hitting the 'spin' button, it stopped on its own. "Press Your Luck" was a late 70s game show so no computers, no endless randomizers, it had a finite amount of combinations because it was a physical board. I work on trivia shows and we have built in tricks to track if we have a repeat or similar question now and we can just move it to another episode.(this happens LONG before it hits the stage, this is in no way 'rigging' or '50s Game Show Scandal'. I sit right beside Network game police and Game play lawyer and never meet a contestant, unless it's after their episode has been shot, a good player deserves a shout out from the crew.) None of this was happening in the 70s. Shows like "Press Your Luck" that had a mechanical board are open to a clever player. He did it. (and this is why you don't see a lot of 'hit it and stop it 'slot machine' shows or pull a Rain Man and memorize the price of everything and how randomly it shows up in a Showcase -- because the "Prize" coordinators are pretty much crying and drinking across the street half the time. (Be the "right" or "wrong" sound effects buzzer person. It can go South hard too, but not that often.)
@@alan5506 Afaik the simpliest implementation is to use pseudo-random numbers, which are still very hard to predict. It is unlikely that programmers messed this up.
All I took away from this, is that Larson saw a predictable pattern that could be easily exploited, and he abused it without breaking a single rule.
Not breaking the rules, just bending them 🙂
I wonder if I could do the same the GTA Online?
@@mxdwnfrcemdia pretty ironic for a game called "Grand Theft Auto" when in online you cant save a sports/super car from the street and save it in ur garage
@@Kart_18_Racer Not even bending. Not his problem other players never saw the in... 🤣
Maybe exploiting was a part of the game ¯-_(ツ)__¯
I love how Ed is so happy for him, and then in the reboot is super happy for his brother. What a guy.
Reminds me of that religious family that lives next door on the Simpsons lol
@@sunsetpark_fpvah yes what was his name... oh I know, Neb Flandors
@@kellymountainNick Flaggers was it?
It's Ned guys
@@jjjonas6490 nah its jerome flippers
He’s like that cool uncle that goes with you to the arcade and shows you how to win at the rigged games.
I don't have one of those
I'm the "Great Funkle" in my family 😁
How to actually pick something up qith those stupid paralyzed claw machines.
@@somedumbozzie1539 how the FUCK do you know my name
@@Xx_Tuberculosis_xX he doesn’t, it was a reference to Star Wars
I just feel sorry for Ed. He seems like a nice guy who was happy that Larson was winning. Hell, he hugs him to celebrate.
His love really shows. He doesn't let down the expectations and hopes people have of a pastor for sure.
budget infographics with incorrect info
@@XXXTentaclez Okay mumble rapper
@@cortex8239 mumble rappers suck
@@cortex8239 ruclips.net/video/uAjTZeZ87MQ/видео.html
I love how Ed is genuinely happy for Michael and how Qxir is just taking pleasure at Janie's downfall.
"Eat shit, b i t c h ."
For real, Ed was a good sport wether he realized what Larson was doing or not, the hug is so wholesome, just two dudes, on is finally accomplishing his goal and the other is just happy to witness it 😂
I mean this is like calling studying for test cheating
Agreed
you're supposed to guess on the test, cheater
It's the best form of cheating because it's almost impossible to get caught.
I have developed a fool proof way to cheat on any test without ever getting caught. Most classes will give you the information or way of solving questions ahead of time. THIS INFORMATION IS PUBLIC. Seriously you can look it up. But where do you keep that information so you can use it on the test? You can hide it in the neurons in your brain. They won't be able to read your mind to see that you have that information. Problem is, you'll need to slowly put it in your brain over a matter a of a few weeks. If you can pull this off, you'll never be found out.
@@tylerbarker2957 sounds like too much work
I wouldn't count that as cheating, just learning the pattern. Anyone could have done it if they were bothered enough.
it's an unfair advantage, or an exploit neither are accepted as not cheating
Agree with Cluskin
@@clukskin How is it unfair, anyone else could've done the same. If you put it in that much work than I think you deserve the money more than someone who gets it through just luck
@@reubenhaslip9312 the same way counting cards in poker is unfair
@@clukskin >counting cards in poker is unfair
Heh. No, it's not.
Not to mention he didnt break any rule.
Press Your Luck first aired in 1983. Back then, it was relatively expensive to hook up a computer with a randomizing program to control a game board. So the producers went with an electro-mechanical system that had a few pre-determined patterns. After Larson picked their pockets, they sprung for the randomizer.
Even the Atari 800XL "home computer" had a randomize function.
@@Pyrotech56 So did most home computers from the late Seventies onwards. Sloppiness rather than lack of money is the only reason for the producers' lack of randomising.
He literally didn't cheat, he just religiously studied the show. That's something you should expect of anyone who wants to get on a show. This is the least con-y thing a conman could ever do.
This was the Least cony thing this man did too 💀
@@juanrivera6207 cony
Exactly like his scheme of making a fake company under a family member's name, hiring himself and then firing himself to collect unemployment pay is much more impressive if we're talking about scams. This gameshow trick is just knowing how to play the game
Correction.
Practice is what anyone should certainly do if they intend to compete.
@@jimthompson8947isnt that what he did?
How is him being smart and "gaming"the system considered cheating.I really don't see him as cheating
Omg gaming the system LOL
Just do be a devil's advocate, he was cheating by misrepresenting himself and not playing the game like the two other people he was on with.
Same thing with counting cards. Should not be illegal 👍🏽
Yeah, those TV muthafukkaz just want to show some idiots winning crumbs, but they're not happy being outsmarted on air. Fcku the TV.
@@chioptnstdr3448 Counting cards is not illegal.
This isn't cheating. This is a smart guy taking advantage of a flaw in a game show.
My man didn’t deserve to be labeled a cheater.
CBS: It’s not possible!
Larson: Not probable.
Man it's been like 10 years since I've seen a Hitchhiker's reference. 10/10 comment.
No, it's necessary
@@jaykay4137 COME ON, TARS!
@@MisterSkaa I thought it was Pirates of the Caribbean.
@@jaykay4137 DAmn, you beat me to it... Take my like.
By definition, learning a game isn't cheating. He wasn't manipulating anything. He was memorizing.
This isn't really cheating; this is more like studying.
No fair their cheating by learning the rules!
Exactly this Is NOT cheating.
I call this simply beating the game
On that note he would probably have been a great mathematician had life gone differently.
@@LotteLing more like beating the crap out of it. He absolutely destroyed this game show.
Jesus christ what a man. He deserved every penny.
he scammed people. I dont think he deserved that money.
Glory to Arstotzka
@@salatistmull8860 weak
@@salatistmull8860 Looks like he only scammed greedy people, TV Execs, gamblers, and the Government.🤷♂️
Giga-Chad Shit.
.....Don't be salty.
@@salatistmull8860 dont ever use the word people to describe who he scammed
Honestly huge respect for this guy. Using "cheating" is using the word very loosely, and i think this was pure skill. He studied the tv for months, because of his dedication. RIP Michael Larson you legend
He didn't cheat... everything he did was within the rules
Yes and no. The spirit of the game does count, although legally it cannot be proven.
The UK loses hundreds of £billions every year to legal loopholes - which are within the rules. Unfortunately those rules are set by those making the money.
@@Spedley_2142 he didn't cheat he dis nothing to break any rules no his fault other players were too dumb and didn't see the pattern
@@KenMabie I agree in the same way that a big guy fighting a small guy won fair and square.
@@Spedley_2142 lol You Assume the big guy will always win and do it fairly.. Obviously You're NOT a fighter. XD,
@@Spedley_2142 Well... why wouldn't it be fair and square if both agreed to fight?
He died in 1999 at age 49 but somehow he played Press Your Luck in 1984 at age 60. That's more impressive than the game show win!
Sounds fishy, doesn't it?
I bet he and Epstein are having Mai-Tais on a private beach somewhere in Greece.
@@aldousorwell3807
Actually were “hanging” out in Tel Aviv
Tf
@@12yearssober yo how's John McAfee
@@Prodawg
He’s doing good. He sold out to the globalists like the rest of us.
I love that they had to pay him knowing full well he worked them over and even their lawyers and fine print couldn’t stop it 🤣
“He bought a cheap suit at the thrift store” absolute legend who didn’t cheat
He didn't cheat. Anyone watching the show would pick up on the fact that the patterns weren't as challenging as they appeared. Heck, I've picked up on the new version of the 80s show and found at least 1 pattern without a Whammy
Carry out his legacy.
To me it reminds me of when I got the game "Pop-up Pirate" as like an 11 or 12 year old or around there... It was a game where you had a plastic pirate and plastic barrel, you put the pirate into the barrel and then you stick plastic swords into slots in the barrel taking turns... Whoever puts the sword into the slot that triggers the pirate to pop out of the barrel loses (it's kinda like Russian roulette (which you can also slightly rig), but child-friendly)... I took the game to my room for like half an hour or so and discovered something... Turns out, the pirate would only pop out of the barrel if you put a sword into a slot that was just below one of his ears (I forget if it was the left or the right)... So I pretty quickly had figured out how to avoid losing and we never played Pop-up Pirate again xD
@@Yy-ig6fm Order 69; Directive 420
Bullshit
@@FaylunaRaRa Big brain
The funniest part is that the engineers that designed the system saw it coming and tried to warn the network but CBS didn't want to put anymore money towards the system and basically ignored em
He never died, he just won a spot on a game show in heaven.
.....after spending a couple of decades ageing in reverse.🤔.....
So he died then?
@@braysfinds7479 Allegedly.
"This was not luck, this was skill." That's fact and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. He didn't cheat he mastered the game. He was a winner, not a cheater. Suggesting otherwise is foolish. An interesting but flawed analysis this is.
Its as dumb as casinos saying card reading is cheating, or studying for a test is cheating
@@Helperbot-2000 Well, helperbot 2000, I see you aced all your exams. How is that possible?
I put the hours in, I studied, and I mastered the subject.
Hmm...sounds fishy...cheater!
@@Helperbot-2000 I think both sides are right to an extent. On one hand, its not how youre supposed to play the game. But on the other hand, if youre not even going to bother to fix the loophole, you basically deserve it.
@@LucyWest370 thats like saying counting cards isnt how youre supposed to play blackjack. what if you actually want to win?
@@bradhaines3142 well I dont know how to play blackjack, so i dont care
he isn't cheating, he just memorized a pattern, smart guy.
I mean, who is actually stupid enough to make a game show this freaking predictable?!
most people who make game shows probably
Easier to program
If you make the results predictable, you can progam the outcome that is best for TV and get the most viewership.
Seriously wtf? If I would've somehow watched this when I was 10 I would've figured it out. I was weirdly good at rythm games and hitting things on the write timing. DDR / Star matchup in mario bros was always 100% for me. now as an adult, its much harder!
i feel like they programmed it for people to get whammies more likely but because of Larson its pure RNG now
This guy was a legend. Until he left 50k in $1s in his house......
ye but then he made 3 mill
Then what was he when he made 3 million?
Dead shortly after.
@@kyledubs8293 He stole 3 million
@@names_dave he didnt make. He stole.
The rant on old people buying Lotto tickets was both entirely uncalled for and entirely hilarious
If you go to a gas station long enough you'll start encountering those old people, the ones who stay at the counter while they scratch off lotto tickets despite forming a line, and you'll learn to dispise them by the 10 minute mark lol
They brought back the other 2 contestants for some special to have them learn the original pattern and see if they could beat larson's score. They both did. So as many others have stated, this wasnt cheating, it was just preparation.
But I’m guessing they didn’t pay them out with all those winnings when invited back lol.
Difference is that Larson probably could've gone much longer. Comparing someone with $110k at risk to people just trying to beat a score like a video game vs irl
@@Armoire68 also, he probably knew that if he went on long enough he would have no chance of getting his money.
@@caelblanch2737 Or he's get tired and make a mistake, losing everything.
If anyone deserves “legend” status, it’s this guy
What about the guy on Millionaire who didn't use any of his life lines until the million dollar question which he used to call his dad and he said "hi dad, I don't really need your help, just wanted to call and tell you that I just won a million dollars... C, final answer" now THAT is what a legend looks like
I’ve watched this video a good handful of times and Lardon’s pure joy in the freeze frame near the end makes me smile every time, that’s a man who put his mind to something and accomplished his goal pure joy on his face, also I find it hilarious that his brother James also won
So, he wasn’t actually cheating, he was just smart.
Go Federalism!
@@mycelia_ow Boooooo
@@ponraul1221 yaaaay
@@Rakshasa1986 🙌
@@ponraul1221 I’ve seen mao and a patriot in the comments. I choose the patriot
Your rant on old people buying tickets really hit home. The amount of time they take from my morning commute is incredible.
Old people should be barred from buying/redeeming lottery tix during the morning rush, lunch break, and hometime rush.
They've got all day to stand there and be indecisive about which one scratch ticket they want, don't do it while i'm trying to buy the energy drink I need to not hit the ditch on to way to work in the morning, eh.
Even if they were to win it all. What the hell are they going to do with it? They going to buy themselves an extra 20 years of life?
@@j.peters1222 If my losing ticket contributed to some 90 year old winning $5mil, I should at least get to watch their family fight over it when it's all willed to the cats or a charity.
@@Y2KNW Make it a pay-per-view event lol
@@Y2KNW that's the beauty of that generation, they would literally burn the world down to upset their offspring and family. Nothing is worse than a Boomer.
7:26 you can hear a women yell out "blatant cheat"
If he didn’t break the rules, he didn’t cheat at shit.
Dude would have been a multimillionaire if he had applied himself in different ways. While scam artists are often despicable for their actions, or scams, often their ingenuity is beyond compare.
It’s sad really that we live in a society that can’t recognize that from an early age. I’m sure all the signs are probably pretty easy to spot in a child, and if given proper guidance, those children could be the best a brightest, or at the very least not live a life of criminal entanglements.
Thanks for the video sir, still waiting on some more based in my home town of Cleveland Ohio.
But did you know that the mitochondria is the pOwERhoUsE of the cell?
He'd have had wanted to apply himself in other ways, no amount of outside pressure and guidance can put him on the proper path if he doesn't want to walk it.
Amen
it's called autism and it's been mishandled for a long time yes
@@gameclips5734 didn't know people still believe that
I'm glad he got payed. It wasn't cheating at all.
It's just nice to see that the other guy is genuinely pleased for him with that high and the back slaps. Legend!
The female contestant hated him. said so herself in a doc years later
Imagine practicing this for 6 months and then the game show gets canceled.
Apparently he almost didn't get on the show. Imagine if he didn't and later saw someone else go on and crack the pattern
"In May 1984, Larson used most of his savings to fly to Los Angeles to audition for Press Your Luck. Contestant supervisor Bobby Edwards was suspicious of Larson's motives when he interviewed Larson on May 19, and was unwilling to allow him on the show, but executive producer Bill Carruthers viewed Larson's claim to be a "small-town plebeian desperately in need of a chance to win some money", as a good sob story for the show, and overruled Edwards. Carruthers would later regret this move.[3]"
As someone who loves finding patterns, this guy is a legend of mine, he did nothing wrong, he played the game as programmed by lazy developers.
now that I think about it, whos to say that wasnt just literal prerendered video of an interactive game? it certainly seems doable if its just an actual mp4 file, just pause and play for a video of a moving square. no need for it guys lmao
There was a similar loophole in the UK version of Deal or No Deal. The random system they used to decide what box contained what value was not random. In reality it was picking one of a handful of sequences, and just offsetting the numbers. So, for example, the 1p would always be 3 boxes up from the 10p. So once 2 boxes had been opened, it was possible to work out exactly what was in all the other boxes, assuming you memorised the system. Therefore, assuming you missed the £250,000 in those two boxes, you could win the top prize every time.
This came about because of people on forums who worked it out and discussed it. They fixed the loophole, and as far as we know, no contestant ever used it.
That was not cheating or illegal moves. That was pure dedication and planning.
Michael wasn't cheating, he didn't break any rules of the game. The only thing he was guilty of was being smart and studying hard. If anything, this seems like an inspirational story of how hard work and studying can pay off.
Well also fraud. He committed a lot of fraud. Can't really blame him though, pretty based.
@@masoncombs7799pretty based? Extremely. Based.
He actually didn't cheat. He was brilliant at figuring out and beating the game.
I feel bad for him, everyone disliked and distrusted him right off the bat, of course they were right, but still.
They weren't right. He didn't do anything wrong. I mean, not saying he wasn't a creep like that woman said, but in terms of the game show, clean character as far as I'm concerned.
He didn’t cheat. Just cheated the system
@@Rwnds7967 uh, he was a con man who conned a lot of money out of a lot of people. forget the show, what he did to other individuals is rotten, period. anyone who got a bad vibe from him were 100% right.
I mean, they probably just had a good gut- speaking as someone that is a good judge of character myself.
“Aaaaand he was never caught, GOD BLESS HIM.” This is a legendary quote.
You keep referring to this as a con or a chat.. this guy was a genius who put effort into learning how the show worked. He deserves all the winnings.
Qxir saying "Mom's spaghetti" in a monotone voice might be the best thing ever
I disliked your comment
i disliked your comment
I liked your comment
I should imagine the robbery with the 50k was a fraud too, probably realised he couldn't find the correct serial number he went on to claim 50k+ in insurance fraud.
Good Lord your probably right too
I doubt there’s any home insurance policies that would cover that. It’s not a normal amount of cash to keep around.
That picture of Larson with his arms out and the other contestants laughing with their heads in their hands is beautiful. That should be a poster you can buy. Id frame it on my wall as motivational art. Anything is possible with determination.
Reminds me of that time that I won a 5k race. I studied how long the race was, how to run it, and how fast my opponents would be. I trained for many months to prepare, which my opponents didn’t do. For some reason they showed up and just tried to yolo it. Anyway, easy win.
Wow look at this cheater
I bet they accused you of cheating and didn't give you the £5k?
@@TheJackOfAllTrades777 to get me to do a crazy thing like run that distance there would have to be money in it for me! 😹
I find it funny you studyinh how long a 5km race was.
i love it when people go all in for simple task
This is cheating in the same way that card counting is cheating. It's not, but it will still get you barred from the casino.
Or studying for a test. You study and you pass. It’s not cheating
Basically this. Kinda cheating, but your fault you did shit work on the luck-based game
"Vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti."
I mean, he *did* get the suit at a thrift store.
"This wasn't luck... This was skill"
Honestly, he deserved his money.
I don't view this as cheating.
Makers of the show got lazy and created 5 whole patterns, he cracked them, and then took em for all they had.
"This isn't luck, this is skill" is such a great line.
damn what did air ever do to deserve being cheated on
It would have been an honor to be scammed by this man.
He didn't scam dumb ass... he found a pattern and used it within the rules...
@@KenMabie watch the whole video before commenting
@@Balpindo world's most confusing man
@@Balpindo I did he didn't cheat I am old enough that I watched it when it originally happened
@@KenMabie I didnt said he cheated, check 9:40 I was referring to that
This is one of my favorite stories and I've heard it a thousand times, but somehow the way you tell it makes it even a bit better.
There is only one sentence that define this man.
"He beat the system"
"Press your Luck is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits" -Spiff, probably
Imagine being those executives and having the potential to air a legitimate showing of an episode so unique that it had to be a two parter, and then deciding "hey lets just never make our money back, my feelings got hurt and the only people who'd ever be mad at me would already know about it but despite that lets avoid showing what would basically be a game show superbowl"
The pastor probably thought God was showing mercy on the humble ice cream man.
“Michael went on the run. But he was never caught, owing to his trip to the Bahamas won during his time on Press Your Luck”
laughed out loud at the terribly drawn train visual of the Larson train and the image of him fucking off with suitcases of money. This stuff is great.
"Sometimes my genius is its almost frightening" said this guy
Definitely didn’t cheat. But, your question about “more time on the con” is a easy answer.
People gain an immense amount of satisfaction from it.
Not to mention that there is no job an unskilled conman would get that would pay nearly as much as that gameshow did in 6 months.
Yeah, it kinda shows there may not be anything presented that actually offers enough of a challenge, dignity, etc in their path in life, and they chose a criminal side instead of an socially disruptive but innovative side.
This isn't cheating, it's an exploit. He didn't divert from the game's mechanics, he just used those built in mechanics to his advantage. Huge difference
Usually I don’t respect con-men but dam the lengths this man went to cheat the system are truly impressive. For one I’ve gotta respect the hustle.
Hey wasn't a con man idiot. He saw a pattern most people were too stupid to see and used it within the rules... that's not a con
@@KenMabie did you watch the rest of the video, you brainless mouthbreather? He was on the run because he scammed the IRS
@wargent99 Doesn't matter he's still a con man.
@wargent99 what about before the show when he was doing sneaky shit then?
@@shrekonion8307 why did the gameshow pay him out if he was cheating? Oh no ☹️ he wasn't cheating😂😂😂😂😂
I can't believe people call this man a cheater. He deserves to be in some sort of hall of fame for what he did.
This dude was so good at the spin that he got the GameShow patched. Hats off.
Imagine making a game thats easy to be broken and getting mad when someone outsmarts you
A speed runners everyday struggles
I've always said that this is like saying studying for a test is cheating. He put in his homework and it paid off. He studied the game and won - no cheating there.
this guy wasn't cheating at all. it's like someone complaining about someone being "too good" at a game. it's simply skill
As an ohioan myself I'm proud of him.
Quite the madlad.
Same lol
This wasn’t a cheat. This was a finesse. He finessed the system with a loophole.
Loophole=cheating.
The other guy on his side was jenuinly a good person and was happy about him. THAT GUY SHOULD HAVE WON!
I have to respect the hustle here, the man played the game and took the network for a ride.
CBS might hate him however he’s a god forever on the internet!
If there's anyone CBS should hate, it's the game designers who based a game show around patterns that could be easily identified.
this wasn't cheating, this was goddamn dedication
I truly enjoy the delivery of these stories.
It's better than catching your dad cheating with your best friend.
excuse me w h a t
You OK?
Will you please just LET THAT GO Jessica....
It was a drunk mistake..
To be honest Jessica is hot
Nice
Simply no brakes on the Larson train…. Great line. This is why I love your channel and these episodes. My favorite is the Kill-Dozer story. Epic, man. Keep up the great work.
"What's the matter? You're the one who started this game... and now you don't want to play anymore?"
I mean doesn't seem like cheating just sound like he did his homework.
Calling that cheating is like calling an experience player hacking
There always hacking
Fatmagic:
@@Helperbot-2000 I was about to make a tf2 joke and you somehow one-upped anything I could say
@@cyanidenightshade ;)
This is less an experienced player and more a player using an exploit.
Not technically cheating, but it will get you banned in many online games.
He wasn't cheating. He did his research and made a fool of the people who create these tacky ways to embarrass yourself on national TV.
Not cheating, just memory and skill, dudes a legend, good for him. It's the game shows fault for not randomizing the pattern
this is the sad nature of human behavior, everybody loves a winner.....until they win too much, theres no rhyme or reason to it, peoples emotions of cheering for the underdog quickly sift to treating them like a rat fink with no change in between. People are just odd that way
Maybe they realised he was cheesing the system
Well said. It's like the people who cheer on small businesses like mom 'n' pop shops, but as soon as those small businesses grow into corporate giants like Amazon and Walmart, all the cheering is replaced by bitching and complaining. Jealousy is a motivator in a lot of people.
@@shrekonion8307 the only people who noticed that at the time were the ones who were dreading paying the money they were contractually obligated to give, the fact they couldn't weasel out of it is proof that he wasn't cheesing the system if the system had a flaw to be begin with, its like someone in the comments mentioned about calling it cheating to study for a test instead of going into it blind.
@@AidenRKrone thank you :3 ive never gotten a comment reply that was actually a complement before ^_^ people always wanna argue the views of others, its nice to see someone be nice about it :3
@@Gojiro7 how could someone not notice a guy """"randomly"""" getting tens of thousands of dollars from a game show? no way could someone get that lucky and not be cheating in some way
No cheating to be found, that was genuine skill.
Last time I was this early Switzerland was violating its neighbor’s neutrality
His name was Michael Larson. This is like a Phoenix Wright character. The universe planned for him to be someone looking for easy money with Larson as part of his name.
"my client made a series of inputs that he was legally allowed to do"
-Lawyer of a guy that cheated slot machines in a casio and won the case.
This is not true these are lies
And that lawyer deserves a gold medal
It's not exactly cheating if you figured out a simple strategy that everyone could do if they tried. Games are all about strategies. Cheating would be hacking the board to let you win indefinitely.
Dudes, I saw this as part of a Game Show documentary about a decade ago. They opened it by showing Michael repeatedly winning for about 30 seconds. What a wild tale. What a wild man. It's a shame he died so young.
He didn't cheat.
He played within the rules, he just beat the game.