The spin off from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Millionaire Hot Seat is an interesting variation. For example, there is a time limit to answer the questions. And tactics come into play.
For each question the player in the hot seat has the choice between answering the question or using a pass - each player has one pass available. If the question is answered correctly the player moves up to the next prize level and the process repeats. If the question is answered incorrectly the player leaves the game, to be replaced in the hot seat by the next player, AND the highest prize level is removed from the game. In this case the next player into the hot seat is presented with a new question at the same prize level.
The tactics come in when using the pass. If a player passes they leave the hot seat and go to the "back of the queue" of players waiting to come into the hot seat. The new player in the hot seat has to answer the question; they cannot use a pass even if they have one.
On one program recently, a player passed the first question, hoping that the other players would be eliminated or use their pass, giving this player the chance to return to the hot seat.
Of course passing is always risky, as you might never get a chance to return to the hot seat, especially if one player answers several questions. As a side note, there is a school of thought that answering lots of questions in the middle of the game might not be good tactics!
Towards the end of the game there reaches a point where there is no point passing as there would then be no possibility of returning to the hot seat. And some players seem to fail to realise this.
So the question is this - if you have a pass but no other player does, how do you work out if there is no point in you passing, based on the number of players left in the game and the number of available prize levels?
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Answer at 9.00 on Monday