He didn't cheat. He outsmarted the production while technically playing by the rules. Also, this is one of the most epic moments in TV history.

He didn't cheat he was just very smart and beat them at there own game.

its not cheating this is almost exactly what football coaches do before games. they study old tapes to figure out plays and paterns and calls.

The woman doing the voiceover says he ran out of spins. Actually he passed his spins.

He wasn't cheating.

"Random patterns" that's about the worst oxymoron I've ever heard

A computer was capable of more randomness than this in '83; being observant isn't cheating... no matter what the show or Vegas says.

The best game show contestant ever. He outwitted the show.

I remember hearing about this guy long ago. Because these stories fascinate me. He played the board, he played the producers, he played everyone. He TRULY beat the game. In EVERY sense of the word. He did NOT cheat. He found the logic in this otherwise "random" game of luck.

He didn't cheat the show or the network; he simply took advantage of a flaw in the board's programming. I would have done the same thing if I'd had the opportunity. If he cheated anybody out of anything, you could argue that he cheated Ed and Janie out of the opportunity to have fun on a nationally televised game show. In Janie's case, maybe. Not with Ed, since he'd win over $11,000 on the previous show. But even then, how is it his fault that they didn't notice the patterns that the producers had used ad nauseum for nine months? I read where contestant coordinators turned away other would-be contestants who had also memorized the light patterns and were coming to break the bank. Michael Larson wasn't the only one who memorized the patterns, but he was the only one who made it on the show and used that memorization to make BIG BUCKS. In other words, as long as the producers kept using those patterns over and over, it was only a matter of time until someone exploited them to his advantage.

How is it cheating? The show messed up.

He'll never be forgotten.

I think the only time this guy really pressed his luck is when he opt for cash and left his winnings in his house.

That last spin had to be nerve wracking!

Them being lazy is not his fault.

I really don’t consider this as cheating. All he did was watch the show a lot. And he studied the patterns, so this is not necessarily cheating. Right?

PROOF! Legit right here. All it takes is focus, concentration and skill. No need to worry about luck when you got your super-awesome memory by your side!

Michael Larson...the Press Your Luck legend. i don't think he cheated at all. life the man said he was just smarter than CBS. I hope they gave him his winnings.

Always study and you'll be on top. That is what Larson did.

This man didnt cheat at all.His ass was just smart enought to figured out their sequences.He was fucking brilliant

theres a 1 or 2 hour documentary about this incident and it's such a good watch.

I like how Teller was there (with Penn) even though he would never say anything...

He actually didn't run out of spins he still had 2 spins left and he passed the spins to another contestant.

The designers of this board made a huge mistake by including squares that not only never contained whammies but always awarded free spins as well. Without this flaw Larson could not have done what he did.

He actually could have kept going as long as forever 😂😂

Actually, only half the squares on the board have Whammies. As the lady says in this clip, the chances of hitting a Whammy are 1 in 6, which is because there are 9 Whammy slides out of a total of 54 (3 slides for each of the 18 squares.) The main reason Larson focused on #4 and #8 is because they were the only squares (in round two) where every slide offered an extra spin. If that hadn't been the case, he would've eventually run out of spins and racked up maybe around $40K at the most.

99.9% of people are unemployed ice-cream truck drivers.

Jamie Lannister: The Kingslayer Jon Snow: The Queenslayer Michael Larson: The Whammyslayer

He was 34 years old when he went on the show? I thought I looked old for my age.

He was very intelligent. They are butthurt that he outsmarted them. R.I.P Michael Larson

Is memorizing formulas cheating on a math test?

I saw that show I am amazed they called it cheating. Many episodes were complex patterns yet during this episode a patten suddenly appeared. I thought - if he noticed what I just saw and does what I saw - he will make money - and he did just that. It was easy to spot this pattern - it suddenly appeared. I was puzzled why the others did not see it. They provided the opportunity and he spotted it - then did what I saw.

1:00 Michael Larson: You think this is "Completely random"??? lol.

$110,237 won a gameshow was something that just wasn't done in 1984! If you ever watched a single episode of the old Press Your Luck you'd know that you just don't keep avoiding Whammies for too long. So once this guy hit like 10 spins in a row without hitting a Whammy common sense kicks in immediately & you know that he's figured out a trick to beat that board. There was nothing illegal about figuring out the board. Michael Larson took the initiative to watch all those recorded episodes on his VCR & figure out safe Whammy free patterns. For that alone he deserved every single cent he won that day. It's just too bad he didn't get take better care of the money he won & his life ended so young

Nothing is truly random. You just need to know the algorithm. Same thing applies to the music shuffle sequencing on your phone, slot machines, ect.

this amazing its just amazing

When you watch a game show a lot you’re going to notice a few things

R.I.P. Michael Larsen

His legacy was that for the next couple of months, each month had it's own set of five patterns. Eventually a rotation of 32 patterns was set up.

This guy really is a legend. Too bad what happened to him.

Info graphics show awww man

He wasn't cheating because there were no rules that said he couldn't do what he did. Everything is free game unless rules specify

Mr. Larson, you didn't cheat , not by a long shot, You just have a brilliant mind and it paid off. Thank you for making CBS eat their hat.

Rumors say that he still playing.

I wouldn’t call him a cheater at all. He himself put in the work to memorize the patterns on the board. He won the game fair and square and simply used the tool of memorization to do well.

CBS be like : He recognized our not-random-at-all patterns and used it against us. That’s cheating!

This is not cheating. If you watch a game show at home every day, you're gonna learn the ins and outs and be able to develop a strategy should you ever get a chance to be on said show. More power to him.

60,008 views! Thanks so much everyone! Keep on watching!!

The star trek quotes after the credits made this all the funnier. "I can't change the laws of physics..." "Illogical..." xD

Some people say they want another rematch between Ed Long, Janie Litras and Michael’s brother James in the 2019 PYL revival. While I’m not sure what Ed and Janie are up to, unfortunately that kind of rematch is no longer possible, James passed away in 2017. Michael’s third brother passed on in 2009.

2:40 That should be "Whammy! The ALL-New Press Your Luck", not just new. Because it had a few differences from the original.

It was nail biting to watch this because he could've slipped up and got Whammied at any moment. #LikeABoss

If Michael Larson were still around, he would be 67 years old.

He looks older than his age and looking fine though. He looks like Phillip Seymour Hoffman especially with no facial hair. Brilliant as well for doing his homework.

I like that series on Tv Land Myths and Legends ... always hoped they would have made more episodes .....

anything computerized can never be "completely" random. The only think you can do is make the sequence so large that it appears random but at some point it will repeat and there is a pattern. Nowadays computer "randomizations" are so mind numbly large that most people just assume its completely random

he wasn't cheating he was just really smart

He actually didn’t run out of spins. He hit a square that wasn’t one of the two that he was looking for. There were two spaces he went for that never had a whammy.

"Umma make it rain in this bitch!" -Michael Larson

Have you seen Michael's brother, John, in GSN's documentary? He basically talked about him like a dog... It felt like... he never appreciated Michael. Sad.

Game show Predator. Lol I love it

It's quite clear that Michael Larson studied the patterns and played Press Your Luck, very well, which is why he won over $100K, total. Think about Ken Jennings on Jeopardy and Terry Kniess on The Price is Right- these guys did their homework and played their respective games, very well. NO CHEATING, NO CONSPIRACY THEORIES!!!

He was just smarter than the average contestant when he took control of the board with each and every spin. All that studying of those recordings he made payed off when playing PYL, although he would be burglarized of that prize money in the end... ...That is why he should've known better than to leave that money all over the floor of his house. The legendary Michael Larson. He won it all, then he lost most of it.

For years my friends told me I was lying and this didn’t happen.

Over a minute in, the newer host hits the "red button," and it was situated on the $3000 + a spin box. Shows how Larson got his moxie.

1.3m dollars in todays value

My hero

larson wasnt cheating he out smarted the system and there is nothing wrong with out smarting the system thank you very much

I have the PC version of this game my highest record in one game was $1,120,250 all cash

That intro scared me. Hollywood ha- *STATIC*

ABC brought back a New version of Press Your Luck just last week for the summer season only

I could tell that James Larson is Michael Larson's Older Brother.

Michael Larson didn't 'cheat' CBS, Michael Larson 'played' CBS.

Well, his life definitely didn't go well after this show. He later got obsessed with a local lottery which gave out $30,000 to whoever holds the dollar bill with the matching serial number. This prompted him to keep most of his fortune in cash at his home. He got robbed one day, losing $50,000 of the prize he formerly won and fighting with his wife which eventually escalated to divorce. In later years, he exhausted all the prize he won and asked the show's producer for the second appearance on the show, but was denied. He was then caught illegally selling foreign lottery tickets and ran away from FBI for the rest of his life until he developed throat cancer and died in 1999. Not sure if his later life was due to karma from cheating since I also see his trick as more of outsmarting than cheating the system.

This should be a movie staring that one guy from the movie about wine.

First I thought he was cheating, then a reconsidered once I realize he simply found a weakness in the system. Video games at the time such as Pac-Man had similar design flaws.

Thats not cheating at all. Thats just smart. I'm glad they cashed him out.

Six years earlier there was a game show called SECOND CHANCE. Jim Peck was the host. I wonder how Michael would’ve done on that show?

how do i find the whole episode please?

Funny I watched his segment earlier today. Never saw the show & of course was routing for him. He did his homework and it paid off. They never said how long it took the Big Corporation to figure out what he did. Like to hear what he did with the money?

I meant to say see if the next no. is the 4 or 12, Then count to three and prees on the 3rd count.

it was skill and genius

3:55 This statement, about him targeting those squares because a whammy never shows up there, isn't entirely true. Other squares don't have Whammy's (bottom-left corner, for example). He targeted the one on top for very obvious reasons but he targeted them both because all three squares guaranteed him an extra spin so he could continue to run his total up as much as he wanted.

he's a cyborg

This video is good example why cable TV is dead. It should be 2 minutes long, not 6 minutes for fucks sake.

his brother is Kyle Gass ?

Press your luck speedruner

If he studied the board before he was on the show, how did he cheat? He was just smarter than the CBS producers. Just because he won what he did, why is that cheating?

He paid attention, and CBS paid him.

He should have went for a million!

The bottom 2 corner squares never had whammys in them either along with square 18 on the left

That's why you hire a programmer, who can program random pattern generation.

He did NOT cheat!! Won it by playing within the system rules.

Who came here after infographic show ?

Bob Boden worked for CBS daytime? wow, I didn't know he worked for CBS.

At least they got PYL's premiere right, unlike CBS when they did their Game Show Marathon.

Quickly looking it's 3 repeating screens. Now just figure out the movement pattern for every 3rd screen. Seems pretty easy honestly. Unless their is way more than 50 or so patterns lol

Stop calling the man a cheater! The producers were right to be a little suspicious but there was no wrongdoing.

That wasn't cheating at all, it was just a very good strategy. Too bad the guy failed in handling all the money he won, sometimes people get "crazy" with too much wealth.

Wow he must of had a lot of time on his hands