i love how he celebrates even before it is possible to see what he got. he sees that its the right spot and knows what he got. fucking legend.

Good for him. He didn't do anything wrong. They screwed themselves by making it an actual pattern.

He didn't cheat he did his research and beat their ass

17:10 "Hey Don, how's your personal life..." "STOP!!!"

Opie goes to phone call, then goes “hurry up, we got a lot to get to.”

This is my favorite visual O&A clip.

Jimmy failing to understand how it works throughout the whole video is amusing

This dude was a straight up G!

CBS had a winnings limit on their game shows ($25,000 at the time, though contestants could keep up to $50,000), which is why Larsen couldn't come back the next day. The network upped the winnings limit to $50,000 (though contestants could keep up to $75,000) in November, about three months after the show aired. Anything over the limit they had to donate to charity (usually). Larsen got to keep every dollar of his winnings and didn't have to donate a dime.

I want a ten hour loop of just that guys screams after he landed on the five grand every time

I know teenagers in 80s looked like adults but this guy was 34?..wtf.. no way lol

For the record, 18 numbers and 5 patterns to memorize.

The robbery is the craziest part of the story. He was constantly looking for an easy buck, and there was a radio station where he lived that was offering a bunch of money if you had a dollar bill with a certain serial number on it. So he went to the bank and got almost all his winnings in one dollar bills. They were in his house in plastic bags, as he was sorting through looking at the numbers. One night while he was out, someone broke in and took the bags with the cash. Finding the patterns was an amazing feat back then, because he did it with the technology of the early 80s...vhs tapes.

He looks like a Super Mario character

It wasn't "cheating" whatsoever, he just noticed there's never a whammy in that one spot and figured out when it would land there. It was a ridiculously massive design flaw They didn't have the technology yet to make it truly random but surely there could have been more sequences.

Call for Mr. Happy LMAO

Paul Michael Larson (May 10, 1949 - February 16, 1999) was a contestant on the American television game show Press Your Luck in 1984. Larson is notable for winning $110,237 (equivalent to $254,000 in 2016) in cash and prizes, at the time the largest one-day total ever won on a game show. He was able to win by memorizing the patterns used on the Press Your Luck game board. Originally from southwestern Ohio, Larson used his cash winnings for taxes and real estate investments. However, he also had problems with the law and was involved in illegal schemes. As a result, Larson lost all of his winnings within two years of the show's taping and moved to Florida, where he later died of throat cancer at the age of 49. Since his death in 1999, Larson's game has re-aired on TV at various times and inspired the 2003 Game Show Network documentary Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal.

He was born in 1949, this was in 1984 so hes OFFICIALLY the most shot out 34 year old I've ever seen. Damn

That's a 34 year old? ha ha

It's totally worth it to read up on this. Basically he sat at home studying the patterns, and finally noticed that there were only about 8 different sequences that the "random" spinner went through. During one of the sequences, it would stop on the upper right space which was always "money + another spin". All he had to do was sit and wait until he recognized that particular pattern sequence was up, then wait for the space just before the upper right to light up so when he hit the button, it would be the money+spin one. That's why he's taking so long to press the button, he's waiting for it to cycle through to the winning pattern. The only thing that stopped him from going on forever was fatigue. After a while, he actually slipped once and missed the upper right space. That made him panic and finally pass rather than risk slipping up again and getting a whammy which would mean he'd lose it all. The other contestant passed it back to him hoping he would do exactly that. That was the real panic as he tried to avoid slipping before passing it back and ending the game. It didn't take long for the people in the control room to realize what was going on, but they couldn't do anything about it. After the show, they redid the whole randomizer so that now it had something like 60+ unique patterns that no human could hope to keep track of. On top of that, the spaces themselves would always be random so you would have to know ALL the patterns instead of just one. And most hilarious of all is what ended up happening to the winnings, like others have pointed out: blowing it all on a crazy radio dollar bill contest and having all the cash stolen. I honestly wonder if that event is what inspired the Jeopardy subplot in White Men Can't Jump, because the exact same events played out.

I saw in a documentary how this same guy was also the first person to figure out how to beat Mike Tyson in Punch-Out.

what blows my mind the most was this dude was 34 when he played that game dude looks 50+ That dude hit the shit end of the genetic lottery on aging

I used to LOOOOVE this freakin show. I actually have the dvd game version of this.

12:42 - Ant never fails to crack me up.

he beat the system good for him

What he figured out was that the whammy did not land on those two spots and it was a matter of memorizing the electronic pattern

There was no rule that said he couldn't do that , was there? If not, then he's just guilty of being sharper than everyone else on this show.

I love your channel. I can't wait to watch all of them. I'm gonna do some binging this weekend for muh days off. Cheers! Thanks for all the work

I miss this sort of O & A

What the guys don't know is that the show (and most CBS game shows at the time, since this was a CBS game show) had a flat winnings cap of $25,000 at the time-- and exceeding that figure meant that a contestant was automatically retired. Midway through the run, CBS doubled the cap to $50,000-- and subsequent to that, the cap was raised to $75,000.

that guy is the best guy ever.

Wow, at 2:20 Jimmy gets placed right on the pay no mind list, and deservedly so.

so the whammy people had him robbed lol

Damn 100 grand in 1984 is like 350 grand today, what a legend

This is masterfully done. Thank you.

Not having the tech know-how to randomize the pattern at the time, understandable. But not having a fail-safe ready, where they could force a loss on a person winning too much, surprisingly honest.

This Press Your Luck is one of the many cases which demonstrate that I give people entirely too much credit. I would never have imagined that they would not have made sure that such a thing wasn't possible at all before even deciding to put the show on TV, just as I never would have thought people would allow the worst among them into the most influential positions, but that's another matter.

If you are a poor person and make a horrible financial decision like a payday loan or even student loan you cant payoff you are fucked forever...penalties...fees...it can ruin people for life...but this Corporation made a mistake with the game and a smart guy cracked it but they DON'T have to pay the consequences because they are rich and can change the rules...not allowing him to come back...limiting his money...they fucked up..they should have paid the ULTIMATE price and let the guy come back over and over until he drained CBS of Millions..then attorney up and negotiate a settlement....He was FUCKED over by the establishment....Make a crucial financial mistake? You pay the price unless you are a rich Corporation.....lesson here

I've gotta watch this documentary

Things they missed that I wished someone would've told them 1. It was only 6 patterns, not 16. 2. The square to the right of the upper left corner is the one that he waited to have light up. It's 4 or 5 spaces it jumps after to where he actually stops. It's because the two he does usually stops on never had a Whammy in them, and held the most money and a spin. 3. CBS had a hard limit on how much accumulated winnings you could amass on their game shows before you were "retired" (50K, I think it was). It was imposed on all contestants. You could keep what you won beyond the 50k if you're totals broke that limit on the day you did so, but that meant you were retired on that day. The reason for that: it was CBS's way of safeguarding themselves after the quiz show scandal (Twenty-One rigging). Wasn't something they changed for the Larson episodes.

Press your luck was such a great show. The various whammy's were hilarious to watch

Bro... your videos are gold! Even your intro tunes are always interesting. Was that some old Ninjatune vibes I heard here?

An american folk hero

what always impressed me, was the podium display supports 6 digits in the first place. you could only win 6 figures from one show : the 100k pyramid.

Jim is normally pretty sharp and quick-witted but he can't seem to grasp how this guy was able to learn the patterns and win repeatedly. The people who designed the game clearly came up with wayyyyyyyy too few algorithms and this guy, tbh, was likely one of many to recognize the relatively straight-forward set of algorithms. Kudos to this guy though bc he (1) took the time to memorize the algorithms + practice the timing of pressing the button + practice the overly enthusiastic personality that TV execs wanted in a contestant, (2) had big enough balls to actually go out to LA with the little money he had in order to audition for the show, (3) successfully convince the show's bookers that he had the "personality" of a good TV contestant... aka demonstrating that he could smile and clap like a manic seal..., and (4) apply his knowledge under pressure in order to win loads of money. I'm sure a lot of people recognized the limited # of patterns/algorithms but this guy turned it into action. As for Jimmy, he apparently would have been another unthinking "come on big money! no whammies!" type. He doesn't seem to grasp the notion of that there were a limited # of algorithms which the contestant used to identify patterns so that he could consistently win money+an extra round (despite Anthony's multiple attempts to dumb it down for him).

Blows my mind NBC probably makes a few million from advertising during this show and they were worried about a little. MTV gave Bam like 500k budget per episode to just do whatever he wanted...if he suggested something cheap they'd tell him to do more.

This is before the general public knew about autism.

That's 80's money too, so that was some serious cash at the time. I hope he bought the biggest largest land yacht luxury car on the market, fully loaded lol.

So glad that Opie asks if they should move on from it at 11:45

C. Everett Koop LOL Jimmy

thanks for this, man

Callers contributed nothing

He was robbed because he was trying to win a radio contest where they were looking for a dollar bill with a specific serial number. He had taken out a huge amount of money from his winnings in singles and had them all over his place so he could go through them. Somebody caught wind of this and broke in and robbed him.

lmfao 12:40

jimmy not understanding patterns

HOW does Jim not comprehend this? He thinks he sounds intelligent but is the only one listening who doesn’t get it.

“That’s a math guy.” Very astute comment Jim, yah dolt.

Opie attempt to sound intelligent all the time drives me mental

thanks

Dude was born in 1949 & died at 49. Js

There was only 5 patterns not 16 patterns

Hey bro I really love your show I am huge biggest fan of you / i really love vicki Lawrence

This guy's my personal hero LOL

NOoooo Whammies PLEEEESSEEE!!!!

I love Matchgame. Gary Burghoff is a sweety. There's such an uncomfortable akwardness whenever he speaks. It's like he thinks everyone knows what a cunt he was on the set of M.A.S.H. Charles Nelson Riley and Richard Dawson were fuckin HILARIOUS on that show. They had Hot-Lips and Henry Blake all the time too. Jamie Farr was on alot I'm pretty sure. Half the set of MASH was on that show. They should have had Klinger in a pretty dress in the background, like the better original version of Vanna White.

What do you mean- haha- Jimmy

Its like he got lucky pressing the button or something....tss...tsss

STAHP , STAHP , STOP

There's NO WAY that guy is 35! He must've been using a fake identity, too.

So, watching the movie Casino after this video.

you only need to figure out the last 3 or 4 steps in the pattern. i figured out three patterns just watching this.

what song is that at the beginning of this vid??!

Anybody got a link to the doc

It was the people from the game show who broke in and stole his money. They wanted their money back

What song is that beat from at the beginning

12:39

@15:24 STOOoOoOP!

That guy is not 34 years old.

This guy was a peculiar man. First it was this- which wasn't really dishonest or cheating at all. He just simply figured out how the game works. It's not like he broke into CBS and got any privileged information. He recorded the shit on a VHS and studied it lmao. But later in his life, he DID commit some shady Ponzi scheme shit and defrauded like 14000 people out of 1.8M dollars.

I really hate anthony telling jimmy how hes watching the pattern when he has no fucking clue lol.

John C Riely would be a good actor in the movie. Similar voice

Apparently Opie and Anthony did some sort of opposite sketch thing I was unaware of, because I have never heard something more opposite the truth than Jim Norton saying "I can't think quickly at all."

jeez some of these callers are full of shit, just watch the documentary, its 5 patterns he memorized not 16 and he only hit a whammy on the first one, not towards the end like that one guy said, and he was following the light, there were 2 squares that never had a whammy so he knew when the lights hit those squares

26:44 OH GOD THATS A DAY AFTER MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

And he’s going again

From 'Casino' when they caught the cheaters 12:58

Ironically, the guy looks like Karl Marx.

Con man vs con game.

I'm pretty sure there were other people that figured-out the pattern and went on the show, but either fucked-up or decided to not win too much.

He just like Heck you Annoying Hecker

I highly advise against watching the documentary on here "Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal". It was done by the Game Show Network after Michael Larson's death from cancer and they went out of their way to defame and slander him and portray him as a crook and a con artist. It's really disgusting that they did that to him. Like many people here have already said, he did nothing wrong. The PSL producers were just pissed off that he figured out the game board pattern and took them for a lot of money. So they were vindictive as hell in the documentary and basically claimed he was a terrible person, when that wasn't the case at all. What a bunch of bullshit!

The black guy on pyramid was on Trapper John MD, mediocre fact!

hes only 34 hoily shit iam 39 .

If you watch the spot he keeps hitting NEVER has a whammy. In all of the patterns that spot never has a whammy show up.

He's only 35 in this video. Looks a lot older.

When does Aquateen come on?

FUCKIN" HAIRDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

maybe this was all planned for publicity and this guy was in on it getting paid like $1000 or something but at the last second he fucked then and said you owe me $100,000

Jimmy trying to figure out how he did it is pleasantly frustrating to listen to.

This guy met Lady Luck and said "See ya, don't need ya!". I don't know I'm just being cute. 🐶