Hit Me
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Hit Me was a pricing game on the American television game show The Price Is Right. Debuting in 1980, this blackjack-based game was played for a four-digit prize, worth between $2,500 and $10,000, and used grocery items.
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[edit] Gameplay
The object was for the contestant to "beat the house" in a standard game of blackjack.
Six grocery items were shown, each with a price; the displayed price was the actual price multiplied by a number between one and 10. Concealed with each product was a standard playing card, which corresponded to the number by which the product's price was multiplied; an ace was always be found with an item whose actual price was displayed.
At the start of the game, host Bob Barker asked the contestant to cut a deck of playing cards, from which the house drew its cards. The house received two cards –- an "up" card which was displayed face up, and a "hole" card face down.
The contestant was then asked to select a grocery item. After the price was revealed, the matching card was also drawn out. (For example, if the shown prices was $55.92, and the actual price was $6.99, the contestant would have an 8.) The contestant could continue to draw cards in an effort to build a better hand, or stand at any time and allow the house to play (remembering that the house hit on 16 and everything below and stood on 17 or higher).
The game would end in one of the following ways:
- If the contestant hit 21 exactly (usually by drawing an "ace," and "10" or face card), the contestant won, regardless of the house's hand.
- If the contestant's hand beat the house's, he/she won. Ties also went to the contestant.
- If the house went over 21 after the contestant stood, the contestant won.
- If the house beat the player, the contestant lost.
- If the contestant went over 21, he "busted" and won nothing.
[edit] Strategy
The Hit Me board always contained one item that was marked at its actual price (it concealed an ace, which could be treated as an 11 or a 1) and one whose price was multiplied by 10 (which hid a 10 or a face card). Thus, this game could always be won if the contestant was familiar with the prices of the items. But even if the contestant had no idea of the actual prices, there were things that could help him win:
- Most importantly, if only one price ended in a zero, it was obviously the 10/face card.
- Many grocery prices end with "9". As a result, remembering the multiplication tables could often lead to a win. A marked price that ended in "9" -- especially if the price was a low number -- was likely to be the ace; a price that ended in 8 was likely to be a 2; and so on.
- Outside of the always available ace and ten/face card, the other four cards were often (but not always) two pairs of numbers adding up to 10 (e.g., 8 and 2; and 4 and 6).
[edit] Trivia
- The style and size of the playing cards used in Hit Me were very similar to those seen on the earlier CBS game show Gambit.
- The rules for dealing with a "soft" 17-21 -- where an ace is present in the hand and counts as 11 -- were never particularly clear. Sometimes, Bob treated the ace as a 1 and continued drawing, pursuant to Las Vegas rules. Other times, he treated the ace as a hard 11. His decision on how to deal with this situation seemed to depend largely on his mood when it arose.
[edit] Retirement
Hit Me's last playing was on October 13, 2006. It was retired because the staff felt that its rules were beginning to confuse too many contestants. Having been played for 26 years, it is by far the longest-lived pricing game ever to be retired.
