What constitutes an "unnecessary loss"?

[pannoni1]

On the playing of Any Number earlier this week, with both the first digits of the second prize and the Piggy Bank blank along with the second digit of the car, and a 0 remaining as one of the three remaining choices, it was completely illogical for the contestant to not pick it, thus being blinded by the premise of the game, not just in terms of LFAT rules, but even simple situations. Thus, the term "unnecessary loss" was posted in the recap.

These are the other situations that I would see with other games:

Lucky $even: Having at least $5 remaining on the final digit, and guessing anything besides 5 that causes you to lose.

One Away: Having four out of the first five numbers right, with the exception of the first number, followed by changing one of the other numbers (e.g. $43,158 for a Ford Mustang, then changing the price to $41,158 instead of $23,158)

Money Game: If the last two numbers have been revealed and the only logical pick for the first two numbers remains (>$10,000 price difference between that and the next choice)

Secret X: Two of the X's are all placed on the same column on the corners while the third is placed on the middle row of the column on the opposite side, making it impossible to win.

Do you know any other similar games where such obvious choices would be passed by, resulting in similar back-door losses?

[WeTryHarder]

Race Game: 2 correct on the first pass, contestant switches 2 and has 0 correct on the second pass, then with plenty of time left still doesn’t get all 4 correct.

[GameShowFan9001]

In Pay the Rent, going for the $100,000 when it’s obvious that the most expensive item was placed below the attic (therefore making it impossible to win the $100,000)

[123123123]

One I can think of is possibly repeating guesses multiple times in 3X, losing a luxury car due to poor memory rather than bad luck would be awful.

While I completely agree that these types of scenarios can and should be noted, I don't know if unnecessary loss is the right term. IMO, when I hear 'unnecessary loss', I'm put under the impression that there are also undesirable necessary losses that must happen. If there are necessary losses littered throughout the season, someone isn't budgeting properly! 

[Roadgeek Adam]

Ok, just of note, I just took some individual liberties in the recap to describe that infuriating loss. I wasn't expecting to have a whole thread made about it.

[Axl]

The most obvious one to me is a loss that results from choosing prices that don't end in zero in Ten Chances.  Drew audibly groans when this happens, and after a couple of mistakes, Bob would usually demand that the audience tell the contestant what to do.

[Teddy]

We just saw this recently:

In Any Number, when there are just three empty spaces with each prize missing a digit, and the two non-car prizes are missing the first digit with 0 (or 1) not yet called, but the contestant fails to call that number. FWIW, I've never seen 0 or 1 appear as the first number for either the three-digit prize or the piggy bank.

[TPIRfan#9821]

^I mean, that's literally what the OP suggested that prompted this discussion.

I guess the same could happen in Cover Up, if only the 1 in "21,857" was wrong, and the reaming two choices are 0 or 9.

[tpir04]

The only one I can thunk of is in Push Over, in which the contestant selects a price different from the two or three plausible choices (i.e. when playing for a trip, sliding the blocks to $41,136, or some other such number).

[Teddy]

Sorry, I missed the first post.

I can think of another one: In Dice Game, when you guess higher on a 5 and/or lower on a 2.

The most obvious one to me is a loss that results from choosing prices that don't end in zero in Ten Chances.

Same thing can be applied to Safe Crackers.

[Casey]

Sorry, I missed the first post.

I can think of another one: In Dice Game, when you guess higher on a 5 and/or lower on a 2.
Same thing can be applied to Safe Crackers.

Can't the numbers in Dice Game be 1 or 6?  And I'm not sure what you mean regarding Safe Crackers...

[TPIRfan#9821]

In Safe Crackers, there's a semi-hidden rule that the last number is always 0. I wouldn't say that's an "unnecessary loss", however, since not everyone catches these little tricks.

[pricefan18]

Can't the numbers in Dice Game be 1 or 6?

Yeah that one depends, occasionally the odds will be wrong. Watching an Australian episode in fact recently from the 80's, that exact thing happened with a 6. The contestant went against the odds too and won because of it.

[mechamind]

Dice Game does not have "unnecessary losses". There are some cases where the roll is just unlucky.

EDIT: Okay, the rare unnecessary loss could apply to the thousands digit, but that's it, and it's only when the car is less than $17,000.

[garffreak]

Okay, the rare unnecessary loss could apply to the thousands digit, but that's it, and it's only when the car is less than $17,000.

Whatever.  My luck I'd be burned by some $14,000 POS