I'm David Bodycombe.

And today we have our first elimination match.

One of these players is going to be out of the competition.

What's the game?

It's a number war and it's called Black Hole.

They're going to take turns placing counters,

1 then 2 then 3, all the way down to 10.

At the end of the game there'll be one place left on the board,

that is the Black Hole,

which sucks in all the numbers around it.

So whoever has the least numbers pulled in is going to be the winner.

Simple as that.

All right. Let's see how they do.

Yeah, I think I'll go first. All right.

I haven't worked out whether it's advantageous or not to go first.

See, I don't have any strategy, so...

You'd think that the person who's going first

is going to have the advantage

but, of course, when they place their last counter,

the other person will have a choice of two spaces left.

So they get the last decision if they go second.

Yeah. So you have to make sure that if you're playing first,

the two spaces you leave,

both of them are winning positions for you.

And that can be quite difficult.

Oh! Okay.

Would you favour the mathematician or the video gamer here?

I think the video gamer, in a way,

because I think they're going to have to think a few more moves ahead...

My strategy is winging it.

Winging it, I wouldn't recommend as a strategy!

I think I would probably mirror for a while.

Ah, mirroring! What a great strategy.

Throws your opponents off, that does.

D'you know what else throws people off?!

What, muttering narration?

Maybe!

Yeah, how do you think we felt?

Was mirroring a good idea?

It's not a bad idea.

I wouldn't have put that in the corner there,

because there's only two spaces where the black hole could be in the corners,

but it's not a bad idea to sort-of go mano-a-mano for the first few steps.

Certainly, you'd think low numbers in the middle of the board makes more sense

because they have more spaces around it

which are more opportunity for the black hole to be near there

so pack the middle of the board with the lower numbers.

This is tough. This is tough.

Emma's got the face of concentration on her.

Shut up(!)

(Good move.)

So at this point, I would be looking at

the possible places that are going to be left

and calculating the numbers around them.

Yeah, I mean it's certainly quite interesting

how the spaces have got a bit compartmentalised there.

[inaudible]

So we're getting near the end now. That's happened really quickly.

I don't like Katie's position here,

because that run of blue pieces down the middle of the board,

it's quite exposed. There's lots of positions where

she's actually going to be losing.

I'm going to lose so much no matter what I do!

I feel like I've gone into this with the complete wrong strategy.

Of winging it.

So Emma clustering the numbers together means they're less vulnerable to the Black Hole.

Yes. Really, only that space next to the 7 and the 3 at the top corner

is her only worry there.

Really? Oh, yeah, you're right. Because all the others,

there are more numbers of Katie's next to them

or it's a draw in a couple of places.

Yeah, if she puts that 8 next to the 7 and the 3,

she's looking pretty golden at the moment.

Ohh! Oh...

Well, that's okay. She can touch them...

She's got to make sure that hole's filled in though.

Oh. Which... which Katie has just done for her!

Well, that's sensible play. Tucks another number away from the other places.

But Emma must fill in that space below the 7 and the 3 now.

Because that's her vulnerability?

That's her vulnerability right now. And then she should be...

(Emma's got this.)

I can actually feel my heart beating.

Yeah. I don't know why I care!

Now who's taking it seriously(?)

There's so many traps here.

See, I can't think ahead, I play chess, but

I can't think ahead in this.

And then it's basically her game?

It should be.

Ah! No, not there.

No! Because now you've got one space with her 7 and 3 and 9 around it,

and very little of Katie's.

No! No, no, no.

No no no, because now Emma's got a place to hide the 10!

Either of the two spaces that are left, Katie's 10 is now going to count.

There you are. Game over.

There it goes. Katie's got to put the 10 up there, and that's the game.

Well done Emma!

That is nerve-wracking!

Also, that is one of those games that is infinitely easier to play

on the sofa when you don't have to be in the moment.

People in the comments are going to be like,

"you should have done this!"

Yeah, seriously, I feel like I nearly screwed up with the 9.

I was like, "what have I done there?"

Hey, I won something!

So Emma lives to fight another day.

She's going to be in the playoffs in a couple of shows' time

but next up it is Steven vs Hannah, for a place in the final.

What's the game?

It's going to be a psychological war of bidding.

Oh, that's -- a psychological war against a magician?

That's going to be interesting.

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