If you watch a game show very long you start to learn that there are strategies involved. Many contestants who go on game shows have watched quite a few episodes of that particular game show before, and it’s safe to say that they have a fairly good grasp of the rules and strategies before going on the show.

Sometimes strategies work out better than others. Sometimes things happen on game shows that have never happened before in the history of the game show. Sometimes it’s okay to make spur of the moment decisions during the show that seem like they are not quite the best decisions. Sometimes things work out in unexpected ways, and that’s what makes game shows particularly interesting. You never really know exactly what is going to happen.

On the game show “The Price Is Right,” contestants have to guess the price of different products. The contestant who comes closest to guessing the correct price without going over the actual price is the winner. That means that if a product costs $100 and one contestant guesses $99 and another guesses $150, the contestant who guesses $99 will win. That also means that if a product costs $100 and a contestant guesses $50 and another contestant guesses $101, the contestant who guessed $50 will win.

It is rare for contestants to guess the exact price of the item, but contestants on game shows often use strategies like guessing numbers in multiples of 10s or 100s to come close to the price of the product, hopefully without going over. For example, they might guess $60, $500 or $1100. Other contestants use strategies like ending their guess in the number 9. For example, a contestant might guess $99, $299 or $999.

Which strategy works best really depends on what the other contestants guess and the actual price of the product. Sometimes contestants get lucky.

On one historic episode of “The Price Is Right,” a contestant made a guess that seemed like it wasn’t the best strategy; however, the guess ended up winning the contestant an extra prize. Watch the video below to see this historic moment for yourself.

Have you ever been a contestant on a game show? Do you play along with game shows like “The Price Is Right” at home?