Awesome / Card Sharks

• Only two people won the maximum Money Cards payout of $28,800 during the NBC run, one of whom was Norma Brown. The other, Johnny, did so on the second NBC pilot (he returned in '79)... but given that it was a pilot, there's a good chance that his perfect run was cold-decked.
  Jim Perry: "NOTHING or $28,800!"
• THIS young person wins big in the Money Cards!
• Any time a contestant gets $10,000 or more ($100,000 or more in the McHale version) in the Money Cards.
  • Any time a contestant makes a successful all-in bet on a card other than an Ace or a deuce.
• Any contestant who successfully guesses against the odds.
• From the Eubanks era, this contestant won TWO CARS in one show, and added a third on her next show.
• Any time a contestant sweeps a round by making four successful cards after the first high-low question. Conversely, any contestant who wins a round after being forced to call all four cards in a Tiebreaker Round.
  • One such event (which was also a Funny Moment) happened November 19, 1980: Bill Daily, while playing a Celebrity Edition, got a Queen as his first card of Game 1. He opted to change it, getting an eight in its place and snark from Perry: "Hey, Minnesota Fats, you now have the worst card in the deck!" He ended up running the boardand stunning opponent (and fellow The Bob Newhart Show cast member) Marcia Wallace.
  Wallace: What sort of craziness is this?! He changed a Queen and he won?!
• The premiere of Joel McHale's version has players facing 10 cards, not five. John, the trailing player, is forced in Sudden Death to call EIGHT cards right to win. Not only does he manage to do it, but in the bigger-money version of the "Money Cards" he doesn't miss a call—and ends up with just under 200 grand for his efforts.
• The November 15, 2020 episode of McHale's version featured an honest-to-God nearly perfect run. A female contestant swept the first round by calling each of her cards correctly, then sweeping through the money cards and the Big Bet, all while never using her card change. In the end, she ended up with over $200,000.
  • The run was also pretty bittersweet. Her opponent was slated to appear on the NBC version, but he ultimately never made it onto the show. Because she swept through the first round, he never even got a chance to play the game.