- The Australian adaptation of the British elimination quiz where six contestants make bids and answer a series of questions in order to earn the right to eliminate (or "shaft") their opponents from the game. The last two contestants then have a chance to share in what they earned, or one of them could shaft and walk away with everything - or nothing.—Allister Coots
- Six contestants begin the game, and are told by host Red Symons if one of them is returning as a champion, referred to as a Master Shafter (in later episodes, this player's identity, and the number of nights they have been on the show, is only revealed to the viewers). Each contestant bids an amount of up to $500 that they want to start the game with, but the contestant who bids the highest is eliminated, or "shafted", from the game immediately, becoming the first to be told by Red "You've been shafted" as he pulls a lever that opens a trap-door beneath that contestant. The five remaining contestants each receive the amount that they bid for.
The contestant who made the second-highest bid then gets to choose from one of four question categories. Each of the five contestants then bids an amount out of the money that they brought in to the game to stake on each question asked in that round. Each contestant has to bid a unique amount - if two contestants try to bid the same amount, the first contestant to lock this bid in will receive that amount, while the later contestant's bid will be made $5 less than the amount they tried to bid.
A series of questions in the chosen category are then asked to the contestants, with the first contestant to press their buzzer to each question earning the right to answer it. If their answer is correct, then the amount that they bid is added to their total, but if their answer is incorrect, the amount that they bid is subtracted from their total. If a contestant's total falls below the amount that they bid for each question, then they are locked out of answering any further questions in that round, but get to keep whatever money they do have for the final part of the round.
The last question asked in each round takes the form of a "half-question" - Red will give the contestants the first part of the question, then each contestant makes a bid from the money that they have at that point. The contestant who bids the highest gets to receive the rest of the question unopposed and then has to answer it. If they can come up with the correct answer, the amount that they bid will be added to their total, but if they answer incorrectly or fail to answer in time, the amount that they bid will be subtracted from their total. The half-question is not tied to the category used for the questions that precede it, and often the direction of the full question will be completely different from the one suggested by the first "half" of it - for example, if the first part of the question is "Which Queen ...", the full question will be equally likely to be about a member of the rock group Queen or the star of a movie or TV series whose title begins with Queen than to be about a female monarch.
The contestant with the highest amount of money after the half-question then earns the right to shaft one of their opponents from the game. After they decide which opponent to shaft, that contestant is given 30 seconds to state their case as to why they should stay in the game, then the leading contestant has to decide whether to stick with their original decision or switch and shaft someone else. If they change their mind, the opponent that they switch to is given no right of reply before they are shafted.
In the second round, the three contestants who survive the shafting are given the same amount of money as the leader, who then gets to choose from one of the three remaining question categories. All four contestants then bid the part of this amount that they want to stake on the questions in that round, and the rest of this round is played the same as the first round, with a series of questions, followed by a half-question and the shafting of the third contestant by the contestant with the most money after the half-question.
The three remaining contestants then play a third round in a similar manner to the second round, with the two who survive the shafting receiving the same amount of money as the leader at the end of the second round, with the leading contestant then choosing one of the two remaining question categories.
In the fourth and final round, the two remaining contestants stand at podiums facing each other and play a version of the "prisoner's dilemma", where each contestant secretly chooses if they want to share or shaft, with the sum of the two contestants' totals being at stake. Their decision is revealed only to the viewers, then each contestant is given a moment to share their thoughts about the decision, before they make a final decision to share or shaft (in later episodes, it was only after this final decision was made that Red would reveal to the contestants whether or not one of them was the Master Shafter, if one was present at the beginning of the game). After this final decision is locked in, it is then revealed. If both contestants choose to shaft, they both leave with nothing. If they both choose to share, they each receive half of the money that is at stake. If one contestant chooses to share and the other contestant chooses to shaft, then the shafting contestant receives the entire stake, and returns to play the game the following night as a Master Shafter.
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