The Final Wager – Mon 05 Jan 2015

“Billy Mays here, with a special offer for all of you Jeopardy! players!”

Win five games and you get to pick the color for a week on The Final Wager! Vaughn chose this tone as his successor, Elliot, looks to repeat as champ.

He’ll need a solo get in Final, it appears.

Tonight’s Final Jeopardy! category is:

OLYMPIC HOST CITIES

Fairly straightforward here. Remember, we save the dollar changes until the end.

First-order calculations

Second doubles up

If Elliot doubles his score, he’ll have 11,200. To cover this all-in wager, Dara will need to wager 2,200.

An incorrect response with that wager will leave Dara with 6,800. To get above her total, Elliot must wager at least 1,200, but he really should wager everything.

Playing for second

Eric is just barely out of contention – he has 3,200, which is 200 less than the difference between Dara and Elliot. He should play for second – 1,200 to cover Elliot if Elliot goes for the bare minimum.

That’s about it. Dara can max out at 2,599 to stay above Eric.

What actually happened

Not the best game of the season, but maybe Elliot will find his mojo once more tomorrow. Will we have back-to-back streaks?

The Final Jeopardy! clue

OLYMPIC HOST CITIES

THIS EUROPEAN CITY HOSTED THE NORTHERNMOST SUMMER GAMES, ALSO THE FIRST WHERE SOVIET ATHLETES PARTICIPATED