The Final Wager – Fri 30 Jan 2015

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We’ve had a wild week of wagering scenarios, so what makes us think Friday will be any different?

Big scores heading into Final tonight. Winner likely gets a big payday and a two-week break for the Teachers Tournament.

Maybe he or she can spend those winnings on a nice filet mignon – or perhaps a chateaubriand? Learn more about beef cuts in my latest Fact Primer, published today.

Karen Ash	Jim Read	Cate Hollenbeck
16,000	12,800	11,900

Tonight’s Final Jeopardy! category is:

INVENTORS

We’ll keep this to a bare minimum of complexity.

First-order calculations

Second doubles up

If Jim doubles his score, he’ll have 25,600. To cover this all-in wager, Karen will need to wager 9,600.

An incorrect response with that wager will leave Karen with 6,400. To stay above her total, Jim can wager up to 6,400. Cate can wager up to 5,500.

Third doubles up

If Jim wants to cover Cate, he might as well go for broke. This puts him in Stratton’s Dilemma.

Second-order calculations

Third’s max vs. first

The only alternative wager that makes sense is Cate’s 5,500 maximum. To cover that, Jim could wager 4,600.

Were he wrong, he’d be left with 8,200, which means Cate should cap her wager at 3,700.

Zero wagers

Now we add a dollar to the minimum wagers, and subtract a dollar from the maximum wagers. This is important!…

What actually happened

…because you don’t want to add a dollar when you mean to subtract it, as Cate did here. Had Karen missed and wagered 9,601, we would have gone to an unwarranted tiebreaker.

This is why I put the wagers into columns – for easy dollar manipulation. I guess this means I should get to that new tutorial soon.

That one gaffe aside, great wagers – and a great game – by all three of our players, and I’m excited for my fellow Brooklynite. How could you not be, when she again had such a genuine reaction after winning?

The Final Jeopardy! clue

INVENTORS

IN 1702 THOMAS SAVERY WROTE OF ONE OF HIS DESIGNS, “SUCH AN ENGINE WILL DO THE WORK OR LABOUR OF TEN OR TWELVE” THESE

 

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