Final Jeopardy! wagering analysis:
Wednesday, October 5, 2016

I got a lot of Twitter notifications after this game aired on the East Coast… of course, since I refused to read the content until I saw the game, I’d been wondering why.

Lucky for me, I’m not too paranoid about these sorts of things – they don’t consume my every waking moment. I was, however, briefly hoping it would be a tiebreaker.

I liked that Margie went big on her late Daily Double, but at that point she might as well have bet the farm.

Margie wagered $6,000. Had she missed, her maximum total would have been $7,400 – out of contention.

Combined analysis

As it stands, Seth and Margie have plenty of mind-games in which to engage. (Remember, in a similar situation in his fifth game, Seth wagered $0 – and he would have lost by a dollar had his opponent responded correctly.)

What actually happened

Seth tried to defend against that same situation here, by adding $5. It was no match for Margie’s aggressive (overly so) wager – 13,000 would have been just as effective on the upside, and protected her on the downside.

But as I like to say around here, she’s the one with the money, so how can I argue?

Congrats to Seth on a great run, finishing with $265,002 (plus a $2,000 consolation prize). That puts him in #23 all-time in total winnings, with an opportunity to move up to #4 in the next ToC.

The Final Jeopardy! clue