Wagering practice – giving it all you’re Worth
Kim Worth is one of the best-known players in Jeopardy! history. After dispatching Grace Veach in the TOC semis (and thus, eventually, by the transitive property, becoming my all-time superior), he appeared in the Finals against Dan Melia and Bob Harris. The second game might have been the funniest half-hour of syndicated television in history.
Anyway, here’s the situation in his fifth regular game. His loss here (and in the TOC Finals) prevented him from coming back for the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, to many fans’ dismay. What would you have done in his shoes here?
Click for the answer!
(Thanks to the J! Archive)
Answers to Wednesday’s scenario:
(click to view as a slideshow)
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- (1/7) Mike was the only one to get Final Jeopardy! right, but wagered nothing – and lost by 299. What was he thinking?
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- (2/7) Rule #1, first vs. second: Richard should wager at least 2,700 to cover an all-in wager by Mike.
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- (3/7) Rule #2, first vs. second: But with that wager, he’ll have 300 more than Mike’s pre-Final score. So Mike needs to wager at least 300. (Richard can wager up to 3,000, as that’s the difference between their two scores.)
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- (4/7) Note that Sherry is out of contention, as she’ll be 1,000 short of Richard’s total on a miss.
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- (5/7) Rule #1, second vs. third: Mike is justified in wagering everything here, but should he want to stay in second place if he misses, he can wager no more than 700.
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- (6/7) Mike can even wager up to 3,200, and Sherry would need to get it right to overtake him for second.
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- (7/7) Mike’s wager earns him the heretofore-unseen “black” banner.
Interesting that in the very-funny second show that you mention from 1998, virtually the same Rolling Pin answer came up as this past week (albeit worded differently). I’m curious about the frequency of questions. And I guess twice in fifteen years isn’t that common, but still…
Very interesting! I’ve heard the writers are supposed to search through a bank of old questions so as not to duplicate an exact clue, but some topics are bound to appear every so often. Even rolling pins.