Battle of the Decades preview: 2000s, game 15

Battle of the Decades – preliminary round
1980s					1990s					2000s
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
knockout rounds

Click to see how the game panned out.

We’ve come to the end of our preliminary matches. Who will complete the puzzle for May’s showdown? Will it be a strong TOC champion, an authoritative teacher, or the guy who took my spot in the “Keith W” department? (grumble)

Click to see the wagering history of:

Dan Pawson, who won 9 games and the 2009 TOC
Maria Wenglinsky, who won 5 games and fell to Michael Falk in the 2005 TOC semifinals
Keith Whitener, who won 7 games and was the runner-up to Colby Burnett in the 2013 TOC

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Prediction:

Here we have three strong players, none of whom was entirely dominant over the competition (all trailed heading into Final at some point). Dan was the most consistent in his run, and nipped Larissa Kelly in his TOC; I’ll throw a few chips in his direction, but I have every confidence this will be a tight game.

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Dan Pawson

Dan had locks in games 4, 5, and 8, and in his TOC semifinal; when in the lead by himself, he was sporadic, wagering for the tie twice (games 3, 10), for the outright win twice (games 7, 9), and played things a bit differently one other time.

Game 1 (12/27/07)

Annie	Patricia	Dan
14,800	10,000	9,900

Proper wager: 200 – 300
Alternate wager: 9,900
Actual wager: 200

Game 2 (12/28/07)

Dan	Heather	Theo
13,400	13,400	12,400

Proper wager: 13,400
Actual wager: 13,400
Verdict: tie game! Heather could have tied him again in the rematch, but played conservatively.

Game 6 (01/03/08)

Dan	Jason	Kevin
17,800	17,000	2,000

Proper wager: 16,200
Alternate wager: 12,200
Actual wager: 799
Verdict: hmm … looks familiar.

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Maria Wenglinsky

Maria had locks in games 2, 4, and 5.

Game 1 (10/31/05)

Maria	Joey	Steve
18,000	14,100	-200

Proper wager: 10,200
Alternate wager: 2,400 – 3,900
Actual wager: 12,000

Game 3 (11/02/05)

Maria	Leslie	David
16,900	12,200	9,000

Proper wager: 7,500
Actual wager: 12,200
Verdict: unnecessarily risking a fall below David

Game 6 (11/21/05)

Michael	Jeff	Maria
14,600	14,200	11,000

Proper wager: 3,600 – 4,600
Alternate wager: 11,000
Actual wager: 11,000

TOC semifinal (05/17/06)

Michael*	Maria	Jason
13,800	11,000	10,000

Proper wager: 11,000
Alternate wager: 3,400
Actual wager: 11,000

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Keith Whitener

Keith had locks in games 2, 5, and 7, and in his TOC semifinal (a rematch against Paul Nelson, who beat him in his eighth game). He went for the win plus a dollar from the lead in games 3, 6, and 8.

Game 1 (10/24/12)

Betsy	Keith	Deepa
17,800	12,500	8,600

Proper wager: 12,500
Actual wager: 12,500

Game 4 (10/29/12)

John-Clark	Keith	Anne
13,800	10,800	6,600

Proper wager: 3,400 – 4,200
Alternate wager: 10,800
Actual wager: 10,799