Daily analysis, Friday, June 20

The Final Wager is back on the road! Tonight, I’m coming at you from Fayetteville, Arkansas.

A very intriguing situation tonight. Let’s get right into it.

Brian Keele: 15,200
Alison Meermans: 11,400
Stacy Gardner: 8,600

The Final Jeopardy! category: DOGS & GEOGRAPHY

There’s a math trick here which might become apparent after the first step.

Basic strategy – first vs. second

Brian should wager 7,600.

Alison can wager up to 3,800, and Stacy can wager up to 1,000.

Basic strategy – second vs. third

Alison should wager 5,800 to lock out Stacy — but if she’s wrong, she’ll miss, so if she wants to do this she should go for everything.

Basic strategy – Rule #3

Alison trails Brian by 3,800 — exactly her maximum. Therefore, we have a wager-to-tie situation.

The reason: Alison has 3/4 of Brian’s score.

Having Stacy in the mix weakens the argument a bit, but still, the math don’t lie.

Mind games

If Stacy wagers 1,000, Alison could wager up to 1,800. In fact, I prefer this to the 3,800 wager because it keeps Alison above Stacy’s pre-Final total.

If Alison wagers up to 1,800, Brian might cap his wager at 2,000.

Note that if he’s right with this total, he’ll have exactly twice Stacy’s amount — so Stacy could wager everything.

All of these wagers are forced by the calculations.

What actually happened

Stacy wagered well, even though she missed the peculiarities of the situation. (I don’t expect anyone to see this, though.) Alison’s wager appeared random.

The Final Jeopardy! clue for June 20, 2014 (DOGS & GEOGRAPHY):

IN 2001 THE NAMES OF THESE 2 BREEDS CAME TOGETHER IN THE NEW OFFICIAL NAME OF A CANADIAN PROVINCE

[spoiler]What are Labrador and Newfoundland?[/spoiler]