The Final Wager – Monday, October 13, 2014

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Since there are only ten players on this week’s Hometown Howdies, it’s likely we’ll see a tie at some point.

Seems unlikely it’ll be tonight. Here are our scores heading into Final:

Shane Curtis: 7,600
Dan Tran: 10,400
Amanda Brown: 2,000

The Final Jeopardy! category: SPORTS FIGURES

Now let’s see what each player should do.

Basic strategy – first vs. second

Dan should wager 4,800 to cover Shane.

Shane can wager up to 2,000 to stay above Dan if they’re both wrong.

Amanda is out of contention for the victory.

Basic strategy – second vs. third

Shane can wager up to 3,600 to stay above Amanda, so he should keep his wager capped at 2,000.

Basic strategy – Rule #3

Shane would need to wager at least 2,800 to cover a zero wager by Dan, so we enter mind games.

Mind games – first vs. second

If Shane wagers small, he’ll have at most 9,600. Dan could respond by wagering at most 800.

If he’s afraid Dan might do that, Shane could go for broke. This is my preferred play, in fact.

Amanda should just stand pat and hope for a big wager and a miss out of Shane.

What actually happened

I guess Amanda could have also hoped for a tie, since it bumped up her consolation prize to $2,000. Not sure why that happens, but she’s not complaining.

There’s no reason for Shane to be so generous – a wager of 1,999 would have been just as good (unless he’s afraid that Dan will go for exactly 800).

The Final Jeopardy! clue

SPORTS FIGURES

HE WAS FEATURED ON THE SEPTEMBER 22, 1947 COVER OF TIME WITH THE CAPTION “HE AND THE BOSS TOOK A CHANCE”

[spoiler]Who was Jackie Robinson?[/spoiler]

 

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