The Final Wager – Mon 24 Nov 2014

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After a thrilling conclusion to our Tournament of Champions, we’re back to regular play tonight. Will we see a tiebreaker?

Here’s the link to watch this evening’s Google Hangout on The Jeopardy! Fan, which included several TOC participants, and me.

I’ll talk about Courtney’s Penultimate Wager later on – she missed after going for 2,000, forcing herself to respond correctly to have a shot in Final.

Jennifer Healy: 12,200
Courtney Jordan: 7,800
Doug Perez: 17,000

The Final Jeopardy! category: BRITISH MUSICMAKERS OF THE ’90s

Let’s look at the wagers. We’ll take care of the extra dollar at the end.

Basic strategy – second doubles up

Doug should wager 7,400 to cover Jennifer.

Jennifer can wager up to 2,600 to stay above Doug if they’re both wrong.

Courtney is still alive, but must get it right, so all-in is the right play.

Basic strategy – third doubles up

Since we expect Courtney to wager everything, Jennifer should wager 3,400 to cover Courtney.

That wager would cause Jennifer to fall below Doug if they both miss, so Jennifer should wager everything if she goes that route.

To stay above a double-up by Courtney, Doug could wager up to 1,400.

Let’s avoid the tie

Now we take any minimum wager and add a dollar (assuming it’s not an all-in wager), and take any maximum wager and subtract a dollar, and we get something like this:

What actually happened

Doug would have won no matter what, but he took his chances that Jennifer would either (1) miss Final or (2) wager small. It worked out.

The Final Jeopardy! clue

BRITISH MUSICMAKERS OF THE ’90s

ONE CRITIC CALLED THEM “A SOCIAL PHENOMENON”, “THE MOST WIDELY RECOGNIZED GROUP… SINCE JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE & RINGO”

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