Daily analysis, October 25 – time to avoid the dark red

After bringing out the big deep red pen yesterday, I’m hoping I can hand out some greens for the end of the week.

For the first time in ages, we got through both boards entirely. Clue #60 gave James the lead going into Final.

Mike Shapiro: 15,800
Melanie Hess: 10,200
James Cross: 16,500

James should go large – 15,100.

Mike will need to wager 4,600 to cover Melanie, but can wager up to 5,600 if he wants to use his previous day’s strategy of not falling below third.

Melanie should wager at least 1,000 to cover Mike should he hit the lower end of that spectrum. She should bet no more than 8,600 to stay at or above James’s likely wager.

And would you look at that? All three players did very well for themselves – except for James, who left off the last two letters (or maybe just one, since Mike was deemed correct without a second “h”) from the end of his response. I know from personal experience that this will sting for quite a while. Sorry, man.

The Final Jeopardy! clue for October 25, 2013:

EUROPEAN LITERATURE
THIS 1922 NOVEL’S FIRST CHAPTER IS TITLED “THE SON OF THE BRAHMAN”

Correct response: What is Siddhartha?