Wagering practice – another strong (yet hard-to-pronounce) Decades contender
This comes from the third game of Battle of the Decades contestant Jill Bunzendahl Chimka.
It’s a barnburner! What would you do as Thomas, in second here?
(Thanks to the J! Archive)
Answers to the previous scenario:
(click to view as a slideshow)
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- (1/9) It’s still anyone’s game going into Final.
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- (2/9) Rule #1, first vs. second: David wagers 9,000 to cover Sally.
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- (3/9) Rule #2, first vs. second: Sally wagers no more than 5,800 to stay above an incorrect response by David.
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- (4/9) Rule #3, first vs. second: Sally can wager at least 3,200 to cover a zero by David.
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- (5/9) Rule #1, second vs. third: Sally needs to wager at least 5,000 to cover Jim.
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- (6/9) Rule #2, second vs. third: Jim can wager no more than 1,400 so as not to fall below Sally’s minimum wager if she’s wrong.
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- (7/9) Rule #3, second vs. third: The difference between them is 3,600. Neither player can make a “safe” wager.
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- (8/9) Rule #2, first vs. third: Jim can wager up to 2,200 so as not to fall below David – but he’s already limited to 1,400, so we’ll ignore this.
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- (9/9) All three players wagered well. (David’s extra dollar is fine, since both players should stay far above him if they’re all wrong.)
Thomas is in a typical Stratton’s Dilemma situation, and what I’d do would depend on a variety of circumstances. If I choose to cover Robyn (requiring a bet of at least $10,000, well above the maximum of $2,800 I could wager to stay above her if we both miss) I’d go ahead and bet it all since I won’t win if I’m wrong (barring the highly unlikely event of Jill over-betting). If I choose to go for the “small” bet I think I’d bet at least $400 to cover Robyn’s maximum safe-bet-against-Jill (but not more than $1,200 in case Robyn bets nothing).