Monday, June 8, 2015

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You guys, I’m sick of [not quite] seeing a particular spoiler.

More in tonight’s video. (Please – don’t spoil me. I’m almost there!)

And then there was this:

A: LIONEL RITCHIE SANG “I’M EASY… EASY LIKE THIS”

Q: What is your mother, Alex?

— The Final Wager (@TheFinalWager) June 8, 2015

Anyway, we had a simple situation heading into Final – but then Craig got $800 back during the break, throwing everything into the Twilight Zone.

Chris Wonderly	Sally Wright	Craig Moysey
14,200	9,700	9,000

Tonight’s Final Jeopardy! category is:

LITERARY CHARACTERS

First-order calculations

Second doubles up

If Sally doubles her score, she’ll have 19,400.

To cover this all-in wager, Chris will need to wager 5,200.

Chris		Sally		Craig
14,200		9,700		9,000
5,200		9,700
19,400		19,400
min	max	min	max	min	max
5,200

An incorrect response with that wager will leave Chris with 9,000.

To stay above his total, Sally can wager up to 700.

But, more importantly, 9,000 is Craig’s score – which puts us into the same scenario as the first semifinal of 2014 TOC.

Chris		Sally		Craig
14,200		9,700		9,000
5,200		700		0
9,000		9,000		9,000
min	max	min	max	min	max
5,200 !			700		0

Third doubles up

A successful doubling will put Craig at 18,000.

To cover this, Sally should wager at least 8,300. In this case, though, she will lose on an incorrect response, so she might as well wager everything – in fact, she should, just in case Chris goes for the tie.

Chris could wager 3,800. If Craig is scared of that, he could wager everything.

Chris		Sally		Craig
14,200		9,700		9,000
3,800		8,300		9,000
18,000		18,000		18,000
min	max	min	max	min	max
5,200 !			700		0
3,800		9,700 !		9,000

That’s about it. Here’s a video I made for this exact situation:

What actually happened

Chris		Sally		Craig
14,200		9,700		9,000
5,500		9,600		0
19,700		19,300		9,000
min	max
5,200 !		699 !		0 !
5,201	8,999	9,700 !		9,000 !
3,801

Given Sally’s poor Daily Double wager in the first round, I would have gone for the tie. It would have worked out for me, although she was aggressive here.

Either way, Chris has now won 2 games and $36,600 – and he breaks the one-week cycle of single-day champs.

The Final Jeopardy! clue

LITERARY CHARACTERS

THIS NAME MADE FAMOUS IN A 17TH CENTURY NOVEL IS DERIVED FROM THE SPANISH FOR “SWEET”

[spoiler]Who is Dulcinea (of Don Quixote)?[/spoiler]

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