Wagering practice – looking at another TOC champ
This is from Vijay Balse’s fourth game. Vijay would go on to win his Tournament of Champions, and will return in The Battle of the Decades.
What would you do here as Shelby? The category is THE INTERNET; Vijay is a chemical engineer.
(Thanks to the J! Archive)
Answers to the previous Penultimate Wager scenario:
Rohit has the lead by a slim margin, but Damian’s got a Daily Double on the final clue in Double Jeopardy!. Damian will want to wager take the lead, but how can he ensure a safety net if he’s wrong?
My preferred wager here is 7,400. Here’s why.
(click to view as a slideshow)
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- (1/8) Damian could wager 1,600, which would drop him to a first = second + third situation.
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- (2/8) There are many possible wagers here, and it’s possible Rohit won’t recognize the situation.
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- (3/8) 3,100 would drop him to 12,900 – 3/4 of Rohit’s total.
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- (4/8) Again, Damian might not even recognize this.
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- (5/8) 7,400 would bump him up to 23,400 …
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- (6/8) … making it impossible for Rohit to safely cover him. There’s a good chance Rohit might wager everything in Final.
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- (7/8) if Damian’s wrong, he’ll be left with 8,600 …
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- (8/8) Exactly one-half of Rohit’s total. Damian will just need to get it right to tie and advance to the next day.
The usual best wager for Shelby would be to bet $600 max. to beat Vijay should he try to cover and miss. However, this is a pseudo-Faith-Love game where the difference between double Becki’s score and Shelby’s is exactly the same as that between Shelby’s and Vijay’s, so if Shelby doesn’t fully understand wagering strategy she might try betting that difference of $5,800 and if Vijay is willing to risk her betting more he could make an “alternative” wager of $0. I call this a pseudo-Faith-Love game because for it to be a true “Faith Love” scenario the player in 3rd would need to be in a position where he/she could win the game on a double-up (and in a game like this one where that isn’t the case the only thing holding a player like Shelby from betting it all vs. making the ideal Faith Love wager is 2nd/3rd place as opposed to a potential win). (FYI, on the old Sony board circa 2008 I had a discussion about this and the J-Archivists decided to modify their wagering calculator and put a note on my thoughts in their Faith Love glossary entry.)