Final Jeopardy! wagering analysis:
Friday, March 25, 2016
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Friday’s Jeopardy! was a lot of fun to watch – and, for me at least, to play.
Do you ever get that feeling that you’re going to totally destroy a board? That happened to me in Double Jeopardy! tonight.
Fitting that the round ended with one of my favorite poems, Richard Cory, considering how miserable I was two weeks ago.
A lot of misses have given us a low-scoring game, but a tricky wagering situation.
|
Sarah Thompson (1x) |
Doug Behrend |
Sam Gale |
| 8,200 | 9,200 | 7,000 |
Here we go:
| 20th CENTURY INVENTIONS |
Hey! I thought I saw a pattern brewing last night in our Final Jeopardy! categories. (Too bad they couldn’t have switched this with last night’s so they could be in “order”.)
First-order calculations
Sarah, in second, is barely closer to leader Doug than she is to third-place Sam, so she has a tight range.
| Sarah |
Doug |
Sam | |||
| 8,200 | 9,200 | 7,000 | |||
| FIRST-ORDER | SECOND-ORDER | COVER ZERO | |||
| min | max | min | max | min | max |
| 5,800 | 6,200 | 7,200 | 4,600 | ||
| 4,800 | 2,600 | ||||
Second-order calculations
More mind games! We’ve had a lot this week.
| Sarah |
Doug |
Sam | |||
| 8,200 | 9,200 | 7,000 | |||
| FIRST-ORDER | SECOND-ORDER | COVER ZERO | |||
| min | max | min | max | min | max |
| 5,800 | 6,200 | 7,200 | 4,600 | ||
| 3,400 | 4,200 | 5,200 | 2,600 | ||
| 3,000 | |||||
Zero wagers
Score differences:
Doug and Sarah: 1,000
Doug and Sam: 2,200
Sarah and Sam: 1,200
| Sarah |
Doug |
Sam | |||
| 8,200 | 9,200 | 7,000 | |||
| FIRST-ORDER | SECOND-ORDER | COVER ZERO | |||
| min | max | min | max | min | max |
| 5,800 | 6,200 | 7,200 | 4,400 | 4,600 | |
| 3,400 | 4,200 | 5,200 | 2,200 | 2,600 | |
| 1,000 | 1,200 | 1,000 | 3,000 | ||
Then we add a dollar to the minimum wagers, and subtract a dollar from the maximum wagers.
What actually happened
| Sarah | Doug | Sam | |||
| 8,200 | 9,200 | 7,000 | |||
| 6,000 | 7,201 | 2,900 | |||
| 14,200 | 16,401 | 9,900 | |||
| min | max | min | max | min | max |
| 5,801 | 6,199 | 7,201 | 4,401 | 4,599 | |
| 3,401 | 4,199 | 5,201 | 2,201 | 2,599 | |
| 1,001 | 1,199 | 999 | 2,999 | ||
Solid wagers to end our week; Sam could have wagered basically anything and ended up with the same result, so no harm, no foul.
Have a great weekend!
The Final Jeopardy! clue
| 20th CENTURY INVENTIONS |
| IN THE 1950s PHYSICIST LOUIS ESSEN BUILT THE 1st PRACTICAL ONE OF THESE, NOTING THAT IT WOULDN’T GIVE YOU THE TIME OF DAY |
[spoiler]What is a nuclear (or atomic) clock?[/spoiler]
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