Battle of the Decades preview: 1980s, game 1

Battle of the Decades – preliminary round
1980s					1990s					2000s
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
knockout rounds

Check out what actually happened.

Two TOC champions and another frequent face will fire the opening salvo to our tournament. (Click the names to see their wagering histories in “win or go home” single games. An asterisk denotes another competitor in the Battle of the Decades.)

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India Cooper won her 5 games in Season 8, and made it to the semifinals of the Million Dollar Masters. She had mixed results in tournaments: a few locks (including against Robin Carroll and Babu Srinivasan in the same M$M game) before getting nearly shut out in the semis against Brad Rutter and Leslie Frates.

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Chuck Forrest was the first “great” Jeopardy! champion in many fans’ eyes, locking up all of his regular games before Final (total: $72,800) and winning the 1986 Tournament of Champions. He received a bye into the second round of the 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions.

He is known for a strategy called the “Forrest Bounce” in which he jumped around the board, trying to confuse his opponents, hunting for the Daily Doubles. Our current champion has employed this same tactic, although thanks to Twitter, we now know it’s not very popular with many fans.

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Jim Scott was the youngest TOC champion, winning the 1991 tournament at the age of 22. He lost to Jerome Vered, another 1980s contender and the third-place finisher in the UTOC, in that tournament’s first round. He didn’t look very strong there, so we’ll have to see if he’s changed his strategy for this tournament.

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Prediction: Chuck and India get in a gunfight, with Jim in distant third heading into Final. He could play spoiler if Chuck is in second (Chuck would likely wager everything in such a situation, given his history).

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India Cooper

India was locked out of her TOC semifinal and had a lock in UTOC Round 1.

Game 5 (12/20/91)

India	Kurt	Bruce
6,600	6,400	1,500

Proper wager: 6,200
Alternate wager: 3,200 (Shore’s Conjecture)
Actual wager: 6,500
Verdict: a little much, but a last chance to grab some cash before retiring.

Million Dollar Masters semifinal (05/09/02)

Leslie F*	Brad*	India
20,400	19,600	3,800

Proper wager: 0 – 2,199
Actual wager: 0
Verdict: tough game; made the best of Final.

UTOC Round 2 (04/14/05)

Steve	Scott	India
13,400	10,800	6,600

Proper wager: 6,600 (must wager at least 1,600)
Actual wager: 6,600
Verdict: nice!

Chuck Forrest

Chuck dominated his first four games, and held locks in his opening two TOC matches.

Game 5 (10/04/85)

Chuck	Susan	Linda
12,800	6,400	1,400

Proper wager: 0
Actual wager: 0
Verdict: a lock-tie situation in his final game; Susan held back a dollar!

Million Dollar Masters semifinal (05/10/02)

Bob V*	Chuck	Claudia*
12,400	10,600	9,400

Proper wager: 10,600 (should wager at least 8,201)
Actual wager: 10,600
Verdict: Chuck can lock out Claudia with a wager of 8,201, but he’ll fall below Bob if both gentlemen get it wrong. (This is known as Stratton’s Dilemma.) Therefore, he might as well go all in.

UTOC Round 2 (05/05/05)

Lara	Phil	Chuck
20,700	14,200	12,800

Proper wager: 12,800 (must wager at least 200)
Actual wager: 12,800
Verdict: maximizing potential returns.

Super Jeopardy! quarterfinal (08/11/90)

Dave	Chuck	Ron	Yael
20,000	11,600	10,450	10,400

(That’s right, four players.)

Proper wager: 11,600 (should wager at least 9,301)
Actual wager: 9,301
Verdict: the bare minimum.

Jim Scott

Game 5 (10/01/90)

Jim	David	Mark
4,100	2,300	1,800

Proper wager: 500
Actual wager: 500
Verdict: in his final game, Jim hands David a co-championship.

TOC semifinal (11/11/91)

Leslie F*	Jim	Mark
6,900	6,200	5,300

Proper wager: 4,401 – 4,800
Actual wager: 4,450
Verdict: well played, sir.

UTOC Round 1 (02/28/05)

Jerome*	Michelle	Jim
21,500	13,800	7,200

Proper wager: irrelevant
Actual wager: 7,200
Verdict: Jim can’t win this one if Jerome wagers properly, but he gave himself the best chance he had.