Battle of the Decades preview: 2000s, game 12
| 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 | ||||||||||||||
To see what happened, check out my recap.
Two more TOC champs and a very strong wild card fill our second set of competitors. And that’s no joke.
Click to see the wagering history of:
Vijay Balse, winner of 4 games and the 2010 TOC
Roger Craig, winner of 6 games and the 2011 TOC; holder of the one-game record ($77,000)
Stephanie Jass, winner of 7 games, most by a female contestant; lost to Colby Burnett in the 2013 TOC semis
Prediction:
Despite the strength all around, it’s tough to bet against Roger here – he’s well-versed in his knowledge and isn’t afraid to seek and exploit Daily Doubles. With the difficulty of questions we’ve seen in the first two weeks, however, this could come back to haunt him.
Vijay Balse
I’ll have to admit I’m a bit biased in rooting for Vijay – he’s one of my oldest Jeopardy! friends, dating back to my College Championship run. He and his wife sent invitations to me as reminders to watch his episodes. Little did any of us know he’d end up being a TOC champ!
Vijay has never had a lock. He wagered to win by a dollar from the lead in his first four games and his TOC semifinal.
Game 5 (03/10/10)
| Cyd | Kyle | Vijay |
| 16,800 | 11,200 | 7,900 |
Proper wager: 7,900
Actual wager: 3,300
Verdict: this is a wager-to-tie situation for Cyd (2/3 scenario). Vijay might have been angling for a three-way tie.
Roger Craig
Roger is a popular pick to win this tournament, and for good reason. A computer-science whiz, he mined the J! Archive for details on what clues show up most frequently and where the Daily Doubles are usually hidden. He’s also aggressive: he wagered $30,000 on a Final to take the one-day record in game 2, and his back-to-back True Daily Doubles in the TOC Finals is the stuff of legend.
Roger had locks in games 1, 2, 4, and 5, and in his TOC semifinal; he wagered to win by a dollar in games 3, 6, and 7.
Stephanie Jass
Don’t let the good looks fool you – Stephanie (last name pronounced YAHSS) is a force to be reckoned with. She had a huge lead in her eighth game but missed Final, an unfortunate end to what could have been a double-digit run. She also has a great sense of humor: check out her contestant photo with Alex.
Stephanie had locks in games 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7; when in the lead, she’s always gone for the win, but tacked on a few hundred extra dollars.
TOC semifinal (02/21/13)
| Colby* | Dan | Stephanie |
| 22,000 | 19,200 | 10,600 |
Proper wager: 10,600
Actual wager: 10,000
Verdict: no need to keep that 600 off the table!
Keith, have you seen my April Fool’s joke that I posted over at JBoard (since I managed to re-register – my username is GoodStrategy)? If not, I’ll re-post it here:
Since so many J! fans got frustrated with Arthur Chu’s style of picking amounts out of order, The Powers That Be have decided to implement a new rule to discourage such clue selection strategy effective with the next set of games to be taped.
Anyone that does not choose the top-row clue in a category first, and then the one below that second (the bottom three clues can still be selected in any order, and there are no restrictions on category-hopping) will be required to play their next game of J! (if there is one) in high heels. Yes, that rule applies equally to both genders.
I think it is horrible that presidential speeches have to come on during a tournament and one has to miss their favorite challenger while he is pre-empted. (day 2 2000’s tournament)