May 6, 2014

Battle of the Decades preview: QF #2

Battle of the Decades – knockout rounds
Quarterfinals					Semifinals			Finals
1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	1	2
preliminary round

In our second game, we’ve got one of the strongest females ever to play the game taking on two TOC champs. Do I pull for the fellow College Champ (Pam) or the man who ripped $250,000 out of my 19-year-old hands (Russ)?

Just kidding, I wasn’t even close to taking home that quarter-mil.

Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades Tuesday quarterfinal

I’m going to go with Pam here, with Russ making a strong bid. The two of them together should destroy Tom on the buzzer; Pam will be able to pick up most of the esoterica Tom would otherwise collect.

Oh, and check out Russ’s blog, which he’ll be updating throughout the tournament.

Tom Nosek

Tom’s preliminary-round game was a bit painful to watch, with the players combining for just 12,200 heading into Final. He persevered and advanced; we’ll see if he’s got a trick up his sleeve against two strong competitors.

Here’s Tom’s original preview.

BOTD prelims (02/05/14)

Tom N	Leslie S	Richard
6,000	3,600	2,600

Proper wager: 1,201
Actual wager: 1,201

In his tournament, he seemed content with his 13,100 total – which would be 26,200 today. (I’d say that’s fairly secure.)

TOC quarterfinal (11/18/93) [pre-doubling]

Tom N	Fraser	Debby
13,100	9,500	2,700

Wager: 0

Pam Mueller

Pam is the only non-TOC champion other than Ken in the field, and she’s here in part due to a sly wager out of first in her preliminary match. She correctly anticipated that Fritz would wager small – not enough to cover her pre-Final total. (He also got it wrong.)

Here’s Pam’s original preview.

BOTD prelims (03/04/14)

Pam	Fritz	Dan
17,000	12,934	5,700

Proper wager: 8,869
Alternate wager: 737 – 2,532
Actual wager: 0

Because Pam was a college champ, we get to see two examples of her quarterfinal wagering. Both times she aimed to cover the leader by a dollar.

College Championship quarterfinal (11/10/00) [pre-doubling]

Jonah	John	Pam
7,800	5,000	4,800

Wager: 3,001

TOC quarterfinal (10/23/01) [pre-doubling]

Larry	Pam	Andrew
7,000	6,700	4,900

Wager: 301

Russ Schumacher

Russ also had a crafty wager to beat the powerful (and popular) Larissa Kelly in his preliminary match. Unlike Pam, though, he was entirely at the mercy of (1) a large bet and (2) an incorrect response from his opponent.

Here’s Russ’s original preview.

BOTD prelims (04/02/14)

Larissa	Russ	Tom K
22,800	15,400	5,600

Proper wager: 0 – 600
Alternate wager: 15,400
Actual wager: 0

Russ felt his 6,400 would be insufficient for a wild card in the TOC. He was wrong – the cut-off was 4,000, which Chris would achieve – but how was he to know?

TOC quarterfinal (09/23/04)

Tom	Russ	Chris
20,000	6,400	2,000

Wager: 6,000