The Final Wager – 2014 TOC QF #3

#ToC2014 dashboard
QF1	preview	QF2	preview	QF3	preview	QF4	preview	QF5	preview
	analysis		analysis		analysis		analysis		analysis
SF1	preview	SF2	preview	SF3	preview	F1	preview	F2	preview
	analysis		analysis		analysis		analysis		analysis

With Arthur Chu’s quarterfinal in the can, we now turn our attention to Julia Collins. Will Joshua Brakhage and Jim Coury come out swinging?

Be sure to check out my preview of this game.

Julia’s taking this lead into Final, with Joshua still with a shot to take the automatic berth. Here are the scores:

Julia Collins: 16,200
Joshua Brakhage: 11,600
Jim Coury: 2,800

The Final Jeopardy! category: THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

Before we begin, I want to show the detail of the shirt I wear in the video. Julia had mentioned she’d be making shirts for family and friends who made the trip to the TOC taping, and there were over a dozen of these in the audience.

All right – let’s look at wagers.

First off, Jim should wager everything.

Basic strategy – first vs. second

Julia should wager 7,001 to cover Joshua.

Joshua can wager up to 2,400 to stay above Julia if they’re both wrong and she goes big.

Basic strategy – second vs. third

Joshua can wager up to 6,000 to remain at or above Jim’s final total.

Basic strategy – Rule #3

Joshua should wager at least 4,601 to cover a zero wager by Julia.

Mind games – first vs. second

If Joshua wagers 2,400, his total will be 14,000. In response, Julia might cap her wager at 2,199.

Or, if she thinks Joshua might wager 6,000, she could wager 1,401.

What actually happened

So Julia goes big, and in doing so, falls to a vulnerable second position on our wild-card leaderboard.

Apparently, she didn’t think 16,200 was good enough for a wild card. She has evidence: there have been several times when the wild-card cutoff was above this score. Overall, however, the trend has been down ever since dollar values were doubled in 2001.

Tomorrow’s match pits 8-timer Drew Horwood against College Champ Terry O’Shea and 5-timer Sarah McNitt. Here’s a preview.

The Final Jeopardy! clue

THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

THE 3 LATIN PHRASES FOUND IN THE CONSTITUTION ARE “PRO TEMPORE”, “EX POST FACTO” & THIS 2-WORD PHRASE

[spoiler]What is “habeas corpus”?[/spoiler]