December 15, 2014

The Final Wager – Mon 15 Dec 2014

previous week					same week					following week
8	9	10	11	12	15	16	17	18	19	22	23	24	25	26

I spent some time this weekend programming my automated calculator, so let’s see how it did.

Boy, did I get to test a doozy of a situation.

Ryan Pensyl	Alysha Rooks	Rex Marzke
7,400	10,400	10,800

Tonight’s Final Jeopardy! category is:

POETRY

Let’s see what each player should do. Remember, we save the dollar changes until the end.

First-order calculations

If Rooks doubles her score, she’ll have 20,800. To cover this all-in wager, Rex will need to wager 10,000.

An incorrect response with that wager will leave Rex with 800. To stay above his total, Rooks can wager up to 9,600. Ryan can wager up to 6,600.

A successful doubling will put Ryan at 14,800. To cover this, Rooks should wager at least 4,400.

(Rex would need to wager at least 4,000, but this is somewhat questionable.)

If Rooks makes the rational maximum wager of 9,600, Rex will need to wager 9,200 to cover her.

If he’s wrong with that wager, he’ll be left with 1,600.

To stay above him, Rooks can wager up to 8,800. Ryan may risk up to 5,800.

Against Rooks, Ryan can wager at most 1,400. With a correct response, he’ll have 8,800. To stay above this, Rooks can wager at most 1,600.

(Rex could restrict his maximum to 2,000, but it’s not compelling.)

How does each player cover – or stay above – a zero wager by each other player?

Then we add a dollar to the minimum wagers, and subtract a dollar from the maximum wagers.

The calculator worked out pretty nicely. Of course, it’ll probably fail on an impossibly simple task…

POETRY

THE NARRATOR MISTAKES THE PRESENCE OF THIS CREATURE FOR THE WIND & LATER CALLS IT PROPHET

[spoiler]What is The Raven?[/spoiler]

previous week					same week					following week
8	9	10	11	12	15	16	17	18	19	22	23	24	25	26