Monday, November 16, 2015 – ToC2015 SF #1

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We’re on to the semifinals! Who will take our first semifinal slot: Kerry Greene, John Schultz, or Dan Feitel? Click here for my prediction.

In a big switch from last week, all three players struggled. Kudos in particular to John for storming back from the red in Double Jeopardy!.

And I gotta say – I cleaned up in that pope category. (I wonder why.)

Kerry Greene	John Schultz	Dan Feitel
7,400	5,400	9,000

It’s a spicy meat-a-ball! And a fun little category to boot:

CITIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Any Italian jokes in that last section are pure coincidence. Let’s look at the wagers:

First-order calculations

Dan can cover Kerry with 5,800, and Kerry can cover John with 3,400. Both trailers can play defensively, too.

Kerry		John		Dan
7,400		5,400		9,000
FIRST-ORDER		SECOND-ORDER		COVER ZERO
min	max	min	max	min	max
3,400	4,200		1,400	5,800
			2,200
				1,800

Second-order calculations

Now the mind-games begin: Kerry can stay above John’s smaller wager with no more than 600, and Dan can cover Kerry’s smaller range with 2,600. (The 1,000 for John is in case Dan misses with his smaller range.)

Kerry		John		Dan
7,400		5,400		9,000
FIRST-ORDER		SECOND-ORDER		COVER ZERO
min	max	min	max	min	max
3,400	4,200	1,000	1,400	5,800
	600		2,200	2,600

Zero wagers

Score differences:
Dan and Kerry: 1,600
Dan and John: 3,600
Kerry and John: 2,000

Kerry		John		Dan
7,400		5,400		9,000
FIRST-ORDER		SECOND-ORDER		COVER ZERO
min	max	min	max	min	max
3,400	4,200	1,000	1,400	5,800
	600	2,000	2,200	2,600

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

What actually happened

Kerry		John		Dan
7,400		5,400		9,000
5,400		600		5,801
12,800		6,000		3,199
min	max	min	max
3,401	4,199	1,001	1,399	5,801
	599	2,001	2,199	2,601

Nice pull there by Kerry and John. Small consolation for Dan: he had the only “green” wager.

But the only Greene that matters is Kerry*, who moves on to the finals and is guaranteed at least $50,000. Congrats!

*cue the Matt Jackson ‘groan’

The Final Jeopardy! clue

CITIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

A HANSEATIC CITY, THIS PORT OF 1.8 MILLION IS THE LARGEST EUROPEAN UNION CITY THAT’S NOT A CAPITAL

[spoiler]What is Hamburg, Germany?[/spoiler]

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