Idiotic Jeopardy wagers (no spoilers before 6 EST)
If anyone else watched Jeopardy tonight then maybe they feel my pain on this one. The worst part is that if either of the 2 trailing players had bet the "right" amount they would have won, including the guy who went into Final Jeopardy with only about 1/3 as many chips as the other players.
Dollar amounts of players from right to left entering Final Jeopardy from left to right (I don't remember their names):
P1: $4800 P2: $13,800 P3: $12,000
Category/question is irrelevant but for the curious it was "Acting Families" and they were looking for the last name of a father and son who played 2 different real US Presidents, one on film and one on TV.
Spoiler
Brolin
Now obviously neither P1 nor P3 can possibly win if P2 gets the answer right. He is forced to bet at least $10,201 to give him a total of $24,001 which is $1 more than double 2nd places $12K total.
With that in mind, the only way either of the other 2 have any shot whatsoever is if P2 gets it wrong, and since he has to bet at least $10,201 then he will have, at most, $3599 when that happens.
This means that P1 actually has a chance here provided P3 is stupid enough to be an amount that allows him to win. He's totally in it, he should bet $0 and his answer is irrelevant. Basically if P3 is not smart enough to make his victory impossible then she's probably dumb enough to make a huge bet and he'll win if they both miss it (which actually happens quite a lot in Final Jeopardy).
P3 however shouldn't bet any more than $2399 since that would allow P1 to pass her if he bet it all and got it right, which she can't allow to happen if she's thinking about it at all. So she can bet whatever she want's between $0-$2399 and if the leader (P2) misses the question she is GUARANTEED to win as he MUST bet $10,201 minimum.
Well, here's how it actually went down:
They all got it WRONG. Here is what they bet and what they wound up.
P1: $4,799 >>> $1
P2: $13,000 >>> $800
P3: $11,900 >>> $100
They totally handed it to P2 by making horrible wagers. Had either of them made rational bets they would have won easily. Notice how P3 sort of understands that leaving herself with something if she gets it wrong is good but ultimately decides on $100 for some reason that I'm sure made sense to her at the time. I expect this kind of **** on The Price is Right, but Jeopardy contestants should really know better.
15 Replies
Going into FJ today
Leader - 19400
2nd - 9800
3rd - 3800
2nd wagers 1201. Good job.
Didn’t matter in the end.
I just want to sit down and interview these people afterward to understand their thought process, it would be ****ing fascinating.
I mean even if their thinking is "leader is way smarter than me and I hate the category and it's never ever ever gonna be a RW combo in my favor", just betting $0 is fine for staying in 2nd and earning the extra grand. $1201 is functionally the same as betting $0 but just seems so exact, there must have been some kind of weird idea going through their head.
Most likely it's a shoutout to a family member (birthday 12-01) or something along those lines.
$1201 is functionally the same as betting $0 but just seems so exact, there must have been some kind of weird idea going through their head.
Best guess I’ve heard on the number…..
9800 - 3800 doubled = 2200 but contestant does the math as 1200. Then instead of subtracting the 1 she adds the 1.
Pretty laughable regardless.
Haven't watched tonight's (Monday) episode but Isaac has been solid. Find him quite funny and charming in his interviews. He's definitely beatable, that game against the two ladies he was getting crushed on the buzzer for the first two-thirds of the game, then he got that massive triple-correction by Ken that vaulted him into first place, and then hit the daily double and it was OVAH. But he's good, and has been perfect when needed in FJ.
That has to be an all time worst double jeopardy wager.
Where did they find the contestants for this season?
It’s always shocking when these incredibly smart people fail at simple game play strategy.
1st had like 12k
2nd hits last DD and had 8k
There’s like $2000 left of clues on the board
He wagers 5k, so if he misses, it’s a run away. If he answers correctly he has 13k, only a 1k lead. But there’s $2500 left
If he just sacks up and wagers the whole 8k he can secure a lead going into final. 5k or all in has the same downside but different upsides
It’s just hard to watch
3rd had like 3k, irrelevant
Yeah I feel like this is an interesting spot where you're polarized between betting everything if you like the category, and maybe something like 1k if you don't (an amount that would help shore up your chances of maintaining at least a 2:3 ratio going into FJ and the ability to win on a double miss, but also not put you too much at risk of falling below runaway territory). Agreed that 5k is a crappy no-mans-land bet there.
Been meaning to post this since last week. Did anyone else notice this kid on Jeopardy last week?
