The wagering Thursday was horrendous. So many mistakes, it's hard to decide where to start.

Was rooting for the woman ... until I saw that FJ bet. Will be rooting against her tomorrow.

Actually 2nd and 3rd place wagered perfectly, and the leader chose a FJ strategy known as Shoretegy, named after Bob Shore, a multiple Jeopardy champion.

Leader - $12600
2nd - $10000
3rd - $6200

3rd's thoughts, leader has to wager 7401 to cover an all-in from 2nd. If leader misses she falls to 5199, therefore 3rd cannot wager more than 1000 to stay ahead of leader on a miss.

2nd's thoughts, have to cover an all-in from 3rd and no way to win unless leader misses. Therefore wager 2401.

Leader's thoughts in this case, if 3rd doubles that's 12400. If 2nd wagers accordingly that's 12401. Therefore if players wager perfectly, I can't lose, so bet nothing.

Now, this is a semi-accepted strategy in the Jeopardy community, but I don't like it for at least two reasons. 1, it relies on ideal wagering from 2nd place, which as we all know rarely happens. 2, with this strategy it is possible to be leading going into FJ, answer correctly and still lose. This really sucks and in my mind is totally unacceptable.

If it's correct for 3rd to bet no more than 1,000 then I don't see how it's incorrect for 2nd to bet 2,800. This would tie/win with 3rd when only 3rd gets FJ (assuming the standard 7,400 cover bet by leader), and also would win on a triple get, where 1st bets 100 (???) as actually occurred. What I really don't get is how it's ever correct for 1st to not bet enough to double second. I definitely agree with you that it's unacceptable to have the lead in FJ, answer correctly, and still lose.

I think the ideal wagers here should be:

Leader 7400

2nd 2800

3rd since he has to get FJ to win, an argument can be made that he might as well bet 6200 to maximize his win if correct (because if he's wrong he loses anyway). Alternatively, it can be reasoned that he shouldn't bet more than 1000 because that would leave him tied with 1st if wrong IF second is ******ed and bets huge. I think moving in for 6200 is best.

Very good, you are correct that in this instance 2nd should bet at least 2600, but not so much as to lose on a triple stumper. So between 2600 and 3800.

3rd, while your all-in bet has some merit, a bet of less than 1000 wins more often. If the leader and 2nd both miss, the majority of the time it doesn't matter whether 3rd answers correctly or not. Typical wagers in this situation would be leader = 7401 and 2nd = 10000. 12600-7401=5199, so 3rd should never wager more than 1000 to stay ahead of a losing cover bet from the leader.

I don't understand your strategy for 3rd. He has 6200; how can he ever win with a total of 7200? We already know 1st's bet will be 7400, so 3rd will win if 1st misses. But 2nd starts with 10k and knows what 1st's bet will be, and therefore needs to concern himself only with beating 2nd if both he and 2nd get FJ. Why would he ever bet 10k on FJ when it's a guaranteed loss on a triple stumper?

Because most Jeopardy contestants wager idiotically, 2nd place just bets it all and you typically wager based on that. No, it won't work 100% of the time, but the like poker, the idea is to give yourself the best chance to win.

Or, we could look at it another way. Let's say you're in last, in theory this means that the other two contestants know more than you. Naturally, this isn't the case all the time because of various game happenings, but is accurate more often than not. So if you're the worst player of the three, you have the least chance of knowing FJ. It's rare that 3rd will be correct while 1st and 2nd miss. So simply assume if 1st and 2nd don't know, 3rd won't as well. So 3rd wagers small and hopes for a triple stumper and poor wagering.

If you haven't already, fool around with the Jeopardy wagering calculator. http://www.j-archive.com/wageringcalculator.php

3 women on Jeopardy is guaranteed LOL.

For example, what type of number pi is...

$-6,400 LOL

after seeing that i was immediately curious what the worst ever was

Per the discussion on jboard, this was the worst dollar finish ever. However in 1989 (before the doubling of the clue values) there was a contestant who finished at -5400.

Wow that was an insanely LOL episode. How do you ring in on a jeopardy question regarding a video game and not know the answer? Video games should be a polarizing topic that many would not know and a few would know very well. Zelda: Harp of Time?

The PI category was funny but I stupidly didn't know most of the answers either (I got irrational though obviously. Kristy thought PI was prime? seriously?).

Also, Nuclear Physics? WTF!!!

Watching that chick bury herself in the movie category, the category she chose to start DJ with was cringe inducing, and they didn't even get to the 2k clue.

If I'm ever fortunate to get on the show, I can only hope to match the run of opponents Stephanie received. The champ she beat on the first day, was probably the only one who would be considered average. Would have been fun to see an elite player just slaughter the same competition.

How about the new champ trying to give the game away with his DD bet as DJ was about to end?

Completely forgot about that, plus Stephanie made another smallish FJ bet that wouldn't have covered a double-up by second IIRC. There is simply no way I allow someone to catch me if I get FJ right.

Zooey Deschanel soundalike's goat story was the GOAT story on Jeopardy. I especially liked that Alex just skipped the next interview altogether. What a maverick!

was refreshing to see a legit all out bet at the end on DJ on the DD, but man that was an easy question. I think even most women know who Roy Hobbs is.

Champ had the lead heading into FJ on Tuesday and managed to lose on a triple get. She just bet to get herself to the round number of 20k. Second perhaps over bet, but I I can't fault someone for maximizing his winnings, and got the win.

am i off when i say i think the champ tonight was cute? she's milf territory, but i found her cute.

Saw this tonight on DVR. Didn't realize that when you said "goat story was the GOAT story" that you were talking about a goat story.

LOL super easy FJ Question tonight...

I knocked out about a dozen eps on DVR this week. It's really becoming common now for Trebek to screw up.

little off topic

I watched last week. Guy was crushing. Had 37k+ going into FJ. Trebek was saying that he could break the all-time single day total, but he'd have to risk nearly everything. He bid in between the min and the max to secure victory (8k) and got it right.

However, should he have went for the record? If he's confident with the category, should he go for it? Could he expect endorsements/publicity of some sort if he were to answer incorrectly that should help balance out what he'd lose?

Last year that girl solved the Wheel of Fortune puzzle with only 1 letter on the board. She got a lot of publicity out of it.

i doubt it unless he ends up breaking like ken Jennings all time record.

He wouldn't get dollar one out of it right or wrong. Publicity does not always translate into dollars.

Furthermore, the game in question occurred a year ago. Many markets in addition to the new show also show an addition show from exactly one year prior.