Yes, I was thinking the same thing. He could have lost by as much as 7,800

Yeah, would have been funny if Leonard wrote that he just won $75k and then lost. He must have thought he had a lock. At least he got the DD bet right and gave him self a chance, more than you can say for all of the other contestants. Leonard didn't get Grapes of Wrath or Eisenhower and still won.

I didn't think it was a lock, did a rewind and confirmed. If Indian kid got the right answer, even with his given bet, he would've won.

Yeah that was odd. Some of the kids are good at general strategy tho. They def hunt for DD.

It really was odd. He had great awareness of where he stood overall when he found the DD, then failed on the FJ wager.

Leonard is a G. Great DD wager. Great DD hunting from everyone.

But seriously even at current wagers it was not a lock. Indian guy bet enough to hurdle him.

That FJ bet was truly bizarre. It's like he forgot it was a 2-day total or something. The comment he wrote suggests he actually thought it was a lock, and the bet makes no sense otherwise. The ironic thing is that if he had bet correctly he would've lost (assuming he really didn't know the answer).

Leonard GOAT.

Can overlook the bad final Jeopardy wager because of his general awesomeness.

Finally got to watch the episode out in L.A. You're right, it's amazing that he would have lost if he knew the maths. I guess it's good to be clueless sometimes. I was rooting for him after the boss DD. If Indian kid was in that spot, he still would have bet $2k. Really, no one could identify "To be or not to be" as being from Hamlet? Is Shakespeare no longer taught in high school?

Brief summary of "DD hunting" strat? Just start in the 3rd and 4th rows, instead of the standard top-down?

pretty much. DD's are most commonly found in the 800 and 1000 row in SJ, 1600 and 2000 row in DJ.

I think Leonard's was on an 800 in DJ though.

Thought the FJ wager by the chick was bad tonight? Bet it all right?

Yeah, definitely should have shoved. Sucks because she seems cool and I'd like to see her in the semis, but might be unlikely now.

EDIT: Meh, maybe being results oriented because the contestants have been sitting on their decent totals in the tournament so far.

She should have bet it all. $1200 gives her just $11,000 if she gets FJ right which is marginal at best for a wildcard berth. If she gets it wrong she's probably done anyway so it seems like it was all or nothing for her and she failed. Today's winner, Jason, seems like he'll steamroll to the finals.

Yeah, I felt similarly to your edit. At first thought she was stupid, then figured I was being results oriented. Then I realized she isn't getting in with 9,000 or whatever she would have had if she got it wrong, so betting so small was dumb.

I am sure someone has figured the average score that makes it. Going into the tournament without knowing that number is stupid.

thought 1200 was bad too. probably needed something like 13k to feel good about moving on as a wild card imo, which means shove. She rang in and blanked on a 1600 iirc with like 2 questions left in DJ too.

This obviously changes if they don't know how much the previous non-winners had, which is obv super important if we're analyzing their FJ wagers

Yep, bad wager. She was obviously sure 9k wasn't good enough, and if so you bet it all.

Too bad because she acquitted herself quite well for the college champ.

The contestants chill in the green room until your game; afterward you can sit in the audience. You have no way of knowing what the previous contestants scored.

Except in my case, they had us standing behind the judge's table and then walking out on stage. Wouldn't you know, the judge right in front of me had the scores from the previous game in front of him (I was the second of five games). I couldn't believe it, I felt both awkward and excited as I could see the contestants in game one got crushed. I didn't really know what to do about it but I didn't say anything to anyone, and I bet almost nothing in FJ despite it being a favorable category for me, dropping me from first to second and causing many people who were rooting for me to think I was a) an idiot and b) out of the tournament.

Supposedly, another guy in the tournament had his dad flash him the score he had to beat in the last game. It's amazing that they don't do a better job of protecting this information given how much of an advantage having the button is.

Hmm. It seems like the last group always knows. I swear is see the last day just try to get a WC by 1$

Well, if you can't win your options are shove or 0. Betting anything between those numbers is suboptimal.

Def not that cut and dry... close to it, but there are situations where a smallish bet is probably appropriate