Agreed, but at the same time **** Oz. Seen quite a few complaints about most of the hosts so far being pretty poor during the interview portion, however Alex wasn't crash hot at that either + I usually skip that part anyway.

I wouldn’t know Buzzy Cohen if he walked in front of my couch right now. I guess I should Google him.

Aaron Rodgers grew on me. I didn’t like him as host at first but think he would be a good choice if he got the permanent job.

Are you sure you watch Jeopardy?

Damn! They sandbagged me.

Oh, well, I'm guaranteed to be wrong about something.

Anderson has this very annoying delay in his acceptance of answers.
What is France?
...
(Person looks like “France is right...”)
... That’s right

Like 15% of the time

Yep.

And the "I'm sorry" over and over again. He's been by far the worse for me.

man I'm glad I'm not imaging that it's so off putting and throws off the whole rhythm of the game.

bring bad godgers!

This. Buzzy is like top 5 least forgettable Jeopardy! TOC winners.

Today's FJ bet by 2nd place has to be in the running for worst of all time.

Yep. But sadly way too many in second place in this position do not wager everything. Hard to believe but true.

This is also why the only two valid wagers from the lead are $0 or $1. If you think otherwise, you’re in error.

Isn't $0 better than $1 for the leader in this spot? It reminds me of a basketball team with the ball in a tie game with the shot clock off... guarantee OT at worst.

IIRC somebody ran the numbers and found out that you have to be a sizable favorite in a tiebreaker question to make the $0 bet a valid option. In a 50/50 tiebreaker with everything else random, betting $1 is clearly superior to $0.

You make the wager that shows the highest winning chances, doesn’t matter how or when you win. Would you rather win 75% of the time in regulation and lose 25% vs. winning 50% of the time in OT?

People forget two things in their calculations. 1, second place doesn’t wager everything as often as 1/3rd of the time. 2, if the leader has double the total over second, they obviously have a huge buzzer advantage, well over 50%. No reason to be concerned about a buzzer race.

Against almost any woman, I’m wagering $0 from the lead.

Overall, I’ve run the numbers multiple times because people are always non believers when this situation occurs. Both wagering $0 and $1 from the lead shows winning chances in the low 80’s. Neither is a mistake in a vacuum.

I'm not following ntnBO. Are you saying the Final Jeopardy! category could factor in? Or is this just a math problem that people have worked out?

Both. In a vacuum ignoring the FJ category, both wagers show similar winning chances. That being said, if you’re very confident in the category, you obviously lean toward the $1 wager and vice versa.

Most people screw up the math problem because of the two reasons I described above. Variables include FJ chances, opponents FJ chances (which are not totally independent of leaders FJ chances), % of time second wagers everything, % of time second wagers all but $1, % of time second wagers something else, FJ category confidence, tiebreaker percentages which are not 50/50 but based on the fact the leader has double the money of second. Most screw up all the variables because they just aren’t fully versed on the actual game mechanics. Or the ignorance of wagering theory displayed by the typical contestant.

If second place doesn’t wager everything, there’s only a benefit in betting $0 in case 2nd bets exactly one dollar less than everything. Since first answers FJ right (a little) over 50% of the time, the EV in betting $1 is higher than $0.

I‘d dispute that first “obviously” has a huge buzzer advantage but that’s a different issue. Pretty sure there have been runaway games where the winner didn’t even have the highest Coryat score. It’s like they have an advantage but I wouldn’t be sure if it was 60-40 on average.

Well, some numbers are more easily proven than others. My detailed calculations have been posted at least once and probably more in this thread. Feel free to find them and plug in slightly different numbers for those stats that can only be estimated. Winning chances for $0 vs. $1 aren’t going to change very much.

I have seen second place wager all but $1 multiple times in this situation. Enough times to factor it in to the calculations.

Bottom line - there is nothing wrong with either $0 or $1 from the lead in this scenario.

If 2nd always goes all in, I get about a 7.5% edge for $1 over $0.

I’d need a solid number of not all-ins to adjust properly.

can someone please explain what 2nd place was possibly thinking with the FJ wager he made?

JHTBH

Just happy to be here

I highly doubt there is a solid number for that. The number of instances where second had exactly half the money of first is probably way too small to draw any significant conclusions.

Same for the number of games that went to a tiebreaker. Probably way too small to draw any significant conclusions on the edge for the player who was leading after Double Jeopardy.

Without making any assumptions on those two things, betting $0 is clearly a mistake. That might change once we add some specific assumptions like the ones above.

“That’s a category I am comfortable wagering $X on. Let’s see what happens!”

Or maybe “winning would be pretty cool, but we have a reservation at this cute little restaurant. #Priorities”

Second's bet was enough to shut out 3rd if he got it right? I guess...

I think danspartan is right.

I'd almost always bet $1 from 1st here unless I absolutely hated the category, and there are situations where I'd bet $1 even if I hated the category (2nd place has been beating me on the buzzer and I'm only in 1st because of large DD wagers).

Shoving from 2nl is trivially always correct.

I'm constantly amazed ay how few players get it that you have to finish 1st to win.

i think a lot of people know all their friends and colleagues will be watching and just don't want to embarass themselves

losing is to be expected, but finishing with 0 could be construed as humiliating, they know for a fact if the finish 2nd or 3rd it'll be "you know rickroll was on jeopardy?" "oh that's cool" whereas if i got skunked it'd be an office joke that would stay around for decades

imagine being that insecure that you just give up the chance to win cuz ur afraid someone might make fun of you.