I was watching on pvr just now and was gobsmacked at the jarhead. So much so, I came to this thread which I haven't visited since it was less than 100 posts old. Like, he would have won if he made the only reasonable wager possible.
I also picked 12 years a slave, but changed my mind with about 10 seconds left since it was "movie title characters" and 12 years a slave is not the name of a person.

Eh I think the only thing that's really embarrassing is finishing well in the red (like by being awful throughout, not from say a late DD miss and then some desperation buzz-ins) and not being there for FJ. I'm pretty sure even non-fans understand the concept of "oh he made it to the last round thingy with a decent amount of $$ and then decided to bet everything" and don't think it's humiliating.

I felt the same way about the "...noooo?" that Ken would throw out randomly with some of the wrong answers. I'm assuming there are spots where they wait for a signal from the judges before they respond (maybe answer isn't exactly what's on the card but seems plausible) and they're bad at masking the pause. IIRC Trebek just stayed silent for a beat and then would throw out a very quick "no sorry" or "yes we'll accept that".

Well another interesting wager...

Dana Schumacher-Schmidt: 10000+5000=15000
Hari Parameswaran: 13800-13800=0
Leah Caglio: 13800+3795=17595 (New Champ)

Does that woman (blonde new champ) have fangs, or is it just my imagination?

Probably wouldn’t have noticed, but she 100% has a bad case of vampire teeth

Another day of interesting FJ wagers with scores of 18600 and 2x 17200 going in.

I’m not totally sure what the 17200 players should bet but $0 on a “no bueno” category sounds right.

One more interesting wager: Three clues before the end with $1200 and $2000 left on board after the DJ, distant third is at 9600 while leader is at 17200 and second at 14000. I was impressed that she made the bold move and bet 9000 even though 9600 is far superior especially since that would have guaranteed at least a tie going into FJ unless 17200 gets them both correct.

All you needed to do to answer FJ was to be able to get to the 17th letter of the alphabet.

$17200 has to wager at least $1401 to cover a $0 wager from the leaders. The only way this hurts you is if the leader wagers some goofy number between $1400 and $2800 and everybody misses.

Who else was doing the alphabet song because the answer didn't pop into their heads?

Yes, but that doesn’t account for the possibility that the other 17200 player bets zero and wins outright on a triple stumper. Basically some sort of prisoners dilemma.
That’s exactly what I did.

Whoops, I misremembered thinking the leaders were tied rather than second place. That does change things, actually a worse prisoners dilemma than tied for the lead.

Not able to watch easily while travelling but seems like quite the interesting scores run.

Lock-tie situation

Tied lead

Tied close second

Anderson is really rigging things to get attention.

So...Aaron Rodgers want out of Green Bay....hmmmm.

Who the hell is Bill Whitaker?

Also why does the champ woman constantly joker-smile? She has countless bodies buried in her backyard

I think Whitaker comes from 60 Minutes. Didn't seem like a great start. Seemed like he didn't help the game flow, a little stilted.

Whitaker is on 60 minutes. He was slow and not as crisp as the others.

And yes, I also hate the current champ's cackle after she gets a DD correct.

Just put Ken Jennings in there, or even better Thomas Lennon and get it over with.

What do we think of second place’s wager (the guy leading before FJ) tonight?

Hanna Howard: 7800-7000=800
Elliott Goodman: 16800+928=17728
Jamie Logan: 16200+16000=32200 (New Champ)

2nd is exactly halfway between 3rd double up 15,600 and the lead score 16800

1st is assuming 2nd bets small. But really if first wants to go small then they should just go with $0. Why risk 2nd betting $0.

Still firsts best bet is to go for the lockout wager. Getting it right and losing here seems bad. I don’t think enough players in second wager optimally here (small to keep 3rd locked out).

Obv if we know second will go small we go small. Outsmarted himself here I think. Plus 928 makes no sense.

I think one of the bigger problems is that it's a pretty easy category. First should be accounting for that

I think the worst bet was Hanna’s (3rd going into final). I think the only legitimate way she wins is she doubles up (assuming Jamie bets $600 or $601 and Elliott bets big to lock out Jamie).

I think Elliott and Jamie’s wagers was mind games. Elliott’s wager keeps him above Hanna and forces Jamie to get it right. Maybe he didn’t like the category? Was interesting Jamie went big considering I think she was in a better spot to go small. It was almost like she knew Elliott was going small.

I didn’t like any of the bets.. but I can kinda see Elliott and Jamie’s a little more than Hanna’s.

I’ve had enough of Bill’s robotic children’s book voice/delivery

To go home on a correct Response when going into Final with the lead is a mistake IMO. Especially on what to me was an easy Category and ridiculously easy Clue. When he announced the Category I turned to my wife and guessed the correct Response before even seeing the Clue.

And, yeah, this guy is so far a wet blanket host.

This is 100% subjective. To each their own.

Regardless of intent, their three wager made zero logical sense.

You can justify the $16000 wager. Not perfect because she never wins with $200 and could have bet that too, but other than that going all-in if she’s very comfortable with that category seems fine.

If she bets zero and wins, she’s getting $16200 plus her expected future winnings. Chances to win once more are roughly 50% and the average payday for that should be in the neighborhood of her first win. For 3 games we’re already below 25%.

I haven’t done any math on that but I doubt her expected winnings from getting $16200 on the first day and going from there are far higher than a single $32200 payday. So getting an extra $16k here if she wins makes a huge difference. I feel like people often don’t really account for that.

Both other players objectively picked a bad sizing.