Did I notice correctly that the champ bet to get a tie last night and was only saved by second betting $5 less than all of it?

I don't think so. IIRC she even bet a couple hundred more than the cover bet finishing at $26000. I think second went into FJ at $12800?

Hannah absolutely laid waste to two girls who essentially watched the show from the stage today

Pink hair’s dinosaur sweater was legit at least

Monday she's in a game with someone who already had 3 pretty solid wins IIRC.

Correct. Bet more than the minimum cover bet. She apparently likes round numbers.

I have a question about FJ strategy in game for of the Masters.

Going into the 2nd day, James and Andrew both have 3 points for winning their games on day 1. Matt has 0 due to a 3rd place finish.

IIRC, Mattea won Game 3 and she has 3 points.

After DJ (my numbers won't be exact), Andrew has 8900 and James and Matt each have 24,600. In a standard game James and Matt both have to shove, but not here, since only points count. There is no reason for them to take the chance of gifting Andrew 2 wins and 6 points.

I can see Matt taking a "go big" approach since he's playing catch up even though it is early in the series. But Jame's shove seems like an unforced error, as standing pat preserves first place with 4 points after everyone has played 2 games. Yes, it is still early, but he's still the favorite to win any way.

What am I missing?

Pretty sure his focus is on winning every game. The second he won game #1 there wasn't a realistic way of him missing the semi finals anyway. Points also don't matter too much because they get reset before the semi finals.

First = 3
Second = 1

I think you just play for the win until the last game or two of pool play.

So she's playing that guy who couldn't make it back because of Covid right? I think he's Asian. That'll be a very interesting show.

Well Hannah got dusted last night. Ben could go on a long run.

How does Ken/Andrew not hit the newborn baby until game 5 lol

Mattea & Sam both wagering 2801

Kinda sucks that Hannah had to beat a champ to be there… then had to play a 3 or 4 day champ randomly to stay.

I guess there’s no better way or doing it, but seems slightly unfair

Agreed. The only way to allow for someone to come back without another defending champion having to play them, would be to wait until there's a game with no champion.

That might take a very long time and the player would need to be in the audience for every game (except the last game of the day) to not jeopardize production.

FWIW, I read the current champ is the first one to win his first 5 games in a runaway since they changed from the 5-games-max format.

Blossom’s pauses before ruling on an answer is so annoying, I just don’t get it. That and the giggling when things aren’t remotely funny or cute.

Reads a song lyrics
“What’s Bob Jovi”

LOLOLHAHHAA YES… LOLOLOLOLOLOLO

It's an obvious edit. Either she needs a judges ruling or screwed something up. We're so used to no-cut Trebek and Ken seems to get through a whole segment without an obvious stop. Any break in rhythm is super noticeable.

OTOH, maybe she got lucky that he had the travel problem. The way he's playing, she could've just been one of his victims and not won a single game.

Brutal for Ben. After 9 straight runaways he went into FJ with the lead today and got as close as possible to the correct answer in a triple stumper. Beatrix & Benedick vs. Beatrix & Benedict..

Matt comes up clutch in the final semi-final.

Good for Mattea after going through her Dad's unexpected death. Must've been unbelievably tough.

How does she not know he is betting nothing knowing he wins if she misses, should have second leveled him.

“I won’t get to say this often, but George Santos is correct” — bravo, Ken

Yeah, I was thinking this. Unfortunately Mattea sucks at betting strategy. It took her so many games to realize that shoving a lot is optimal. Second leveling may take a couple more tournaments.

KING JAMES

Very opportune time (for James) for a triple stumper. I didn't know it because I'm dumb (I also guessed Chaucer just to say something), but I'm actually surprised that none of them could translate the phrase and work backwards from it to figure it out.

As far as Mattea's bet, it really comes down to the usual thing where the idea of having the lead, getting FJ right and then losing $250k because you leveled yourself is probably a more horrifying thought than just losing straight up to normal strat.