I enjoy game shows. I enjoy watching people smarter than me get on TV and win tons of money. What I enjoy even more than that, is answering the question or solving the puzzle quicker than the person on TV, and feeling much smarter than them even though i know i just answered the $200 question before Alex even called on anybody.
I always like to put myself in the shoes of the person on the show; What letters would be best to choose, solve or spin, how much should I wager, risk it or stop here. Naturally, whenever the person on the show doesn’t do what I think they should, I call them an idiot and question how they got on the show. That is usually followed with someone saying, “it’s easy to see that from here, they are probably under a lot of pressure.” Sounds familiar doesn’t it?
Anyway, I was watching Jeopardy the other night and saw someone lose the match because of stupid wager. The players in first and second place both got the question wrong (player 3 was way behind so I don’t remember what they answered) and the person in first place still won. Sounds right, right? NO NO NO. I’ve seen this too many times, some goofball gets on this show that can answer anything about 14th century European authors, but simple game strategy never crosses their mind. In hopes of one of my readers getting on Jeopardy one day, I’m going to share this strategy (that you hopefully already have thought of, and will claim you have even if you haven’t), follow along…
Going into FJ, Player 1 has 10,000, Player 2 has 8000, and Player 3 is completely out of the race with 1500, so this is the last mention of Player 3. Player 2 should know right now that Player 1 is going to wager AT LEAST 6001 in order to guarantee that he will win. So, Player 2 knows that the only way he can win is if Player 1 gets the question wrong. This leaves no reason for Player 2 to wager everything. Player 2 should wager anywhere from 0 to 4000, and really has no reason not to bet the full 4000. This way, if Player 2 gets the question wrong he ends up with 4000 as an end result, and wins the match because Player 1 got the question wrong and had to bet 6001 and ends with 3999.
Sounds confusing, but it’s really very simple. I know it doesn’t always apply, but when the scores are right, I haven’t figured out why these really smart people don’t think of this.
If I only knew my European authors.
Until next time,
Burt Reynolds has wagered Texas.....
ReplyDeleteThey don't think of it because they don't know strategy, they know facts. Who cares about 14th century European authors anyway??...
ReplyDeletei have faith you could qualify to get on jeopardy despite your lack of knowledge on european authors.
ReplyDeleteand martin, classy reference