Andy here once again! Yesterday, we saw Richard end up locking out a pretty good player in Joel. Will he be able to keep things up today against new challengers Rene Cardenas and Susan Bowyer?
Today’s J! round categories: OED TOP SOURCES; “AA”, “BB” OR “CC”; SCENTSATIONAL!; ALFRED; LORD; TENNESSEAN (I was hoping for a TENNIS category and I bet Jeanie was as well!)
I personally am okay with it, but Richard definitely tried to hop around within the categories at the start of the game today. I’m sure it will annoy many others, though. Not sure if it was a Daily Double hunting tactic or just something to unnerve the opposition, but I bet it’ll generate discussion!
I figured we’d see a Lord’s Resistance Army question eventually, this one showed up in LORD $1000: “Child soldiers are much of the Lord’s Resistance Army revolting against the Musevini government in this African nation” Sadly, it was a Triple Stumper; does anyone remember Stop Kony?
After a large number of Triple Stumpers, Richard found the game’s first Daily Double on the 15th clue of the round, under OED TOP SOURCES $800: Richard had $1400, Rene $2600 and Susan $0. Making it a True Daily Double, he saw the following: “William Shakespeare is second; this historical novelist with the same initials is third”. He completely blanked on the answer, meaning Rene at $2600 was the only player with money at the first break!
I know that some of the commenters here have noted their dislike of Richard, but I think he’s an excellent player and I’m a fan of his mannerisms, personally…
The number of Triple Stumpers early on definitely hampered the round’s pace, so 3 clues were left on the board in a low-scoring J! round. Your scores at halftime saw Rene at $3,800, Susan $2,000 and Richard selecting first in DJ! with $800.
DJ! round categories: ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON; HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING AT 11; THE WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL; A REAL COMEDIAN; ANAGRAMS; CROSS WORLD CLUES “P”
A much more competitive first 11 clues was punctuated by the round’s first Daily Double under THE WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL $2000. Richard, with $3,600 (against Susan’s $6,000 and Rene’s $7,000), wasn’t about to risk another True Daily Double, so he bet only $2,400. His clue: Biologist Edward O. Wilson told a rapt WSF audience about the chemical “vocabulary” of these colony insects. Richard’s correct response tied him with Susan.
Rene switched out of 11, but went back to it and was rewarded with the game’s final Daily Double at the bottom of the row. Holding $10,200 to Susan’s $7,200 and Richard’s $6,000, he bet only $600 and saw the following: “Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty on behalf of Victor Emmanuel III; Cardinal Gasparri signed on behalf of this pope” It appears as if Rene forgot the category (maybe if he’d stuck with 11 he’d have remembered!), but his incorrect response only dropped him to $9,600. I personally only got this one because I knew that there was a Pius IX (they’ve named a street in Montreal Pie-IX Boulevard after him) in the 19th century and thus figured they reached number 11 by the time the Lateran Treaty rolled around.
I must say, while I didn’t get a lot of the long ones (I did get the third!), it is rather cool that DISCOUNTED/DEDUCTIONS, PICOSECOND/ENDOSCOPIC, and IMPERSONAL/MAILPERSON are all anagram pairs!
Scores going into Final Jeopardy!:
Rene $13,200
Susan $10,400
Richard $8,000
FJ! category: PRESIDENTIAL RESTING PLACES
FJ! clue: Only 3 sites have the remains of 2 Presidents: 1 at Quincy, Massachusetts, 1 at Arlington, & 1 in this state capital
Richard $8000 -2400 = 5600
Susan $10400 -10300 = 100
Rene $13200 -8000 = 5200
I’ve got no problem whatsoever with any of these wagers; Susan was in Stratton’s Dilemma; thus, she chose to go big. Rene had to do what he had to do, and Richard’s small wager won him the game! Well played, Mr. Block, and I look forward to seeing your third game tomorrow!
Interestingly enough, had Rene remebered the “11” category, the scores going into Final Jeopardy! would have been 14,400 – 10,400 – 8,400. It would have been very interesting to see what all 3 contestants would have done there!
My Coryat today was $25,600 (33 right, 2 wrong), plus the Final. I made an educated guess, using the same “lots of Presidents come from here” logic that Alex suggested.
The Importance Of Wagering Strategy
