Andy here with the recap of the September 28th game! I realized when looking at the site that the 28th is a six-month anniversary of something here at the blog!
Brendan DuBois and Stephanie Kelleher are your two challengers tonight for Erica Mines, a 1-day champion with $18,000 in winnings. She was quite impressive yesterday. Will she make it two wins?
J! round categories: NORTH DAKOTA, 2-WORD RESPONSES, RUSSIAN FIRST NAME’S THE SAME, BEAUTY & MAKEUP, “B”4, AFTRA
The first 15 clues seemed to be mostly Erica’s; I really feel as if she has the buzzer timing down quite nicely! Brendan seemed to do well on the tougher clues, though, our scores at the first break were:
Stephanie $400
Brendan $2,200
Erica $3,200
I have a feeling that Alex went “off-the-card” on Stephanie’s interview; he only mentioned in passing that Stephanie’s getting married tomorrow, if only to focus on couch-surfing! In any case, congratulations to Stephanie!
It was Brendan who got to the Daily Double reasonably late in the J! round, at the bottom of NORTH DAKOTA. Scores:
Erica $5,800
Brendan $4,000
Stephanie $1,800
Brendan bet $1,500. His clue: This largest city of North Dakota was named for a pioneer in the shipment of goods by express. Brendan was able to reason it out and his score went to $5,500.
Stephanie got some mojo together in RUSSIAN FIRST NAME’S THE SAME, so at the end of 30 we had scores of:
Erica $5,800
Brendan $4,500
Stephanie $3,800
DJ! round categories: FILL IN THE BLANK CANVAS, BAND NAME ORIGINS, GARDENS, NONFICTION, BRITISH KINGS NAMED EDWARD, LAST “DANCE”
I’m not at all embarrased I got the $2,000 Lach Trash in BAND NAME ORIGINS: This “Like A G6 pop-rap outfit wanted its name to reflect the members’ Asian backgrounds; but I am shocked I was able to run FILL IN THE BLANK CANVAS, including $2,000 more in Lach Trash here: Jacques-Louis David went stoic: “The Oath of the ____”
The first of the two Daily Doubles was found late by Brendan, at BRITISH KINGS NAMED EDWARD $1600. Scores:
Stephanie $11,400
Brendan $11,300
Erica $8,600
Brendan bet only $1,200 and saw the following: King Edward IV, a participant in the Wars of the Roses, was the son of Richard, duke of this side in the wars. I thought it was great to put the 50/50 as the Daily Double — and Alex played it out for all he could. He said that Brendan had a choice of two, and picked the right one! Brendan’s score went to $12,500.
Not sure why he went to finish the category (as opposed to trying to take out the final Daily Double), but that’s where he went next. That said, he nearly got caught out by mis-phrasing a couple of times…
It was Erica who got to the game’s final Daily Double on the penultimate clue (NONFICTION $1,600). The “minute to go signal had been given a few clues earlier, and your scores were:
Brendan $14,500
Stephanie $11,400
Erica $10,600
What do you do here if you’re Erica? I personally like a bet of exactly $4,400 here. When you’re in a situation such as this one, you should look for a bet that improves your situation on both a correct and incorrect answer. Obviously, the lead is yours if you’re correct. If you’re incorrect, a score of $6,200 gives you a wagering situation in Final where a tie is within the realm of possibilities!
However, Erica didn’t think that way. She shook her head and bet just $600 (If I’m Brendan, this overjoys me. If I’m Gregg Easterbook, I’m writing “game over” in my notebook.)
Her clue: It’s John Krakauer’s epic personal account of disaster on Mount Everest in 1996. Unable to come up with anything, her score fell to $10,000 as the end-of-round signal sounded.
Scores going into FJ!:
Brendan $14,500
Stephanie $11,400
Erica $10,000
FJ! category: TOYS & GAMES
FJ! clue: When Milton Bradley released this home game in 1966, competitors accused it of selling “sex in a box”
Erica 10000 + 10000 = 20000
Stephanie 11400 + 5199 = 16599
Brendan 14500 + 8500 = 23000
Brendan’s today’s champion and will be back on Monday!
Stuck in Stratton’s Dilemma, Stephanie decided to bet small. Unfortunately, it cost her $1,000 in this case.
This Final is a clue I would consider easy enough to put in Round 1 of one of my quizzes. In fact, I did use this exact fact in a question on the 12th of September! Needless to say, I got this Final right away. I also saw one or two people on Twitter bragging that they got this Final.
See you next week!