Tuesday, July 19, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Archivists]

Placeholder for J! Round

[Archivists]

Placeholder for DJ! Round

[dhkendall]

FJ: "Oh, that novel, takes place during the early 19th century involving the war between France and Russia (War of 1812 (Europe), I believe), hella long, what an easy Final! 'What is Tale of Two Cities!'"



(I'll blame having the news on just a foot or two away from me while I was playing for my brain fart (completely my fault, as no one else was in the room with me (thus no one else wanted the news on), and figured the distraction was enough to simulate the pressure situation of playing in Culver City. Probably not its fault but mine alone, but I prefer to lay blame. )

Good luck tomorrow, Samer! It will definitely take a boardie to beat the Mark powerhouse, so I'll root for you!

(And, maybe again, it was the distraction that is quickly becoming a scapegoat, but what "unusual thing" that Samer discussed in his thread did I miss?)

[Lefty]

(And, maybe again, it was the distraction that is quickly becoming a scapegoat, but what "unusual thing" that Samer discussed in his thread did I miss?)

A hat.

[SkoolRN]

[quote="dhkendall"]FJ: "Oh, that novel, takes place during the early 19th century involving the war between France and Russia (War of 1812 (Europe), I believe), hella long, what an easy Final! 'What is Tale of Two Cities!'"



(I'll blame having the news on just a foot or two away from me while I was playing for my brain fart (completely my fault, as no one else was in the room with me (thus no one else wanted the news on), and figured the distraction was enough to simulate the pressure situation of playing in Culver City. Probably not its fault but mine alone, but I prefer to lay blame. )

Good luck tomorrow, Samer! It will definitely take a boardie to beat the Mark powerhouse, so I'll root for you!

Did they maybe edit out the "unusual situation"? FJ was an instsget.

[Roadgeek Adam]

Mark needs to win tomorrow, honestly, no matter the numbers, that will be the determining factor. If Anthony Fox is around yet, he should be watching tomorrow. If Mark wins tomorrow, Anthony is out of the tournament. If Mark loses tomorrow, I think Anthony Will be fine until Season 28.

I missed the first 14 questions due to a game running long, so of Jeopardy, I got 12/12 I saw. Double Jeopardy which I saw the entirety of, I got 24/30. Final Jeopardy was a bit too easy. Not surprised all 3 got it.

See ya guys tomorrow.

[jeff6286]

Mark Runsvold: $17,400+$3,801=$21,201
Tom Vaughan: $10,600+$7,000=$17,600
Christine Janson: $7600+$7,500=$15,100

19th Century Novels
This novel's first epilogue says, "the activity of Alexander or Napoleon cannot be called useful or harmful."

Spoiler: show

What is War and Peace?

[stevensmama]

Does Mark ever smile? If I'd won that much money I'd be grinning from ear to ear!

[jepkid97]

I too said "A Tale of Two Cities" on final, which was added disappointment after my below average game.

Mark may not have done as well as he did yesterday and Friday, but he still held a lead throughout the entire game (I believe), and ended up winning. One more game and he's in the TOC, and I will be excited to see him.

[jeff6286]

That was definitely a different kind of game for Mark, with all 3 players still having a chance to win in FJ. Tom was very impressive, essentially playing Mark dead-even on the buzzer, and only being done in by two incorrect responses on Daily Doubles. I felt sorry for him on the first DD, as the Massachusetts General clue rambled on so insanely long, that he clearly couldn't even figure out what question he was supposed to be answering. I imagine he is kicking himself for that one right about now, because to me it was a fairly easy clue, once you were able to siphon out the actual clue amid all the excess verbiage.

Tom definitely knew the strategy it would take to beat Mark, jumping around at times in search of the Daily Doubles, and betting nearly all of his money in the first round DD. His second DD wager was also very strategically sound, betting enough to put him $800 ahead of Mark with one clue remaining, just in case he missed the $400 clue and Mark got it.

Mark was very quiet throughout much of Double Jeopardy. I don't know if the categories were tough for him, or if he just lost his mojo on the buzzer for a bit, but at least he showed that he is indeed human. I wondered if he might make a small wager on the DD in "Sami", as that category seemed like a really obscure subject, and the DD was in the $2,000 box. He definitely showed his confidence in himself by wagering as much as $3,800, and he was rewarded with a clue about Chernobyl that I thought was maybe the easiest one in the category, despite being in the bottom row.

I unfortunately got sidetracked by the word "Napoleon" in the FJ clue, as I immediately recognized it as a character in Animal Farm. I was almost positive that Animal Farm wasn't published until well into the 20th century, but unfortunately I couldn't get it out of my mind long enough to navigate my brain to the novel in question. I eventually paused my DVR just before the contestants' replies were revealed, and with another minute or so to think I eventually came up with War and Peace, but I don't know if they allow the "pause" feature in the studio, so had I been on tonight's show, I'd have been out of luck.

It's a good thing Oprah wasn't available to read the clues in that hospital category. Just imagine the protests the show would have received from the Plumbers' Unions if the entire category had gone unrevealed.

[BigDaddyJ]

It's a good thing Oprah wasn't available to read the clues in that hospital category. Just imagine the protests the show would have received from the Plumbers' Unions if the entire category had gone unrevealed.

We might have got through the whole thing had Alex not felt the need to say "Massachusetts General" so many times. I hope the hospital won't be needing plumbing work anytime soon!

[Paucle]

Does Mark ever smile? If I'd won that much money I'd be grinning from ear to ear!

Ashton Kutcher smiles enough for both of them.

I know computing DD wagers in studio on the fly is tough but it seems to me that when the scores are...
you: 14,000
Leader: 17,400
third: 7,600

with only an 800 clue left, wouldn't 5300 be the ideal wager? Correct gives you the lead even if leader gets final clue right, wrong gives a lock-tie, with the last clue helping third place not at all. If leader is satisfied to sit on his guaranteed victory, all you need to do is get FJ right to win (or share in win). Of course, everything hinges on what leader does with $800 clue!

[thejeopardyfan]

Tom definitely knew the strategy it would take to beat Mark, jumping around at times in search of the Daily Doubles, and betting nearly all of his money in the first round DD. His second DD wager was also very strategically sound, betting enough to put him $800 ahead of Mark with one clue remaining, just in case he missed the $400 clue and Mark got it.

It was an 800 clue, but I liked the wager, too. And how did he come up with that so quickly?
I guessed "Les Miserables" for the Final, but "Tale of Two Cities" did cross my mind. "War and Peace" didn't.
My Coryat today was 24000.
Anybody else get a Hugh Jackman vibe from Tom? And a Nick Carter one from Mark?

[jeff6286]

Does Mark ever smile? If I'd won that much money I'd be grinning from ear to ear!

Ashton Kutcher smiles enough for both of them.

I know computing DD wagers in studio on the fly is tough but it seems to me that when the scores are...
you: 14,000
Leader: 17,400
third: 7,600

with only an 800 clue left, wouldn't 5300 be the ideal wager? Correct gives you the lead even if leader gets final clue right, wrong gives a lock-tie, with the last clue helping third place not at all. If leader is satisfied to sit on his guaranteed victory, all you need to do is get FJ right to win (or share in win). Of course, everything hinges on what leader does with $800 clue!

Oh yeah, I screwed up my above post because I thought the last clue was $400, not $800, which was just mentioned by thejeopardyfan. I definitely wouldn't advise anyone to make that $5,300 bet, because if you miss and the leader gets the last clue you are toast. By trying to get $800 ahead, then even if Mark gets the last clue, they would have been tied at $18,200, and both looking at a $36,400 payday with correct responses in FJ. Of course, if you are in Tom's shoes and you watched Mark play Monday's game, I can't imagine you'd be all that excited about facing him again on Wednesday, even if Tom did more than hold his own in this game.

So given time to think about, I would probably say that the ideal wager in that situation would have been at least one dollar over $4,200, but no more than $4,900. Actually, I think $4,900 might be the perfect bet, because a miss leaves the scores $17,400--$9,100--$7,600. Then even if Mark gets the last $800 clue, you are sitting at exactly half of his score, so you are likely playing FJ all by yourself with a chance to take home $18,200 and get to play Mark again tomorrow.

Again, I should repeat that I thought a lot about this, and I would never expect a contestant to be able to weigh all of those factors when facing a Daily Double bet. Tom's wager of $4,200 was definitely strategically sound, even if my recommendation of $4,900 does have one additional upside.

[MarkBarrett]

Sometimes I see a challenger and think they could play the game 20 times and never win. Tom came across as someone who could play 20 times and win at least 50% of the time. The wrong champ and wrong DD clues popped up at an unfortunate time for him.

If the Mass General DD had been clearer for Tom what was wanted then I have to think he would have been able to figure out mutations. Hitting that would have allowed him to bet less on the dreaded bandicoot DD that ended up costing him the match. Tom played well in so many ways.

Mark had an off game in knowledge and buzzer. I can't see his performance being worse tomorrow, so I expect a rebound. I'll be looking for one too as the boards were not for me with 14 & 13 correct.

The FJ clue also gave me a momentary Napoleon detour to the Orwell work. The category got me right back to the proper time. The Dickens work never occurred to me and it would not have mattered.

Alexander gave me Russia and Napoleon is someone easy to plug in for battling. That was enough for me to guess War And Peace. And of course I mean guess. The epilogue of the book? Yeah, right, I've read that. Sure.

The writers did well to catch me and the players as I matched them with the Barton, Sotomayor, and Aeneid misses. The clues were not traps meant to burn us. It's just jumping in without having full knowledge or properly processing the clue.

Crimson Tide was easy Lach Trash. Hackman and Washington are outstanding in the movie with the characters both right and both wrong. I have no idea what that movie is like for someone who actually served on a submarine, but for a landlubber it's great entertainment.

Was the first segment cut at 13 clues because of the long-winded Mass General clues or is what I call "KJ Sympathy" (a player unable to get in, so the break is before 15 clues to allow regrouping and encouragement) already in play? What did Christine have at that point? One right?

[Samer]

Was the first segment cut at 13 clues because of the long-winded Mass General clues or is what I call "KJ Sympathy" (a player unable to get in, so the break is before 15 clues to allow regrouping and encouragement) already in play? What did Christine have at that point? One right?

I'm fairly sure it was the former. And, BTW, those of us wannabes in the audience all felt horrible for Tom when that DD came up.

[billy pilgrim]

He's an MD. He doesn't get 'genetic MUTATIONS'? He blew it is all.

[Volante]

He's an MD. He doesn't get 'genetic MUTATIONS'? He blew it is all.

If you watch the clue it goes like this: "peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and clue peas and carrots."
Lose focus for a fraction of a second and you're going "Wait, what were they asking for?"

In a sense he was on the right track. Cancers are mutations of the cell's DNA. Except, in the context of the clue, they were asking for beneficial changes and in a more generic sense.

Bizarre game for me...I swept all the $2k clues. I don't think I've done that before, and I can guarentee I haven't done that in the games I've kept records for (and ..still have those records for.)

FJ was basically instant. Short Tale of Two Cities detour, just to assuredly rule it out, but 'Alexander' was a big giveaway for me.

[billy pilgrim]

He's an MD. He doesn't get 'genetic MUTATIONS'? He blew it is all.

If you watch the clue it goes like this: "peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and clue peas and carrots."
Lose focus for a fraction of a second and you're going "Wait, what were they asking for?"

In a sense he was on the right track. Cancers are mutations of the cell's DNA. Except, in the context of the clue, they were asking for beneficial changes and in a more generic sense.

Bizarre game for me...I swept all the $2k clues. I don't think I've done that before, and I can guarentee I haven't done that in the games I've kept records for (and ..still have those records for.)

FJ was basically instant. Short Tale of Two Cities detour, just to assuredly rule it out, but 'Alexander' was a big giveaway for me.

I watched the clue. i GOT the clue. i'm NOT an MD. Why are you making excuses for him? MD's are required to be able to read. That was a gift DD for any MD.

[RCraig]

Sometimes I see a challenger and think they could play the game 20 times and never win. Tom came across as someone who could play 20 times and win at least 50% of the time. The wrong champ and wrong DD clues popped up at an unfortunate time for him.

QFT

If the Mass General DD had been clearer for Tom what was wanted then I have to think he would have been able to figure out mutations. Hitting that would have allowed him to bet less on the dreaded bandicoot DD that ended up costing him the match. Tom played well in so many ways.

Bandicoot might be a good poll question. Did they have a crash TOM in it? Ones like that make me wonder what the hardest DDs of the season list would look like.

Good luck tomorrow, Samer! It will definitely take a boardie to beat the Mark powerhouse, so I'll root for you!

He said he would be on Thursday.