‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Admits to ‘Boneheaded Wager’ in Nail-Biter Game
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Thursday, October 31 episode of Jeopardy!]
Jeopardy! fans who caught Thursday, October 31’s Halloween episode were in for a treat. But a player was left haunted by her Final Jeopardy wager, as she candidly shared on social media after the memorable neck-and-neck game.
Returning champ Joseph Carlstein, a graduate student from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, entered with a one-day total of $16,001, continuing a revolving door of one-day champs that’s hexed the quiz show all week. He faced Greg Jolin, a system specialist and accountant from Raymond, New Hampshire, and Alicia Buffa, a translator from Montreal, Quebec.
In the Jeopardy! round, Jolin got off to a scary impressive start, bolstered by a Daily Double, to lead with $8,000; Carlstein (who shared he was bitten by a bat) had $4,200, and Buffa trailed with $1,400.
In Double Jeopardy!, the sudden frontrunner got competition as Buffa doubled up to $4,400 on the second Daily Double, acing the “Bodies of Water” clue as “Lake Baikal.” Carlstein got the last Daily Double under “U.S. Government” with “Nebraska,” doubling to $6,800 and retaking second place from her. With all three players trading the remaining clues, Jolin led going into Final Jeopardy with $16,400, while Carlstein and Buffa both had exactly $12,000.
The “Animals” clue read: “The Aztecs called this animal ayotochtli, meaning a turtle rabbit for its rabbitlike ears & its turtle-like shell.”
While Carlstein was incorrect, Buffa correctly responded “Armadillo,” wagering all but $1 to have $23,999. The pressure on Jolin, but he was also correct, making the standard cover bet of $7,601 to win by a mere $2 with $24,001. “Great game, all three of you!” host Ken Jennings closed.
Fans flooded the Reddit thread for the episode, applauding the new champ’s impressive play against two worthy adversaries, but others pointed out that Buffa had nothing to gain by holding back $1 from her wager, even if it didn’t impact the results.
“Alicia held back $1 on her FJ wager, which is not the optimal play in this situation of being tied for second and relatively close to the leader,” one Redditor wrote. “The chances of winning with $1 are vanishingly small, so either bet it all, or wager $0 to force your opponents to be correct on FJ to beat you.”
Buffa chimed in to the thread to share her mindset at the time and get ahead of any bad buzz: “Now, to address the elephant in the room: What was up with my boneheaded wager in FJ?” she wrote, in part.
“Well, the tl;dr version can be summarized in two words: I panicked. Although I’m a pretty anxious person, I was completely fine most of the game, until it came time to calculate our FJ wagers. That’s when everything hit me all at once and my hands started shaking. I swear I studied wagering strategies the week before Tape Day, but all that got tossed out the window and my impostor syndrome kicked in.
“I lost all the confidence I’d had up until then and I chickened out on an all-in wager. While I hadn’t locked in my wager before having second thoughts, I also didn’t want to bother the crew to erase it. I figured if I was going to come in third place because I’m too shy and my own worst enemy, at least it would be on-brand for me. This is probably my biggest regret, even though in the end it wouldn’t have affected the outcome.”
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Other fans replied urging the contestant not to be so hard on herself, as going all-in still wouldn’t have won her the game or forced a tie (if she had lost by $1 instead of $2, a different story).
“Oh my gosh—you did not make a fool of yourself at all!! You played an awesome game and I was cheering you on from the jump. Don’t let any armchair wagering experts take away from the exciting comeback you put on in Double Jeopardy. Congrats on a great showing!” wrote one fan.
“I haven’t watched the episode yet, but an 11k Coryat on 11 right answers and final score of almost 24k are pretty damn good, so I’d say you succeeded at your goals!” wrote another.
“Happy Halloween everyone! This was a great game. I’m pleasantly surprised that I ran the Rap Genres category,” wrote a third.
“Great game and going 3 for 3 on true Daily Doubles was fun to watch!” wrote a fourth.
“Really great game played by all three contestants today, it 100% felt like it could have been anyone’s win all the way through!” wrote one more.
What did you think of the game? Can Greg Jolin end the week-long one-day-champ fright fest? And was “Happy Hour” really an alliteration? Seems a slightly suspicious stretch! Let us know in the comments section below and happy Halloween!
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