Friday, July 5, 2013 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Archivists]

Game Recap for Show #6645, 2013-07-05

Ben Ingram game 5.

CONTESTANTS
Alice Kelly, an orthopedic nurse from Towson, Maryland
Carlos Hernandez Fisher, a graphic designer and computer salesperson from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Ben Ingram, an I.T. consultant originally from Florence, South Carolina (whose 4-day cash winnings total $84,831)

OPENING REMARKS
Alex: Thank you, Johnny Gilbert. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Ben --I.T. Consultant who has been playing extremely well, and, as a result, has earned himself a lot of money.
Carlos and Alice, welcome aboard, and good luck against this very good champion.
Here we go, into the "Jeopardy!" round. And now we reveal the categories.

JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
BRAZILIAN GEOGRAPHY (4/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
JAPANESE COOKING (5/5)
SO VERY "BRITISH" (5/5)
UNUSUAL AMERICAN SPORTS (5/5)
LA LITERATURE FRANÇAISE (4/4)
IT'S A BIG WORLD (5/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Ben: 13 R (including 2 rebounds and 1 DD), 1 W
Carlos: 10 R (including 1 rebound), 1 W
Alice: 5 R, 1 W

Clues revealed: 29
Triple Stumpers: 1
Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $800



JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Ben found the Daily Double on the 6th clue. Ben had $2,200, Carlos was in the red with -$400, and Alice was at $400. Ben wagered $1,800.

BRAZILIAN GEOGRAPHY $600: This planned city in Brazil's vast interior has grown from being a construction project in 1956 to 2.6 million people today.

SCORES AT THE FIRST BREAK
Ben: $6,400
Carlos: $2,400
Alice: $800

CONTESTANT INTERVIEWS



Alex: Alice Kelly from Maryland has three kids. The oldest is into Jeopardy!, I understand.
Alice: Yes, quite a lot. His name is Peter. He's 6. And whenever the theme song comes on, he runs and grabs my Jeopardy! pen and brings it over to me, and I can hear him now in my head going, "Wager it all, Mommy! Wager it all!"
[ Laughter ]
Alex: Okay, so if you hit a Daily Double today, you're gonna wager it all?
Alice: In honor of him, I will.
Alex: All right.




Alex: Carlos Hernandez Fisher is from Vancouver, British Columbia, and is a participant in a sport that many Americans are not too familiar with --curling.
Carlos: Yes.
Alex:Yeah.
Carlos: I'm in a weekly curling league. I started when I was in university --just some friends and I. We started sort of a casual curling club at SFU, and 10, 12 years later, I'm in a weekly league. And we didn't do too well this year. We finished last in our league.
Alex: Now, do you use the old-fashioned corn broom or are you a push-pull guy?
Carlos: No, we got the new push-pull ones.
Alex: Aw, see, to me, that's not curling. You need the old brooms.
Carlos: The corn brooms, yeah.
Alex: Yeah, where you're slapping the ice. Yeah.
Carlos: Next season.




Alex: Ben Ingram is our champion. A few days ago, you'll recall, ladies and gentlemen, on a Final Jeopardy, he wagered $29. He had a big lead --couldn't be caught. But he wagered $29. Why?
Ben: That's my favorite ballplayer's number --John Smoltz.
Alex: John Smoltz, pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, who is no longer with the Atlanta Braves, right?
Ben: That's true. He retired just not long ago.
Alex: Yeah.

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
BRAZILIAN GEOGRAPHY $800: Brazil's tourism industry depends in part on these spectacular falls on the border with Argentina

SCORES AT THE END OF THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
Ben: $8,800
Carlos: $5,000
Alice: $600

[Archivists]

DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
FROM BOOK TO FILM (4/5)
CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
7-LETTER WORDS (3/5)
THE GREAT LIBRARIES OF EUROPE (5/5)
SCIENCE 101 (4/5, including 1 missed Daily Double)
BROADWAY MUSICALS BY SONGS (4/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Ben: 11 R (including 1 rebound and 1 DD), 1 W (including 1 DD)
Carlos: 9 R, 0 W
Alice: 5 R, 2 W

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 4
Double Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $5,600



FIRST DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Ben snagged the next Daily Double on the 9th clue. Ben had $12,400, Carlos had $7,400, and Alice was at $1,000. Ben wagered $3,000.

CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS $2000: In September 1835 Captain Robert Fitzroy anchored this ship in the Galapagos for a 5-week stay

SECOND DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
It was Ben who snatched up the last Daily Double of the game on the 11th clue. Ben had $16,600, Carlos had $7,400, and Alice was at $1,000. Ben wagered $2,000.

SCIENCE 101 $1600: Defined as 10-400 nanometers on the spectrum, these rays fall between visible light & X-rays
(Ben: What is infrared?)

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND
FROM BOOK TO FILM $1200: 1958's "The long, hot summer" was based on this author's "The Hamlet", the first in his "Snopes" trilogy
(Alice: Who is Tennessee Williams?)

BROADWAY MUSICALS BY SONGS $1200: The full company: "Just Like Paradise" & "Nothin' But A Good TIme"

7-LETTER WORDS $2000: Rustic (6 letters) & pastoral (8) are synonyms for this adjective

7-LETTER WORDS $1200: A dog of mixed or undetermined breed

SCORES ENTERING FINAL JEOPARDY!
Ben: $19,400
Carlos: $15,400
Alice: $4,600

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
U. S. PRESIDENTS

VENUSIAN MONOLOGUES/MARTIAN CHRONICLES
Three-quarters for first place. Shore's Conjecture.
Ben: Wager $11,401 to cover Carlos. Or, you could try out a Shoretegic bet of $2,201.
Carlos: You'll want to wager between $4,001 (venusian) and $6,199 (martian), and you'll win the game if Ben wagers enough and gets it wrong.
Alice: You can't really win on a Triple Stumper, so your best hope is if you're the only one to get Final right. Wager everything but a few dollars.

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
The only 2 men who were U.S. president 10 years to the day after their first inauguration

FINAL SCORES
Alice: $4,600 - $1,000 = $3,600 (Who were FDR and Washington?) (3rd place: $1,000)
Carlos: $15,400 + $4,001 = $19,401 (WHO ARE F Roosevelt + Lyndon Johnson Cleveland) (2nd place: $2,000)
Ben: $19,400 + $11,401 = $30,801 (Who are FDR + Cleveland?) (5-day champion: $115,632)

Total Potential Lach Trash: $6,400

GAME DYNAMICS


CORYAT SCORES
Ben: $19,200, 24 R (including 2 DDs), 2 W (including 1 DD)
Carlos: $15,400, 19 R, 1 W
Alice: $4,600, 10 R, 3 W
Combined Coryat: $39,200

BATTING AVERAGES
Ben: 25/61 = .410
Carlos: 20/58 = .345
Alice: 10/58 = .172
Team: 55/63 = .873

MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTING CLUES
UNUSUAL AMERICAN SPORTS $1000: Horses wear cleats for the world snow polo championships in this Colo. resort city where the rich frolic
(Carlos: What is Vail?)

BRAZILIAN GEOGRAPHY $1000: Add two letters to the name of a river to get this state, so big it borders three countries
(Ben: What is Amazonia?)

IT'S A BIG WORLD $1000: East to west, the greatest distance across this country is 6,000 miles; north to south, 2,800
(Alice: What is China?)

LA LITERATURE FRANÇAISE $600: In the original French, the first line of this Camus novel is "Aujourd'hui, maman est morte"
...
(Alex: [*]. The Stranger. Yes.)

LA LITERATURE FRANÇAISE $800: Don't forget that "Swann's Way" is the first part of this epic by Proust
...
(Alex: [*] or Remembrance Of Things Past, yes.)

[end of round buzzer sounds]

SCIENCE 101 $1200: Prophase, metaphase, anaphase & telophase are stages of these 2 forms of cell division
(Ben: What is mitosis?)
(Alex: Two forms)
(Ben: And meiosis?)

THE GREAT LIBRARIES OF EUROPE $1600: This Danish astronomer died in Prague in 1601, & the Clementinum National Library there has material relating to him
(Alice: Who is Copernicus?)

SCIENCE 101 $800: (Sarah demonstrates the clue with a light stick)

Three components make up light sticks -- hydrogen peroxide, phenyl oxalate ester, and a florescent dye. The two chemicals excite these negatively-charged particles in the dye, causing the mixture to glow.

CORRECT RESPONSES
Brasilia
Iguazu Falls
the Beagle
ultraviolet
William Faulkner
Rock of Ages
bucolic
mongrel
Franklin Roosevelt and Grover Cleveland
Aspen
Amazonas
Russia
L'Ètranger
In Search Of Lost Time
mitosis and meiosis
Tycho Brahe
electrons

[Golf]

Cool FJ clue, one that every Jeopardy contestant should answer correctly, but neat nonetheless. Alice's wager was totally worthless as it didn't give her a chance to win, why even make the trip if you don't try to win?

[lisa0012]

Not sure what was so cool about FJ! I got it right away and then spent the next 28 seconds trying to figure out what curveball I could possibly be missing. It seemed like teen level trivia and I was surprised anyone struggled with it.

Congrats to our new five-time champ.

[whammy007]

Agreed, that was supremely easy and should NOT have drawn a miss. Also, I'm not particularly fond of either challenger's bid... I'm guessing Alice was expecting the other two to knock each other out, but the other gentleman's wager seems soft as well - the only way he wins is with a miss and I wouldn't expect one (in that category, anyway) from a 4-time champ.

Arts-heavy board kills me yet again... 1/5 in Book to Film and Broadway, complete whiff in French Lit.

[Golf]

Not sure what was so cool about FJ!

IMO, the cool part was the two answers achieved such in totally different ways. The unprepared tend to get stuck on figuring out who served the longest after FDR. But sure, anybody even attempting the Jeopardy test should know Cleveland is the only president to serve non-consecutive terms.

[jeff6286]

I'm heading out of town and probably won't see tonight's game until Sunday, so if someone else is able to post the FJ clue and scores in this thread, please feel free to do so.

[Bamaman]

U.S. Presidents

The only two men who were president 10 years to the day after their first inauguration.

Spoiler

Who are FDR and Grover Cleveland? Alice said FDR and Washington

Alice Kelly: $4,600-$1,000=$3,600
Carlos Hernandez Fisher: $15,400+$4,001=$19,401
Ben Ingram: $19,400+$11,401=$30,801.....now a five day champ with $115,632.

[AndyTheQuizzer]

but the other gentleman's wager seems soft as well - the only way he wins is with a miss and I wouldn't expect one (in that category, anyway) from a 4-time champ.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with Carlos' wager. Of course the only way he wins is if Ben misses! That's what Ben gets out of having the lead into Final...

I think people should have to pass some sort of wagering quiz in order to be allowed to post critically about the wagers of others.

[Bamaman]

Alice had no real shot of winning if Carlos has any sense. However, Ben's MSBIW score was $7,999 and she will only be at $5,600 if she gets FJ right. So she sacrificed any chance of coming in second. Although it really didn't matter as it is a category that probably has a very high get rate among four day champs. Still, her son will be disappointed she did not bet it all.

Carlos made the right bet. He is assured second place no matter what happens and wins if Ben is wrong. A category like that might motivate me to bet it all from second to max out my winnings. But it would be a rare FJ presidents FJ for me to get it and a four day champ like Ben to miss it. With Carlos being Canadian, he was probably at even more of a disadvantage, though he did get it right after a slight detour to LBJ.

Did anyone hear her say "The Cider House Rule", without an s at the end?

An instaget FJ for me.

[whammy007]

but the other gentleman's wager seems soft as well - the only way he wins is with a miss and I wouldn't expect one (in that category, anyway) from a 4-time champ.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with Carlos' wager. Of course the only way he wins is if Ben misses! That's what Ben gets out of having the lead into Final...

I think people should have to pass some sort of wagering quiz in order to be allowed to post critically about the wagers of others.

The point I was trying to make is that wagering to end up $1 ahead doesn't really help you. If I were in that position, I would have gone for the double-up, because it's possible that the leader could miscalculate the shut-out wager and end up short. Not likely, to be sure, but a heck of a lot more likely than a wager of $0.

Perhaps I didn't quite get that across the way I wanted to, but there's no need to be condescending about it.

[AndyTheQuizzer]

but the other gentleman's wager seems soft as well - the only way he wins is with a miss and I wouldn't expect one (in that category, anyway) from a 4-time champ.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with Carlos' wager. Of course the only way he wins is if Ben misses! That's what Ben gets out of having the lead into Final...

I think people should have to pass some sort of wagering quiz in order to be allowed to post critically about the wagers of others.

The point I was trying to make is that wagering to end up $1 ahead doesn't really help you. If I were in that position, I would have gone for the double-up, because it's possible that the leader could miscalculate the shut-out wager and end up short.

On the other hand, Carlos' wager has the added advantage of winning if both him and Ben miss the question, whereas your suggested wager only wins if Carlos gets a question that Ben does not.

[Bamaman]

It also guarantees second place.

[xxaaaxx]

Another easy, instaget, disappointing FJ. They don't all have to be TOC-level, but at least make us pause to think about it for a couple of seconds.

Did anyone hear her say "The Cider House Rule", without an s at the end?

I heard an S here.

Maybe I'm imagining things, but I swear I can remember at least one instance of a contestant giving one answer when the clue required two, and Alex leaving them hanging. I don't have a problem with a reminder, I just wonder how consistent he's been over the years.

[Austin Powers]

No seriously Carlos made a good bet. It's almost like he read up on things.

FJ was stupid easy. Bah.

This champ is pretty good but I can't help but think he is like "Joel Pool good."

[TenPoundHammer]

0/5 in Brazil, Japan, Captains, Broadway Musicals (to be fair, I knew Guys & Dolls but was drawing a blank), and 0/4 in French Lit.

That "bucolic" clue was garbage, IMO. They obfuscated it way too much.

Two of my best gets tonight were in Book to Film. "blah blah blah Dick King-Smith—" "What is Babe?" I recognized the name because I came across a cartoon called The Foxbusters, also based on a Dick King-Smith book. My other impressive get was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, a title I saw somewhere on TV Tropes.

"Prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase—" "What are four words my HS bio teacher couldn't pronounce correctly?" This is the same guy who pronounced "echinoderm" as "endocherm". HOW do you screw up that word that badly?!

FJ! was a bit of a nail biter. My thought process was something like this:

Me: Okay, FDR and… um, shoot. The guy who did two non-consecutive terms.
Mind: Garfield.
Me: No, it wasn't Garfield. It was the guy that I keep mixing up with Garfield.
Mind: Garfield!
Me: Shut up, mind!
Mind: GARFIELD GARFIELD GARFIELD GARFIELD GARFIELD GARFIELD GARFIELD GARFIELD
Me: FDR and… … …Cleveland!
Music: [bom bom]

[Bamaman]

I thought it was strange he reminded him, but I think I've seen it go both ways, though I can't cite any examples.

[CyrusChan]

I liked the board a lot and I was pretty sure that Ben's eyes lit up when he saw the fj category was presidents.

Brasilia 's clue was easy. Should haved swapped it with iguazu.

I didn't get the litter part in French lit, anyone care to chime in?

[dhkendall]

The point I was trying to make is that wagering to end up $1 ahead doesn't really help you. If I were in that position, I would have gone for the double-up, because it's possible that the leader could miscalculate the shut-out wager and end up short. Not likely, to be sure, but a heck of a lot more likely than a wager of $0.

But he wasn't assumomg he'd wager $0. True, he could have ended up short as you say, but then he could not have. Since he is a 4-time champ, as you pointed out, it's very likely he'd know what to wager, so no matter what, since Ben was ahead of him. Both Ben and Carlos' bets were perfectly acceptable by the wagering calculator's standards, in fact an all-in from Carlos was not recommended (suggested between 4,001 and 6,199). Both those wagers also guarantee him second place, where an all-in doesn't.

Personally, I always applaud second-placers who realize that all they have to do is get $1 more than first place's pre-FJ total in many cases, as it's not often seen. (The most famous example of this that I could think of was Nancy Zerg's bet in her first (and most famous) game.)

[CyrusChan]

Bucolic clue was a poorly written one and it should just say synonym with rustic and that eight-letttered one, rather than such a drag.