Final Jeopardy: The Economy (10-5-16)
The Final Jeopardy question (10/5/2016) in the category “The Economy” was:
Systemically Important Financial Institution is an official status known more informally by these 4 words.
12x champ Seth Wilson scored a runaway yesterday and brought his winnings up to $265,002. In Game 13, he is up against these two players: Margie Eulner Ott, from Bethesda, MD; and Eric Felkey, from Columbus, OH. Who will 13 be lucky for today?
Round 1 Categories: A Song Of Ice &/or Fire – Stamps – It’s Scotch To Me – “Trans” Action – Napoleon – Bone Apart
Seth found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Napoleon” under the $1,000 clue, with 11 clues to go after it. He was in the lead with $5,200, $4,200 more than Margie in second place. He bet $1,000 and took a guess with Palestine. That was WRONG.
In 1798 Napoleon struck at England by occupying this country, threatening trade routes to India. show
Seth finished in the lead with $6,600. Margie was second with $1,000 and Eric was last with $200.
Round 2 Categories: “Y” Geography? – 12-letter Words – Floral Book Titles – Alliterative TV Actresses – U.S. Firsts – Tech Tools
Seth found the first Daily Double in “Alliterative TV Actresses” under the $1,200 clue on the 3rd pick. He had $7,800 now, $6,800 more than Margie in second place. He bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
Lori Loughlin reprised her role as John Stamos’ wife when this reboot hit Netflix in 2016. show
Margie found the last Daily Double in “12-Letter Words” under the $1,600 clue. Only 3 clues remained after it. In second place with $11,000, she had $6,000 less than Seth’s lead. She bet $6,000 and she was RIGHT, and now in a tie with Seth.
This type of German spirit double appears in Dostoyevsky’s novel “The Double” show
Seth broke the tie with correct responses to the $1,200 and $800 clues in the same category. The round ended and he finished in the lead with $19,000. Margie was next with $17,000 and Eric was in third place with $1,800.
TWO of of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“Supervision and regulations of systemically important financial institutions is intended to prevent firms from becoming “too big to fail” and to prevent any assumptions that the government will provide financial support, in the event the firms do run into financial trouble. Many institutions have actively lobbied against being identified as a SIFI, because of the additional and significant regulatory requirements that SIFI firms will endure.” (Investopedia: SIFI Definition)
The World’s 30 “Too Big to Fail” Banks (Market Watch: Nov 2015)
Eric wrote down “I have no idea.” He bet and lost it all.
Margie got it right. She bet it all and finished with $34,000.
Seth got it right. He bet $5.00. FIVE DOLLARS! (recap paused to pick jaw up off the floor). He finished with $19,005. Of course, we knew that Seth would lose one day but who’da thunk it would be this way?
So Margie is the new Jeopardy! champ. Congrats on maximizing your opportunities there, Margie.
A triple stumper from each round:
“TRANS” ACTION ($1000) In a 2016 report Somalia was worst on the corruption index of the organization called this International
“Y” GEOGRAPHY? ($1600) A great view of Mount Ararat 32 miles away can be had from the old fort in this Armenian capital
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Novel Title Characters”
“His madness being stronger than any other faculty”, he “resolved to have himself dubbed a knight by the first person he met” show
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I didn’t start watching Seth until his 7th game — only read VJ’s recaps. I also missed his Waterloo game last night due to some debate (whatever that was). My two cents:
I’m not at all surprised by the way he lost. He had bet like that before: in one game (Mozambique clue), he didn’t have a runaway, bet 0 and missed FJ, 2nd place bet small, and he won.
Another game, no runaway, he bet small and missed FJ, 2nd place got it right but didn’t wager enough, he won. Probably sang “Viva la Vida” to himself, after the facts.
He did it his way and it worked for him; until it didn’t. To me, that proved—once again—that lucky is a factor in J! As Tom Clark has pointed out a couple of times before.
(Note: I’m not implying that his $5 wager was bad. I agree with both Eric and SG that the category may have yike’d him.)
I’m trying to figure out why Seth gave no thought to the fact that Margie was from Bethesda MD when wagering in fj. Living on the Beltway she gets nonstop news on the economy if only through osmosis. Congressional hearings on Wells Fargo, the Washington Post, etc., makes it difficult for her not to know what’s going on in the economy.
To put it succinctly he underestimated his opponent’s knowledge base by wagering $5 in fj. It appears he wagered not to lose rather than to win assuming she would not know about the economy. Bad mistake imho.
Maybe he will tell what he was thinking when he made that bet.
It would have been better if he just didn’t write anything down, even though he knew it imho.
It might be that he had no confidence in himself in the category.
That is what I thought, Eric.
$5 is a safe bet if you are not at all comfortable with the category.
I am in no way saying his wager was good. I think the category was too broad to stand still (unlike Romanian Opera singers of 1913, at least for me, lol).
I think Seth was tired of playing, and winning money. ; )
Congratulations, Margie for doing what a lot of players were unable to do, and that is dethrone Seth Wilson, and in being able to do so, you become our brand new champion, and have won $34,000, and who knows? That could be the start of a long run for you. We’ll see you again, tomorrow Margie, and again, congratulations! And to you Seth, even though you were unlucky in Final Jeopardy!, and it had to happen sooner or later, I just want to say that you have given us so much interesting fun, and so many great games. You had some interesting challenges, including 2 or 3 that could have taken you down, but you lucky that 1 of them missed Final, and the other 1, got it right, but didn’t wager enough, and I cannot remember a contestant from this season only, which started over 4 weeks ago, that has been as knowledgeable as you. And 1 last thing, I’m sorry that you weren’t lucky enough to tie with Matt Jackson at 13 wins, but at least you bumped Arthur Chu, who is now the 6th place finisher for most wins of all time. Well, in any event, you leave us with 12 wins and a grand total of $265,002. I’ll never forget the $2, and we’ll see you in the Tournament Of Champions.
Margie looked like she just wanted that game to be over until she got that Daily Double right. Then she was like It’s on like Donkey Kong now
Inoptimal wagering by Margie and to a larger degree by Seth worked to her advantage since she got FJ! right. 42/58 here. FIrst ever 12 time winner. Alex was right in that he’s in fifth place in number of games won at the top of the show.
To be precise: Margie’s optimal wager (to give her the best chance of winning) would fall in the range of 2001 (in case Seth missed or bet zero) to 13,000 (this would cover the “normal” bet by Seth if he missed: 19000 betting 15001 to cover, leaving 3999).
wow i never knew that this would happen for seth. I believe this game reminded me of how brennan bushee and alex jacob didnt bet enough for their 6th or 7th win back in 2015. But still i wish seth would have bet more to win lucky 13.
Or joon pahk
Well, I’m still kinda floored by that unexpected turn of events.
I was only kidding yesterday about Le Jinx, but petit lapin??… I don’t think you thought it would end up that way when Seth lost, did you?
Margie sure didn’t and that is one helluva good lifetime memory for her — the day she bet $17,000 and really won it.
I have 11 more clues from this game up now, including the whole Floral Books category.
That was a crazy, VJ. I don’t know what possessed him to make that wager.
He hated the category. He did the same thing in his 5th game (the Zambezi river FJ), and it worked out: he got that one wrong, and had he wagered to cover 2nd, he’d have lost.
So this time it cost him the win, but last time it gave him the win, a TOC berth, and the opportunity to win 7 more games. He’ll gladly take it.
I still don’t understand that. Who CARES about 2nd. The man won 230,000. What difference does $1000 make
Yes, TR, and in that African Geography game Elena got the last DD and made good use of it, too. Unlike Margie, she made a small bet while Seth went with. zero .
A clear example of why, no matter how awful the category looked, I’d never bet small from the lead. I’d rather bet on myself getting it right than risk having the lead, getting FJ, and losing anyway.
…and yet the only reason he lasted 12 days was a similar bet in game 5. Hm.
OMG! Eric is going to have a field day with that wager by Seth.
What the…?
Congrats Margie.
If Seth does this in the TOC, he won’t survive.
Yes, but he has done this before on a category he perceived difficult. Here he could have covered the double-up and still have frozen Eric out (I’m too lazy to look back to see if that was the case before).
I don’t think that he would try this in a ToC because that is really not the place to bet on people not to know things (unless you are Rutter and have studied Jennings).
I think he was thinking about lunch or had low blood sugar.
At least he knows that he will return.
You know he’s coming back to the tournament of champions.