Final Jeopardy: Geography (4-13-15)
The Final Jeopardy question (4/13/2015), in the category “Geography” was:
The Caucasian Isthmus lies between these 2 large inland bodies of water.
New champ Alex Jacob won $23,200 in Friday’s game. Today he takes on these two players: Kathy Callaghan, from Pittsburgh, PA; and Carlos Capellan, from Queens, NY.
Round 1: Carlos found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “99” under the $600 clue. He was in third place with negative $400, $2,200 less than Alex in the lead. He bet the $1,000 allowance and he was RIGHT.
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Alex finished in the lead with $8,800. Carlos was second with $2,800 and Kathy was last with $600.
Round 2: Alex found the first Daily Double in “Book Synopses” under the $1,600 clue, the second pick of the round. He was in the lead with $9,200, $6,400 more than Carlos in second place. Just as he did on the first Double Jeopardy DD on Friday, he bet it all and he was RIGHT.
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Carlos found the last Daily Double in “International Law” under the $1,600 clue on the 4th pick of the round. In second place with $4,000, he had $14,400 less than Alex in the lead. He also made it a true Daily Double and thought it was “de jure.” That was WRONG.
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Alex finished in the lead with $26,400, his second runaway. Carlos was next with $7,200 and Kathy was in third place with $4,200.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“Caucasia is a broad isthmus between the Black Sea and the Caspian, traversed by a great chain of mountains rising to a height of 18,000 feet. North of the range is a region of interminable plains, known as the Northern Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, merging imperceptibly into the steppes of the Don and the Volga. Southwards is Transcaucasia, a semi-tropical country intersected by many smaller ranges of mountains, of which the most important are the so-called Anti-Caucasus and the Armenian group. The Caucasus divides Europe from Asia as by a great barrier of ice and snow and rock; at no other point are the two continents so sharply separated. Yet historically and ethnographically the separation is not so absolute as it appears.” (Armenian House: Caucasus History)
Kathy ran out of time before finishing up one of the bodies of water but her reply “the Caspian Sea and the Blac” was accepted as eminently pronounceable. Her $4,195 bet brought her up to $8,395.
Carlos only got the Black Sea. He lost his $1,200 bet and finished with $6,000.
Since he didn’t have anything riding on his answer, Alex used the 30 seconds to write a personal message to Jenny, thanks to his parents and hi to Seth. He won this match with the $26,400 he took into FJ. His 2-day total is $49,600.
During the chat, Alex told Trebek about winning a chess game as a child because his opponent had a tantrum after touching a chess piece he didn’t want to move and could not play the rest of the game.
2 years ago:: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Nobel Peace Prize Winners”
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Thank you Alex for at long last learning the correct accentuation of Bolivar.
alex seems to be for real. he also – if he won already- employs poker methods by not revealing whether he knows the answer or not, his next opponent(s) may be sitting in the audience,so you don’t show your cards (or what you know or don’t know in j’s case).
he has the 2 most important qualities for poker: economics and math knowledge (you don’t get a degree from yale in both if you are stupid.} the only other thing helpful would be psychology and i bet he got a lot of experience there by playing poker. seems he will be around for a while.
ps
the dd clues were all rather easy.
but i have to give credit to the players for fj. i did not think anyone would get it. kathy obviously just ran out of time to put down the “k”(had she left off the “and” she would have completed her answer, carlos got it half right (he was in the right part of the world) and alex…we will never know, so i have to give him the benefit of the doubt. that would make 2.5 correct answers. i therefore stand completely corrected with my “zero” prediction.
I, on the other hand, nailed it with a one right prediction and Alex not even giving an answer if he had a lock. :):)
yes, typical poker strategy. if you have won the game already with 2 pairs you don’t show whether you had a full house. friday was a ? but today’s personal message showed he had no intention to even take a stab at fj.we will find out his strategy when it is NOT a runaway.
looks like we are the only ones today…..did everybody pay his/her internet bill?? :):)