One contestant from the Jeopardy! episode that aired on Halloween shared her reasoning on Reddit for her $1 controversial wager during Final Jeopardy!
One contestant’s wager wasn’t well recieved
The latest episode of Jeopardy! had fans confused about one of the contestant’s last wagers.
Joseph Carlstein, a graduate student from Chapel Hill, North Carolina had a one-day total on the hit game show of $16,001. Greg Jolin, a system specialist and accountant from Raymond, New Hampshire, and Alicia Buffa, a translator from Montreal, Quebec went up against him during Thursday’s game.
Going into Final Jeopardy, Greg led with $16,400 while Joseph and Alicia were tied at $12,000. The topic for the big question was “Animals” and the clue read: “The Aztecs called this animal ayotochtli, meaning a turtle rabbit for its rabbitlike ears & its turtle-like shell.”
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Joseph was incorrect while Greg and Alicia got the correct answer – armadillo. Greg barely won by two dollars as Alicia finished with $23,999 and he bet just enough to win with $24,001.
The Final Jeopardy wager was critiqued
Fans were not happy about Alicia’s bet of $1, not thinking it was strategic. “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 person wrote on Reddit.
“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,” they continued.
On the thread, Alicia shared what it was like on the show, saying she first auditioned in 2013 and being on the Alex Trebek stage was a “dream come true.” She then penned: “Now, to address the elephant in the room: What was up with my boneheaded wager in FJ?”
“Well, the tl;dr version can be summarized in two words: I panicked,” she said. “Although I’m a pretty anxious person, I was completely fine most of the game, until it came time to calculate our FJ wagers.”
Alicia admitted: “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,” she noted. “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.”
Fans quickly stood up for Alicia, with one replying to her comment: “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!”
