Another Bizarre Jeopardy Blunder

On the March 22nd episode, a nice young lady controlled the entire game but then gave it away with a totally weird Daily Double wager. Double Jeopardy was winding down and there were just a few small value clues left. She had $21,800, and the other two were down in the $6,000-7,000 range. In other words, she was in "can't be caught territory" and had the victory in the bag. it would have been her first win.

But instead of making a small conservative wager so as to maintain her safety, she wagered $10,000 on the Daily Double. As you can imagine, she missed the question, and moments later they went into Final Jeopardy with her having around $11,000, meaning the other two were now within striking distance of her. They each got the Final Jeopardy question right and she didn't, so within a matter of minutes, she went from having a surefire victory to finishing in third place.

I will never understand how these people can be so sharp on the questions but not use their heads when it comes to wagering!!!

You'd think they would have the logic figured out before they played on the show. Last week, I recall a final Jeopardy where all three got the answer wrong. The leader had [I'm guessing as I don't remember] ~$12,400, the 2nd place person had ~$10,000, and the third place person had ~$400. The player in second place wagered to finish with $801 if she lost. Consequently, her losing wager was enough for the champ to win. I told my wife before the amounts were revealed that she should have bet $0, as she couldn't catch the champ if they both got it right. I'll bet somebody told her that since then.

It could be nerves or it could be greed. Who knows? I have always assumed that they have longer than that commercial time to make their final wager because the staff likely has some things to do. So none of them could ever claim that they were rushed and didn't have time to think it through.

Heads up. I just saw a promo:

"The best of the best are preparing to go head to head, but only one will become the first Jeopardy! Masters Champion!

"The can't-miss competition begins Monday, May 8 on ABC and streams on Hulu!"

We can remind each other as the date draws near.

By the way, Friday's final Jeopardy was a give away. "<" OK, so I'm a
math major, but Ralph knew it, too. How can those people know
so much trivia and not know a symbol that we probably learned in
high school? I'm glad the underdog for almost half the show came
back and won. There were too many wrong answers by the other two.

Oh my... I didn't watch last night but I read the synopsis and wish they'd give me that one if I ever was on the show:

In the final round of the March 24 episode, the category for the final question was “Symbols.”

The final clue/question read:

“In math, it’s a rotated V; in society, it’s a feeling of some marginalized or underrepresented people.”

The correct answer was “less than.”

I too thought that one was ridiculously easy. The only reason I could think of for anyone having trouble with it would be if they were somehow confused by the wording and did not know what was being asked....or more likely scenario...they thought the symbol had a name as opposed to just being called "the less than" sign, and that the question was asking you to come up with that name.

No one said "Caret."

"A caret [^] is a symbol that has a variety of uses in different fields, such as mathematics or computer programming. In writing, carets are most commonly used in proofreading."