Static Zombie

Brad will be up there, but this is going to be pretty evenly matched, IMHO. Brad had slipped up in earlier rounds, got through by the skin of his teeth in the semis, and then was on fire in his 4th round game.

I'm not discounting Jerome Vered, either. Had he been invited to any of the previous big tourneys (Million Dollar Masters, 10th Anniversary), he would've been a force to reckon with. Jerome's been scoring pretty high--and he held the 1-day record of $35,000 back in the early 90s. Adjust that amount by doubling it ($70,000), and consider that Ken's record is $75,000. That's pretty close.

Brad will be up there, but this is going to be pretty evenly matched, IMHO. Brad had slipped up in earlier rounds, got through by the skin of his teeth in the semis, and then was on fire in his 4th round game.

I'm not discounting Jerome Vered, either. Had he been invited to any of the previous big tourneys (Million Dollar Masters, 10th Anniversary), he would've been a force to reckon with. Jerome's been scoring pretty high--and he held the 1-day record of $35,000 back in the early 90s. Adjust that amount by doubling it ($70,000), and consider that Ken's record is $75,000. That's pretty close.

Last night's game was interesting. First, they were very evenly matched. At the end of the Jeopardy round, Ken had a solid lead (8,200 versus Jerome's 3,200 and Brad's 2,200); I thought he might build on it but instead, Brad caught fire and outscored him in the Double Jeopardy round 12,000 to 4,800 (with Jerome scoring a very strong 9,200 in DJ).

I've been watching Jeopardy for years (appeared on it St Patrick's Day 2000 against Robin Carroll, one of the "nifty nine" who got a bye into round 2 of the JUTOC - I had to play her in her 5th regular season game after sitting in the audience and watching her win the first 4 in runaways!)...and I've totally got the betting strategy down for a one-day game, but the strategy for the multi-day matches escapes me.

I thought at least one of the three would go for broke and bet it all but they all bet conservatively:

Jerome
12,400 + 4,000 = 16,400
Brad
14,200 + 4,200 = 18,400
Ken
13,000 + 3,000 = 16,000

It's funny, there are some things that strong, confident players seem to do on Jeopardy. They're subtle, but you can see the signs if you look for them. One is, a sense of ownership when calling out categories. As in "I'll take Shrew-ed for $1,000, Alex." Another is, betting to round off the score if you're correct, not if you're wrong. Oddly, Brad bet to have 18,400 if he was right, but an even 10,000 if he was wrong. Hmmmm, is that a Jeopardy "tell?" Is he scared? (well of course he is!)

So at this point it's anybody's game. In the third match, assuming it's not a runaway, the cumulative totals will dictate the betting. But tonight - will one of them go for broke? I almost hope so...though I'm not sure it would be the smart thing to do.

Oh, and the FJ question - "Images of America"

Citing John Winthrop, who said "the eyes of all people are on us" Ronald Reagan liked to compare the United States to this.

They all got it, though only Jerome had the exact wording I would have used. I was a bit surprised they allowed the other wording.

"City on the hill" was all they needed since that was the original quote.