Jeopardy!

I took the coward’s way out on Jeopardy!. In a competitive episode of the show, typically the last round, Final Jeopardy!, determines the game’s winner. Contestants are able to wager any or all of the winnings they’ve accumulated so far on the chance they respond correctly to the final clue; if they wager everything and get it right, they can as much as double their score. And so a lot comes down to this wagering—the contestant with the highest total after Final wins the game, and gets to return for the next episode as a Jeopardy! champion. Avid fans of the show, especially the game theorists among them, long ago determined the “correct” way to wager for each contestant depending on their point totals heading into Final.