In the Final Jeopardy round on his final day, he was in the lead. He had 18200. The second place contestant had 13400, and the third place contestant had 8400. Arthur Chu wagered 8600. Why? Because if there’s a tie score at the end of a Jeopardy match, both players win their score in cash and come back the next day; 8600 was exactly the amount Chu had to wager to reach exactly twice the second place player’s current score. And, as it happened, the second place player wagered everything, and she and Chu both got the right answer, resulting in a tie score. This is actually a better outcome for Chu than an outright win would be. After all, Chu already knows he can beat the player in second place, but a new opponent might turn out to be one that he can’t.
There’s actually even more to it that didn’t occur to me at first glance. Many times a player in second will wager low enough, such that if both they and the person in the lead miss the question, the player in second will win (because the player in first has to wager enough to stay in the lead if they get the question right). But the person in second just watched Chu wager for the tie the day before. If they think Chu will do that again (and why not), then now the correct play is to wager everything for the tie. And now Chu wins if they both get it right (because it’s a tie), and he also wins if they both get it wrong.
More awesomeness/munchkining by Arthur Chu:
In the Final Jeopardy round on his final day, he was in the lead. He had 18200. The second place contestant had 13400, and the third place contestant had 8400. Arthur Chu wagered 8600. Why? Because if there’s a tie score at the end of a Jeopardy match, both players win their score in cash and come back the next day; 8600 was exactly the amount Chu had to wager to reach exactly twice the second place player’s current score. And, as it happened, the second place player wagered everything, and she and Chu both got the right answer, resulting in a tie score. This is actually a better outcome for Chu than an outright win would be. After all, Chu already knows he can beat the player in second place, but a new opponent might turn out to be one that he can’t.
There’s actually even more to it that didn’t occur to me at first glance. Many times a player in second will wager low enough, such that if both they and the person in the lead miss the question, the player in second will win (because the player in first has to wager enough to stay in the lead if they get the question right). But the person in second just watched Chu wager for the tie the day before. If they think Chu will do that again (and why not), then now the correct play is to wager everything for the tie. And now Chu wins if they both get it right (because it’s a tie), and he also wins if they both get it wrong.
It’s better than this: they tape them one after another, so it would have been fresh in their mind.