# Sporting bet on Final J?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sporting-bet-on-final-j/682577>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [March 1, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sporting-bet-on-final-j/682577 "2014-03-01T04:15:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sporting-bet-on-final-j/682577/1 "2014-03-01T04:15:45Z")

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Maybe I got this wrong, but on Jeopardy! tonight, didn’t Champ Chu bet just enough so that had his closest competitor bet it all and got it right, and of course if the Champ got it right (which they both did), they would have tied and been co-champs?

I thought that was very sporting. All Chu had to do was up his bet by $1 to knock out the other guy. Too bad #2 did not double down.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sporting-bet-on-final-j/682577/2 "2014-03-01T04:24:49Z")

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Yes, that’s a deliberate strategy on Chu’s part, and he’s done it before. [There’s another thread discussing this already](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=714838).

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**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sporting-bet-on-final-j/682577/3 "2014-03-01T18:25:54Z")

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Well sporting or strategic. “I beat this guy tonight in the regular rounds so I can probably beat him again – rather him than a random draw from the pool.”

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sporting-bet-on-final-j/682577/4 "2014-03-06T21:57:06Z")

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He really just does it because that extra $1 is slightly worse from a game theory standpoint. It normally wouldn’t matter, but there are a few places where it does, and Chu is just following an exact strategy so he doesn’t waste his brain energy on anything but questioning answers.