I was watching Jeopardy the other day speculating on how the contestants would wager in final. I was thinking how it might affect a persons bet if they knew what the others were betting.
Sooo, what if, in final, if you turned to the player next to you and said, “Just so you know, I’m wagering everything” whether you intended to or not just to encourage him/her to do the same.
If there isn’t a rule against telling, there is certainly one against looking at a rival’s written answer. That being the case who would take their rival’s worl for what they actually wrote?
We’ve have a number of Jeopardy! contestants on this board, so I’m sure one will be along soon, however, I’m guessing one of the rules is that there’s no talking (at least during clues) with the other contestants. It also wouldn’t surprise if your scenario got you removed from the game.
And, yeah, it would affect other the contestants, it’s bluffing.
I was on nearly 30 years ago, so my memory’s fairly weak on such details, and they may have changed rules or procedures since 1991. I don’t recall that there was any rule about talking during the final break, but 1) it’s fairly short, and b) the contestant coordinators are keeping a pretty close eye on you.
However, I have told the story about one of my fellow contestants pointedly mentioning backstage, not while a game was in progress, that if he got to be a five-time champ, in his last game he’d try to go for a tie in FJ, so that both he and a fellow player would win the cash. (They’ve changed the rules about five-time champs and FJ ties since then.) I assume a contestant coordinator was nearby, but there was no fallout from his remark.
I’ll let someone who’s played more recently than me weigh in, but my guess is that, unless they now have an explicit rule now about remaining silent during the last break, a spoken bluff like that wouldn’t be cause for removal from the game. How would they explain it, especially if it were the leading player? They might make a rule after the fact, of course. But basically, it’s just gamesmanship.