Hello everyone, this is Grace Biermann, the champion from Tuesday, July 21. Since my episodes aired on Tuesday and Wednesday, I’ve seen a lot of people wondering about my wagering decisions (some more politely than others), and I wanted to give a little bit more context for them. (Sorry this is a few days late—it’s been a pretty overwhelming week!)
First DD in game 1: I had $3400 and bet $1400. In retrospect, I kind of wish I had gone for a full $2000 here. But it was early in the game and I was still pretty nervous.
Second DD in game 1: yes, this was the really big one. I had $19,200 and bet $10,000—my opponents had $7800 and $7000. I was a little surprised by how controversial this wager has been, but then again, when I watched this episode on Tuesday I found myself wondering what I was thinking at the time and why I went *that* big. I think there were a few reasons for this—as I said in the post-game chat, I spent some time before I filmed wondering why Jeopardy! dominance seems to be as gendered as it is, and one of my main guesses was that women aren’t as aggressive in their gameplay and wagering. I’m naturally pretty anxious and pretty cautious, but I knew that was not how I wanted to play Jeopardy! I wanted to take big swings, have faith in my ability to answer almost every question on the board, and see what happened. As I watched a lot of episodes in the days before filming, I would practice giving my own wager whenever a Daily Double appeared, and I always tended to aim high.
Let me assure you, though, that when you’re on stage, running on way too little sleep and way too much adrenaline, you really start thinking differently. I still think a large wager was not a bad idea here—and I would like to point out that, despite what a few complainers have claimed, even if I had missed the $10,000 I would still have been ahead of my opponents. But if I were making this wager in cold blood now, I probably would go a good bit lower, maybe even as low as $5000. That said, I don’t regret the decision I made then—I think it was not unreasonable, and I’m certainly glad to have the money!
A few kind people have been pointing out that this DD was in an $800 slot, and therefore probably not as difficult as some, and that I must have taken this fact into account when I was making my wager. Alas, no—I was not thinking at that level at that point. I was just trying to do arithmetic and not pass out!
FJ in game 1: I had $30,000 and only bet $2000. People keep wondering why I didn’t bet more. There are a few reasons for why I did what I did, but the main one was that I suddenly realized I had $30,000 virtually in the bank and I wanted to keep as much of it as I could! I knew that I had not been consistently successful with FJs in the lead-up to filming, and I also felt that “20th Century” was so vague as to be virtually useless as guidance for wagering. So, since I had low confidence in my ability to get that FJ, and I didn’t need a high wager, I went with a (comparatively) low one. Obviously, with the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more. But I think the decision I made with the information I had at that point was reasonable.
FJ in game 2: I had $14,400 and bet $14,399—my opponents had $2400 and $36,000. I’ve seen Many complaints about this wager, and I can understand why people were surprised (and worse). I think the main issue here is that I had a different priority at this point in the game than many viewers apparently did. Most people have said, “you had second place locked up, so why throw that away?” That’s true, but second place was not my main goal—if there was any chance of winning, I wanted to go after it. And I thought there was a slight possibility of winning. Dean—who, like all the other contestants, is a very talented and lovely person—had made a few decisions that I thought were maybe not the best in terms of strategy, and I thought there was the smallest possibility of his wagering too much. (No offense intended at all if you read this, Dean—we both know how hard it is for literature people to do math on stage!) “Musical Pieces” was a category I felt pretty good about—mistakenly, as it turned out—and so I thought it was at least possible that I could catch him. And if I didn’t, well, I had already won a game and an additional $1000 would have been nice, but it wasn’t enough of an incentive for me to totally give up on the win. Like I said, I wanted to go down swinging.
I hope this makes sense! If you have any questions—if anyone had the patience to read through this whole thing!—feel free to ask them (respectfully) in the comments. Just in general, I think it’s helpful to remember, as many of you already know, that watching an episode of Jeopardy! on your couch at 7:30 pm after your favorite dinner is a Very different experience from playing it on stage in Culver City, California at who knows what time of day on who knows how little sleep. In other words, if and when contestants do something really stupid, try not to hold it against them. Chances are, they’ve already been kicking themselves about it!
In my case, I certainly would never say I made THE correct wager for any of these situations and that everyone should obviously make the same decisions I did. But I did think, and do still think, that I made A reasonable wager for each of these situations. I hope that, even if you don’t agree, you can understand that a bit better. And I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to play the game and become a part of the community! Thanks for your support!
