Semifinals: Notre Dame/UNC/UCSD - May 8

Rivalries have been fought everywhere from the hardwood to the gridiron, but here at the University of Southern California, players from 15 prestigious colleges will take each other on in a rivalry of the academic kind.

But more than pride is on the line, as the winner of this two-week tournament will get a berth in the next Tournament of Champions as well as a check with a one followed by five zeroes. The first runner-up will pocket at least $50,000, while the second runner-up will take home a minimum of $25,000. Semifinalists are guaranteed $10,000, whilst there's a minimum of $5000 for participation. As always, any and all winning accrued depends on how far up the ladder a player goes.

We started with 15... now we're down to nine. From there, we cut further to three. Three games and three winners means it's a "win or go home" affair. Cliff Galiher from UCLA awaits the winner of this match and the next...
 

Christine Kennedy Notre Dame Freshman	Will Schultz North Carolina Freshman	Haritha Sudanagunta California-San Diego Junior

Jeopardy! categories:

Haritha does some early picking and comes up with...

Daily Double: $800 I'm a Believer. Christine is the only one in money with $600. Haritha wagers the max of $1000 (after wanting to make it a true Daily Double on zero) on this: ... in this religion whose sacred scriptures were first published in Palmyra, New York. "How about Quaker religion?" Nope, it's Mormonism. Haritha is $1000 down.

At the end of the Jeopardy! round...

Double Jeopardy! categories:

AROUND THE WORLD

HISTORICAL OUTGOING MESSAGES

GET TO WORK!

NEWS QUICK

ON THE "GO"

Daily Double #1: $1200 News Quiz. Christine, like she did last time she was in this situation, finds the Daily Double as she's pulling ahead with $5200 to Will's $4400 and Haritha's $5000. She wagers $3000 on this: this man who died in 1905 would have turned in his grave at the conditions in a DC facility named for him. "Who is Walter Reed?" Correct for $8200!

Daily Double #2: $2000 Around the World. Haritha gets to make a move with $8200 against Christine's $11,400 and Will's $4400. She bets the level on this: it's the highest point in Pakistan & the second-highest mountain in the world. "What is K2?" Correct for $10,200!

At the end of the Double Jeopardy! Round...

We have a Stratton's Dilemma, as it is called by Robert KS on the Jeopardy! boards and at J-archive.com... If I may quote...

"In Stratton's Dilemma, Player B (C-Note: in this case, Will) should be wagering more than the "high wager" or less than the "low wager"; that's the dilemma; the script ignores that all Stratton's Dilemma games are Shore's Second Conjecture games (and therefore Player B should actually be wagering all or nothing)."

Translation: if Will wants to win, he's going to have to be enough so that if Haritha is wrong, he can still cover her ($1399 ought to do it), hoping that Christine is wrong OR bet everything to force Christine to think about her wager. Unfortunately, she doesn't have to do much thinking.

Christine wins if: she bets $8601 and is right.

Haritha wins if: she bets at least $1401 and is right, whilst the other two are wrong and cancel each other out.

Final Jeopardy category: US PRESIDENTS

Correct response: who is Dwight Eisenhower?

Haritha's response: who is FDR (Hi mom & dad!)? WRONG. Wager: $9799. Total: $1.
Will's response: who is LBJ? WRONG. Wager: $11,200. Total: $0.
Christine's response: who was Eisenhower? RIGHT. Wager doesn't matter.

FINALIST: CHRISTINE KENNEDY

Resident Advisor Chico says: The silent threat does it again. Christine and Will took control of the board late in the game, but Christine took control in the Final. If I were a finalist, I'd keep an eye out on the rear-view window, because if you are to be defeated, chances are it'll be at her hands.

More from Galen tomorrow.