Final Jeopardy Wagering Strategy--Part 3

A striking example of violation of what I call the Law of Separation occurred this week. It was in the show which is showing old games, on at 4:00 P.M. here.

The player was Mehrun Etebari, who had won 5 in a row and was playing in his 6th game. He trailed the leader $13,200 to $17,200 going into Final Jeopardy. He then made the horrible wager of $6,700! As soon as his wager was revealed, he muttered, "bad wager", and he was right. The leader wagered $9,201, as expected, and then hung on to win, even though both missed the question, because Mehrun had wagered too much. He had to wager $5,200 or less, creating the "separation" of at least the $4,000 difference in their scores so that he would win if both missed the question.