Did a very low wager on a Daily Double cost Jeopardy! High School Reunion player Rohan his chance?
Heading into Double Jeopardy!, Rohan Kapileshwari led with $9200, followed by Claire Sattler with $4600 and Rhea Sinha with $3800. Rohan then, after searching for it, found the last daily double of the game, under the $1600 clue in Pure Poetry. He had $10,000 at the time — Claire had $11,400 — and only wagered “a whopping $5” (the minimum), getting laughs from everyone. And that was after he’d made the first Daily Double a true Daily Double, bringing his score from $4000 to $8000 in the Home From College category.
The clue read: “Namechecking herself, this Lesbos poet ‘asked myself what, (her), can you give one who has everything, like Aphrodite?’” He got it correct: “I’m not a poetry guy, but I know it: Who is Sappho?” As a result of that low wager, he ended up going into Final Jeopardy! in second place, with $9,205, while Claire led with $11,400 and Rhea had $5600.
The Final Jeopardy! clue in African Countries then read, “Once Africa’s largest country in area, it dropped to third in 2011 when a portion of it declared independence.” Both Claire and Rohan guessed Sudan correctly, and she ended the game the winner, with $18,411, and is moving on to the semifinals. Rohan came in second with $9,205.
Fans couldn’t help but note Rohan’s odd wager for that Daily Double, especially at that point in the game and with his and Claire’s scores. As one Reddit user noted, he could have put himself in the lead or kept himself in the game with a slightly larger bet: “a wager of just $1,500 would’ve put him back in the lead and an incorrect response would still put him within striking distance of Claire. … Then in FJ, had Rhea gotten it right and Claire missed it, given the wagers, Rhea would’ve jumped Rohan for the win, $9,206 to $9,205. Did Rohan simply disregard Rhea and focus only on Claire betting $7,011 and missing? It would be sad for #2 to get FJ right, have #1 miss it and still get leapfrogged by #3.”
Check out some more fan reactions to Rohan’s bet as well as host Mayim Bialik’s reaction time to telling him his first Daily Double answer was correct below.
Would have bet more than that! #Jeopardy
— The Late Night Record (@TLNRecord) February 28, 2023
Rohan: “I’m going to wager a whopping $5.”
— Jeremiah Yap (@SoleSurvivorYap) February 27, 2023
Five dollars. #Jeopardy
— Al Duque (@the_mr_alduque) February 28, 2023
Why did Rohan bet 5.00 on Double Jeopardy?
— Robin Flach (@theDiFiori) February 28, 2023
And again – Ms Bialik the pauses after a correct DD response are aggravating! #Jeopardy pic.twitter.com/BGWImZThnR
— kratzy1 (@kratzy1) February 28, 2023
Mayim almost gave that boy a heart attack with her delayed correct on the DD Hudson River #Jeopardy
— Karen (@runyourplate) February 28, 2023
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