ESPN’s Mina Kimes Shares Wagering Strategy After Big ‘Celebrity Jeopardy!’ Win
A win on Jeopardy! is almost guaranteed if you know how to wager. Mina Kimes shared the wagering strategy that allowed her to win the semifinal game of Celebrity Jeopardy! after she was in second place before the final clue.
ESPN writer Kimes played against Season 2 winner Lisa Ann Walter and Season 2 finalist Katie Nolan during the first semifinal game on May 12. Kimes got the last question wrong, but knew how much to wager and advanced to the finals.
Abbott Elementary‘s Walter had the lead going into the final clue. The clue in “AI” was “The name of this virtual assistant was inspired by an ancient library once said to contain all the world’s knowledge.”
The correct response was “Alexa,” which was in reference to the famous library at Alexandria. Many people have an Amazon Alexa in their homes where they say, “Hey, Alexa” before asking it a question or doing a task like setting a timer.
Sports podcaster Nolan was in third place, but she had the right answer. She had $5,100 and wagered $0, so she ended with $5,100.
Kimes responded with “What is Claude?” She had $8,000 and wagered $2,210, giving her a final total of $5,790. However, Kimes had some hope when Walter answered “Babylon.” She wagered $7,000 from her $9,600, making her final total $2,600. This made Kimes the winner.
Not shockingly, the ESPN reporter was surprised, saying, “I didn’t get it!” But, despite not knowing the answer, Kimes set herself up to win by having a smart wagering strategy in place.
“I was able to win last night on the Celebrity Jeopardy! semifinals despite playing a pretty awful game, honestly, including Final Jeopardy. My brain completely glitched. However, I won really because of wagering strategies. I got some questions about it, so I figured I would explain what I did here,” she shared on social media.
Kimes walked through the scores at the end of the Double Jeopardy round. She correctly predicted that Walter would bet enough to cover her in case she doubled her money by getting the final clue right. Anticipating Walter’s wager, Kimes bet enough to make sure she was covered for Nolan’s wager. She wanted to make sure she doubled her total if she was right, but still bet small enough in case Walter answered wrong, which is what happened.
“If you’re in third place, you should bet nothing, or very little, to stay in third place. Here is why. The only known variable in Final Jeopardy is what first place will do. They will almost always do the logical thing, which is bet to cover you,” Kimes said in the video. “You know what they’re going to do. They have to bet a lot.”
“Your only chance of winning in second place is if first place is wrong. Otherwise, you’re out. So you have to operate from that place. And if you bet nothing, if you’re right, you win if they’re wrong. If you’re both wrong, you still win because they had to bet so much to cover you. So it’s the logical thing to do. Somehow, it’s still very scary when you’re up there to bet very little money, but it is the logical thing to do. Second place should always do that if they’re over two-thirds of the way through.”
If Nolan bet it all and got it right, she would have won the game, since she was the only one to get it correct. “However, it is hard because she had no reason to think I was going to do this strategy,” Kimes said. “Totally reasonable for her to bet nothing, think that Lisa Ann and myself would wipe each other out. It’s hard to fault her for that.”
“Ultimately, why I was is because Lisa Ann bet a lot. She fell below me. I bet very little, so even though I fell, I was still above Lisa Ann, and Katie bet nothing, so she stayed flat.”
For the second semifinal game, Season 3 winner W. Kamau Bell played against Season 2 quarterfinalist winner Steven Weber and Season 3 quarterfinalist winner Sean Gunn. Weber won and will advance to the finals with Kimes on Friday. They will face off against the third semifinalist winner, who will play on Thursday.
The final three remaining semifinalists include Season 1 winner Ike Barinholtz, Season 1 finalist Patton Oswalt, and Season 2 quarterfinalist winner Mira Sorvino. Can Kimes’ wagering strategy make her the All-Star winner?
Find out on Friday, May 15, on ABC when the winner is crowned. They will take home $1 million for their charity, as well as the Celebrity Jeopardy! trophy, and bragging rights as the best celebrity player.
Celebrity Jeopardy! All-Stars, all this week, 8/7c, ABC, stream next day on Hulu
Jeopardy!, weekdays, check local listings, stream next day on Hulu and Peacock
