The Jeopardy! round and the Double Jeopardy! round are over, and it’s time to make your wagers for Final Jeopardy! It’s still anyone’s game… so how much do you bet on that one last challenge?

For Jeopardy! players — and viewers who like to imagine themselves at the podium — Final Jeopardy! wagering strategy is all about thinking of possible outcomes and doing math on the fly.

And the stakes can be high, especially if you go into Final Jeopardy! on top. “The most embarrassing thing would have to be leading going into FJ, getting the question right, and still losing,” one Jeopardy! fan observed on Reddit recently.

Fans have devoted extensive guides to Final Jeopardy! wagering strategy, trying to account for every possible score permutation. But if you want some quick but helpful guidelines, keep reading…

If you’re in first place…

For non-runaway games, The Jeopardy! Fan generally recommends making a cover bet that would beat the second-place player’s score by $1 if you both respond correctly and they go all in. To find this cover bet amount, double the second-place player’s score, add $1, and subtract your score from that amount. For example, if you have $20,000, and your opponent has $11,000, your cover bet would be $2,201, because $11,000 x 2 + 1 is $22,201, and $22,201 – $20,000 is $2,201.

Of course, if it is a runaway game — also known as a lock game — then your score before Final Jeopardy! is more than double that of the second-place player, and you can therefore guarantee your win by betting any amount less than the difference between your score and twice the second-player’s score. For example, if you have $20,000, and the second-place player has $8,000, then you can bet anything less than $4,000 and be guaranteed a win.

If you’re in second place…

You can still make a cover bet that would beat the third-place player’s score by $1 if you both respond correctly and they go all in. Just adapt the math outlined above, subbing in the third-place score for the second-place score.

There are strategies, however, for usurping first place, depending on various “break points” in the scoring gaps after Double Jeopardy!

In a “crush” scenario, for example, the second-place player has a score between one-half and two-thirds that of the first-place player. A rule of thumb for that scenario is that the second-place player should bet everything, unless they just want to remain in second place, according to J! Archive.

In a “two-thirds” scenario, meanwhile, the second-place player has a score between two-thirds and three-quarters that of the first-place player. A rule of thumb for that scenario, per J! Archive is that the second-place player should bet between $0 and the difference between their score tripled and the leader’s score doubled.

If you’re in third place…

Third-place players could still win the game with Final Jeopardy! as long as their score after Double Jeopardy! is more than half of the second-place player’s and their score plus the second-place player’s is greater than the first-place player’s score, according to The Jeopardy! Fan.

If those conditions are true, the site recommends subtracting each opponent’s cover bet from their current score. If either result falls between your current score and your current score doubled, then “you need to both get Final Jeopardy! correct as well as make a significant wager to win the game,” The Jeopardy! Fan states. But if both results fall under your current score, then “your bet generally needs to make sure that your score stays above theirs if you’re all wrong. … If you’re close enough that you can make a bet that both passes the leader’s pre-Final Jeopardy! total and stays above their scores if you’re all wrong on Final, you should do so.”

Of course, these guidelines are just a primer, and there are all sorts of strategies for other scenarios and break points, many of which are named after former players, like Stratton’s Dilemma and Shore’s Conjecture. For a deeper dive into Final! Jeopardy scoring, check out J! Archive’s glossary, The Jeopardy! Fan’s “Wagering Strategy 101” blog post, and the Final Wager YouTube channel.

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